Richard Purves
Richard successfully transitioned from a long-term teaching career to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming an airline pilot. After completing the AirlineReady® APS MCC with VA Airline Training, he’s now flying Boeing 737s with Ryanair.
What inspired you to pursue a career as a commercial pilot?
Having grown up with a parent in the RAF I'd always been fascinated with aircraft and loved to fly. After deciding not to try to pursue a military flying career (the concerned parent's failure to pass the flying exams having put me off!) I went to university and pursued a completely different career.
What did you do before starting pilot training?
Before returning back to pursue aviation I obtained a bachelors and masters degree in archaeology before working professionally in that field. I then became a teacher and spent over ten years teaching abroad in South Korea and Kuwait.
Which training route did you choose to follow, and why?
I chose to follow a modular path, getting my PPL in the UK before doing my ATPL exams, then hour building in the UK. I then went to Poland to achieve my CPL and MEIR ratings. This enabled me to continue working and travel back to the UK to do various parts of training in my holidays. That in turn meant I could get a little bit of savings ready for the CPL/MEIR training.
What challenges did you face before or during training?
Undoubtedly the hardest challenge was the onset of COVID and the financial, logisitcal and personal problems it raised. Keeping the faith that all the hard work and expense would pay off is something that can be difficult at the best of times, but doing so in the midst of a global pandemic was even harder. On the study side, some of the maths and physics in the ATPL exams took a lot of effort and persistence to get my head around!
What were the highlights of your time in training?
Meeting a diverse and interesting set of people with all kinds of backgrounds, some of whom became firm friends. Also, any time the main wheels came off the ground during flight training and the aircraft soared up into the blue!
How did the competencies you developed during your APS MCC help you afterwards?
The APS MCC really helped during initial assessment as it points you towards the practices assessors are looking to see you demonstrate. It was also invaluable in the first few weeks of type rating training as I was already familiar with the flight deck layout and some of the general aspects of standard operating procedures.
What have been the highlights since you started airline flying?
Base training will always be a highlight, but two others that spring to mind are the first time a young passenger brought a handmade "thank you" card after a landing in Kaunas, and the time I made a lovely landing in the 737 at the airfield in Poland where I'd done my flight training in a tiny twin Tecnam!
What advice would you give to someone about to start APS MCC training?
Get ahead of the game, study the SOPs, get a flight deck poster and know the flows. If you can get familiar with them before arriving for training, your life will be a million times easier!