Flight to Jeddah

I was on a long awaited leave recently, about three weeks. As most of the colleagues and students at UniKL MIAT are aware that before joining the university, I was serving the Malaysian flag carrier, MAS. In fact I retired from the company in the year 2004. So I still enjoy some flight privileges.

During the leave I and my wife went to Madinah and Makkah to perform the umrah. During the Kuala Lumpur - Jeddah flight I manage to meet the pilot, Capt. Zam. Since the flight time require a third member crew, so we have time to talk on many issues as his duty time was towards the last leg of the flight.

I took the opportunity to seek his opinion about what he feels about many young people liking to become a pilot. As I was curious to know from a pilot perspectives.

He felt a lot of them just dived into it without doing some form of analysis of the job requirements and availability of vacancies. Many who took the program are not aware that there are various types of pilots to serve the wide range of aviation industry. Many young people are probably most attracted by the prospects of becoming a flight captains with major airlines, which come with handsome salaries. But the fact is that the position of vacancies are limited. Airlines normally have their own pilot cadet program. So if one wants to land in good salaried job in airlines than it is important that they qualify into the pilot cadet program. And slowly grew with the job collecting the required flying hours.

However if you are the type who loves flying and are willing to work hard in the general aviation and other form of aviation services than there are still good prospects. But you must be willing to work hard, and have an attitude for high tolerance of uncertainty.

Before spending huge amount of money getting into pilot schools to obtain the necessary flying license from the Department of Civil Aviation, one should spend some time and effort to understand the aviation industry.

Capt. Zam felt his adventure into the flying business is very rewarding and would recommend to young people who are really interested to work hard and have a passion for the job.

I cannot agree more with his views, if you want it, then go for it...

UniKL MIAT is currently negotiating with few flying schools within ASEAN to offer a Bachelor in Aviation Technology with Flying. If the planning meets our criteria we will be announcing it within this year.

Best Regards/ Zahir