Want to be a Pilot ?

Ask any actor ( bollywood/ kollywood) what would have you become, if you had not come to the cine industry, the most probable reply will be air line pilot / air force pilot.

May be few jokers like Ajith, might say he wants to be a Formula 1 driver. Ajith irukara size ikku 'lorry size' la thaan Formula1 car build pannanum and he can participate in the Monster Truck Madness race.

Airlplanes and Flying have always been dream professions for many ( mee..too) and those who can afford it pursue it as a passion. Whenever airplanes form major part of the storyline, the movie is automatically added to my favorites list... say Aviator, Top Gun, Air Force One, Con Air , to name a few. Pls don't include tamil movies like 'Airport' where Sathyaraj plays a sick pilot, which is one of the so-called desa-bakthi films.

If at all ( a very big IFFFF), I become a pilot, my role model is Frank Abagnale Jr. in the movie Catch me If You Can. Even though its a '420' character, somehow i like him very much. The pilot profession was totally glamorised in that movie and without an iota of doubt, it is glamarous. The current US President Bush, was a combat aircraft pilot during the Vietnam war. When Bush can become a pilot, i think anybody can become the pilot ( provided u got the bucks !!). Bush is my inspiration for such things ;-)

Recently, the flying schools in india ( there are only very few around) have increased the fees for the Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) course. The "basic" course will cost you 12 lakhs (INR) which trains you in basic single engine planes. If you want flying exposure to multi-engine aircrafts, an additional 3 lakh fees has to be paid. Some schools charge upto 18 lakhs to get you a CPL. It takes 2 years for one to complete the course. And now due to the boom in the low cost airline industry, there is a heavy demand for pilots in India. You could have read about the recent anti-poaching agreement signed between Kingfisher and Air Deccan.

Sometimes i get a random thought about getting rid of this stupid software job and turn into a pilot.

Howzzat !!