• Skyborne is a pilot training academy with bases in the United Kingdom, Florida and India.
• The training costs $136,000 for a rigorous 70-week course.
• Business Insider spoke with staff and interns about what it’s like to train as a commercial pilot.

skyborne one pilot training The academy is located at Gloucestershire Airport in the southwest of England. Nine students out of 20 are being accepted for the £105,500 ($136,000) Airline Transport Pilots License (ATPL) course this year.

The company was founded in 2018 and completed construction of its UK base in April 2019. In less than a year, the pandemic will wreak havoc on the global aviation industry.

Carla Booth, Skyborne’s commercial director, tells Business Insider: “We were the ones who went, ‘We need growth because we know it’s going to come back, and we know it’s going to come back pretty quickly because Airlines laid off many pilots.‘”

The company has purchased another site in Vero Beach, Florida, where UK students spend six months of their course. It also trains US pilots and has a partnership with Delta Air Lines.

Airlines “are knocking on our door a lot” looking to hire new pilots, Booth said.

Management consultancy Oliver Wyman estimates that after oversupply before the pandemic, there remains a shortage of about 17,000 pilots in North America due to factors such as early retirement, while the global figure could reach about 80,000 by 2032.

Skyborne received further support after the UK was chosen as its base. British Airways‘The Speedbird Pilot Academy program covers training costs for up to 200 students. The course received about 40,000 applications, Booth said.

Life in Skyborne

When a new course starts at Skyborne, students move to the academy’s accommodation in nearby Cheltenham. Before classes begin, previous reception will take new recruits to the bar.

When BI toured the academy, there was a palpable camaraderie in the corridors and crew lounges, on bulletin boards advertising running clubs and other extracurricular activities.

One of the two lounges overlooks Skyborne’s hangar, where the in-house maintenance team works on one of eight light aircraft parked inside.

Vicky Harriss, head of operational delivery, says students also spend time with engineers and air traffic controllers.

“It’s really important for us to help trainees build those relationships and break down barriers they may face so early in their training,” he adds.

Skyborne intern Libby Roebuck, 21, spent the first post-pandemic summer after graduating from high school working as cabin crew for TUI Airways, part of the European package holiday group.

Flying in helicopters with his father throughout his childhood led to his love of aviation, but school counselors often suggested cabin crew or the military as career paths.

“I think that pushed me more to say, ‘I’m doing this,’ so the motivation to do it,” Roebuck told BI.

There are also challenges to breaking into what she calls “a very male-dominated industry.” Only 12% of trainees on Skyborne’s ATPL course are women, and according to the International Civil Aviation Organization, female pilots make up just 5% of the global total pilots.

Roebuck said she attended many open days and careers events with only one or two women, which encouraged her to push for change. “I’ve seen a lot more women in the building, especially since I’ve been back from Florida, which is really nice.”

Ground school, flight school and simulators

Skyborne’s pilot course begins with six months of classes, which Harriss describes as “really intense” and includes only two seven-day breaks.

Roebuck said he would wake up at 7 a.m. and attend classes or study until 11 p.m., plus work an additional 12 hours on weekends. “You get out of this course what you put in.”

There is also customer service training that includes role-playing different scenarios. “Airlines are now starting to realize how important this is, perhaps more so than they used to,” Harriss said. he said.

The students then spend the next six months in Florida undertaking single-engine flight training in Piper PA-28 aircraft, before returning to the often cloudy UK for multi-engine flight training.

This starts in the simulators of the twin-engine Diamond DA42, before trainees take to the skies and learn how to cope with just one engine operating.

It also includes a course involving aerobatic aircraft, called Upset Recovery Training, to learn techniques for recovering an aircraft from “unusual attitudes” such as stalling incidents or spiral diving.

The last few weeks involve learning how to work in a multi-pilot crew and dealing with large jets. Boeing 737 Max simulator — preparing for the reality of being an airline pilot.

Once you land a job, airlines assign you a specific type of aircraft, where there is usually another eight weeks of training.

Booth tells BI the best part of his job is seeing the progress interns make over the 18 months. “They have developed and changed so much during this time. It is very rewarding to support them in their first job.”

Skyborne’s social media pages in the UK are celebrating interns who have accepted offers from airlines including British Airways, easyJet, TUI and Jet2.

Roebuck said he was on his way to BA and was waiting for his interview date and hoped to become a first officer on the Airbus A320.