<p>No matter what your skill levels are when attempting to become an airline pilot, arguably the biggest barrier to entry remains the fees to progress from the ab initio stage right through to achieving a commercial pilot licence (CPL). Many are fortunate enough to be able to call on “The Bank of Mum & Dad”, but many talented candidates are often missed by the industry simply through not being able to finance their training. </p>
<p>So what happens when that is the case and you just can’t get a scholarship? In one case, instead of giving up, one hopeful has turned to the crowd-funding route, but is doing it with a twist.</p>
<p>For more than 10 years, Eric Kaufman has been driven by only one passion – to become an airline pilot. “Being first-generation immigrants, my family did not have the financial capacity to sponsor me,” he notes, leaving him firmly in the territory of those described above.</p>
<p><img alt="Wings of change" src="/getasset/a5394fbd-b90c-45db-b3e6-170d0815752f/" /></p>
<p>Kaufman has thus created the “Wings for Change” GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds for his pilot training. The target is £100,000 and the twist comes from the fact that he plans to begin re-donating the raised funds to voted charities and disadvantaged pilot candidates once he has served his first year with an airline.</p>
<p>Rather smartly, Kaufman has been in touch for some time with key players in seeking help, most notably the British Air Line Pilots’ Association (BALPA). After knocking on many doors and successfully completing assessments, it was in April this year that he decided another tack was needed to overcome the problem.</p>
<p>“I’d pursued the sponsor schemes for the last 10 years. When I first started my applications around 2008, there was almost no other option but to pay CAE, Cabair at that time, or CTC Aviation £85,000 and go to study,” Kaufman recalls. “But my passion was such that I was reading magazines galore and knew that at some point in time people would realise that the shortage pilots is a serious issue for an industry and a country as well.</p>
<p>“In 2010, I passed my first assessment with flying colours to CAE, after which – in 2013 – I went for the British Airways’ sponsored cadet scheme. I’ve also made it into the last batch of 20 in a Virgin Atlantic selection process covering 12,000 applicants for six places. Always though, I was so reliant on the sponsored schemes, which I saw as my only option. I could not save £85,000, it would not be feasible for me to turn to my parents,” he adds.</p>
<p>“This year, I felt that perhaps I’d been focussing on the wrong thing in my situation, which is trying to be the best candidate I can be. I would spend 4-5 hours a day studying over the last 10 years so that I could impress people enough. But now it has shifted from being the ‘best candidate’ to ‘let me put all this effort into trying to find some kind of financial solution’.”</p>
<p>It was on the way to a commercial meeting in his job with World Duty Free at London Heathrow Airport that a crowd-funding approach became an idea, but even then Kaufman felt it should not be all about his training. Thus he opted for the GoFundMe platform. “It is very transparent and has a lot of securities and I eventually came up with the Wings Of Change concept which is not just about me. I want to do something alongside my collection of money to also influence the whole industry to realise that there are thousands of people like me. It became more altruistic as time went on,” he declares.</p>
<p><img alt="Wings for change logo" src="/getasset/c0ef6ae3-4c2c-49cf-b8c6-b77db384c9e3/" /></p>
<p>“As I collect money for my own training, I look for innovative ways and sources and will hopefully get to a point where the next batch of potential candidates just like myself can use my existing framework and social media presence, to start raising money for their own licences. Or it could get us to a place where the government will finally realise that this is the one profession where money – rather than ability – decides who gets to study.”</p>
<p>Kaufman has done some flying but little in the UK because of the expense. It has usually been on visits to his ancestral country of Latvia. “When I couldn’t fly, I’d visit simulators (of 737s mainly) and try to get any form of experience I could. I remember going to flight academies doing whatever I could to get into a mock-up of a 737. Plus I’ve also done thousands of hours on my home simulator, for which I have all the joysticks and pedals,” he elaborates.</p>
<p>Alongside, the Wings Of Change campaign, Kaufman is also seeking to create the online petition for government to recognise the pilot profession as being part of public education funding, something BALPA also advocates. “There was a similar petition in 2017 which got 3,000 signatures, but through Wings Of Change and its presence on Facebook, Instagram and all sorts of media platforms, I’d like to relaunch that and get the 10,000 signatures necessary for the government to at least respond to this issue,” he remarks.</p>
<p>The fact BALPA was keen to see Kaufman proceed and provide leads has been encouraging for him. “They even allowed me to be filmed for a documentary, which has the potential to be aired by National Geographic’s channel,” he reports. “It’s about pilot training, but my segment was unique, being about something not considered before, which is the individual who doesn’t have the money, really wants to get in, has a flying background (my grandfather was a military pilot) and a family in which many have really aspired to be a pilot. And I’ve been hit by one major barrier – not a language barrier, not a cultural barrier, not a knowledge barrier, but a financial barrier.</p>
<p>“If I’d have been a student doctor or lawyer in my situation, I would have been able to pursue that role as an individual. But not in aviation, although it’s a strategic industry for the country.” Spoken with the passion of someone a former <em>Flight International</em> editor used to call a Total Aviation Person.</p>
<p><em>Further details of Wings For Change can be found via the Instagram page: wings_for_change</em></p>
<p>So what happens when that is the case and you just can’t get a scholarship? In one case, instead of giving up, one hopeful has turned to the crowd-funding route, but is doing it with a twist.</p>
<p>For more than 10 years, Eric Kaufman has been driven by only one passion – to become an airline pilot. “Being first-generation immigrants, my family did not have the financial capacity to sponsor me,” he notes, leaving him firmly in the territory of those described above.</p>
<p><img alt="Wings of change" src="/getasset/a5394fbd-b90c-45db-b3e6-170d0815752f/" /></p>
<p>Kaufman has thus created the “Wings for Change” GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds for his pilot training. The target is £100,000 and the twist comes from the fact that he plans to begin re-donating the raised funds to voted charities and disadvantaged pilot candidates once he has served his first year with an airline.</p>
<p>Rather smartly, Kaufman has been in touch for some time with key players in seeking help, most notably the British Air Line Pilots’ Association (BALPA). After knocking on many doors and successfully completing assessments, it was in April this year that he decided another tack was needed to overcome the problem.</p>
<p>“I’d pursued the sponsor schemes for the last 10 years. When I first started my applications around 2008, there was almost no other option but to pay CAE, Cabair at that time, or CTC Aviation £85,000 and go to study,” Kaufman recalls. “But my passion was such that I was reading magazines galore and knew that at some point in time people would realise that the shortage pilots is a serious issue for an industry and a country as well.</p>
<p>“In 2010, I passed my first assessment with flying colours to CAE, after which – in 2013 – I went for the British Airways’ sponsored cadet scheme. I’ve also made it into the last batch of 20 in a Virgin Atlantic selection process covering 12,000 applicants for six places. Always though, I was so reliant on the sponsored schemes, which I saw as my only option. I could not save £85,000, it would not be feasible for me to turn to my parents,” he adds.</p>
<p>“This year, I felt that perhaps I’d been focussing on the wrong thing in my situation, which is trying to be the best candidate I can be. I would spend 4-5 hours a day studying over the last 10 years so that I could impress people enough. But now it has shifted from being the ‘best candidate’ to ‘let me put all this effort into trying to find some kind of financial solution’.”</p>
<p>It was on the way to a commercial meeting in his job with World Duty Free at London Heathrow Airport that a crowd-funding approach became an idea, but even then Kaufman felt it should not be all about his training. Thus he opted for the GoFundMe platform. “It is very transparent and has a lot of securities and I eventually came up with the Wings Of Change concept which is not just about me. I want to do something alongside my collection of money to also influence the whole industry to realise that there are thousands of people like me. It became more altruistic as time went on,” he declares.</p>
<p><img alt="Wings for change logo" src="/getasset/c0ef6ae3-4c2c-49cf-b8c6-b77db384c9e3/" /></p>
<p>“As I collect money for my own training, I look for innovative ways and sources and will hopefully get to a point where the next batch of potential candidates just like myself can use my existing framework and social media presence, to start raising money for their own licences. Or it could get us to a place where the government will finally realise that this is the one profession where money – rather than ability – decides who gets to study.”</p>
<p>Kaufman has done some flying but little in the UK because of the expense. It has usually been on visits to his ancestral country of Latvia. “When I couldn’t fly, I’d visit simulators (of 737s mainly) and try to get any form of experience I could. I remember going to flight academies doing whatever I could to get into a mock-up of a 737. Plus I’ve also done thousands of hours on my home simulator, for which I have all the joysticks and pedals,” he elaborates.</p>
<p>Alongside, the Wings Of Change campaign, Kaufman is also seeking to create the online petition for government to recognise the pilot profession as being part of public education funding, something BALPA also advocates. “There was a similar petition in 2017 which got 3,000 signatures, but through Wings Of Change and its presence on Facebook, Instagram and all sorts of media platforms, I’d like to relaunch that and get the 10,000 signatures necessary for the government to at least respond to this issue,” he remarks.</p>
<p>The fact BALPA was keen to see Kaufman proceed and provide leads has been encouraging for him. “They even allowed me to be filmed for a documentary, which has the potential to be aired by National Geographic’s channel,” he reports. “It’s about pilot training, but my segment was unique, being about something not considered before, which is the individual who doesn’t have the money, really wants to get in, has a flying background (my grandfather was a military pilot) and a family in which many have really aspired to be a pilot. And I’ve been hit by one major barrier – not a language barrier, not a cultural barrier, not a knowledge barrier, but a financial barrier.</p>
<p>“If I’d have been a student doctor or lawyer in my situation, I would have been able to pursue that role as an individual. But not in aviation, although it’s a strategic industry for the country.” Spoken with the passion of someone a former <em>Flight International</em> editor used to call a Total Aviation Person.</p>
<p><em>Further details of Wings For Change can be found via the Instagram page: wings_for_change</em></p>