Ben Phillips, 34, joined the Met Police at just 18 years old, embarking on what he thought was his dream career.
The Londoner had wanted to be a police officer since he was a child but after 13 years in the force, he’d had enough, he tells the Daily Mail.
‘I found over time the rules got harder and there were more politics. I didn’t feel like I was making a difference all the time,’ Ben says, admitting too that ‘almost 13 years of seeing life and death’ also proved exhausting.
What else saw him hang up his uniform? The change in the police pension age and managing a work-life balance with a growing family.
While still working for the Met, the father-of-three found his wings, juggling training to be a pilot with being a police officer for four years from 2019.
‘I always liked planes, but never thought I would do that job because it’s very expensive to train,’ Ben reflects, explaining how someone bought him a trial flight as a gift and it inspired him to apply to Wizz Air’s Pilot Academy.
He adds, ‘As I went through each stage, I thought, “Wow, this could be a reality” and at the end of it they said, “Yeah, you can go forward if you can fund it”‘.
The training fees were eye-wateringly expensive – UK pilots pay between between £70,000 and £130,000 for UK pilots, depending on the training set up – but Ben set about trying to find the cash.
On the beat: Londoner Ben Phillips, 34, joined the Met Police when he was just 18 years old and spent 13 years in the force before making a bold career move
The ex-Met officer trained at Wizz Air’s Pilot Academy, remortgaging his home and taking out loans to help pay for the £100,000 training fees
Ben’s costs amounted to just short of £100,000 and he took loans and re-mortgaged his family home to help pay for it.
Two years ago, the father-of-three took the plunge, leaving the Met completely.
He completed his initial training through Wizz Air with CTC Aviation, which now operates as Acron Aviation, and gained his commercial license.
‘I paid £98,000,’ Ben reveals. ‘Then I did a degree alongside it, because the student loan helped fund part of the license and I didn’t go to university, so that was my way of getting a degree.’
Airlines vary on what they , there are some basic requirements that anyone training to be a pilot must have, including being over 18, being able to swim competently and
Afterwards, he had to be ‘rated on an aircraft’ which then allows pilots to operate particular planes.
Ben’s training costs came to around £98,000, even with the help of Wizz Air who paid for him to be ‘rated on an aircraft’
As a Dad of three, he says the job of a pilot is surprisingly family friendly because he works in blocks of shifts, meaning he can be away for four days but then back for four full days
‘Sometimes the airline will pay for it, Wizz paid for mine. But if you worked with another airline, it might be £25,000 to £30,000 to be rated on an airbus,’ Ben explains.
He adds: ‘But nowadays, a lot of companies will pay for it and then bond you to the airline for a period of time.’
When Ben fully qualified after two-and-a-half-years’ training, his first flight as a pilot with passengers onboard felt ‘amazing’, he says.
‘It’s a load of exams and then flying exams, it’s just constant,’ he says. ‘Then to finally actually fly the plane for real was a great feeling, all that work for that moment, and then the nice landing tops it off.’
Since becoming a pilot, Ben has been lucky enough to witness the Northern Lights from the cockpit ’10 plus times’ and says he loves flying to Tromso because of how frequent the natural phenomenon is on the route
Since becoming a pilot, Ben has been lucky enough to witness the Northern Lights from the cockpit ’10 plus times’.
His favourite flight route is to Tromso – the Norwegian capital that is famous for viewing the natural phenomenon – because of how often he has managed to see the dancing lights.
‘Obviously you can see them on the ground, but when you see them at 30,000 feet, it’s all around you and it’s beautiful,’ Ben gushes.
‘Even over Poland last year, there were some beautiful Northern Lights because the solar radiation was high, and it was a mixture of red and green which I’ve not seen before.’
Another added bonus of the job for Ben is he experiences a better work-life balance as a pilot than he did as a police officer.
He works as a trainer for Wizz Air, as well as a pilot, and enjoys the flexibility his role offers.
‘Wizz Air offer five days on, four days off or you can do 50 per cent too, where you work 14 days on, 14 days off,’ Ben explains.
‘It’s really great for the work-life balance. Whilst my kids are young, this is perfect, because I have three… so it’s busy!’
As for whether Ben would ever go back to his old job as a Met Police Officer, he says, ‘Not as probably a regular police officer. I would consider joining as a pilot, and flying for NPAS.’
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) provides air support to the 46 police forces across England and Wales.
Ben admits if he went down this route, it would be an ‘end of career’ move when he is close to retiring.
‘When I’m 60 years old or something and just want to have some fun… because airline flying is good and the public sector isn’t that good,’ he says.
