At 24, Ryan Louise is one of the UK's youngest commercial airline pilots, and he secured a pilot's licence before he had even passed his driving test
Meet the 24-year-old Ryanair pilot who got his pilot's licence long before he passed his driving test
At 24, Ryan Louise is one of the UK's youngest commercial airline pilots, and he secured a pilot's licence before he
had even passed his driving test
Ryan Louise, 24, flies hundreds of passengers around Europe every day
Got private pilot's licence at age 16 before he learned to drive a car
Has logged so many hours he hopes to captain his own aircraft in a couple of years
Says that flying a plane is very different to driving
By JOHN HUTCHINSON FOR MAILONLINE
One of Britain's youngest commercial airline pilots has revealed he got his flying licence long before he learned to drive.
Ryan Louise, 24, flies hundreds of passengers around Europe every day as a pilot for Ryanair.
The fresh-faced flyer got his private pilot's licence when he was just 16.
Ryan Louise enjoys the day job of flying a Ryanair plane - however he found driving a car very different
Now Ryan has logged so many hours at the controls of a Boeing 737, his aim is to be ready to captain his own aircraft in a couple of years.
Ryan said: 'I got my pilot's licence well before I got my driving licence. It's a lot different to flying a plane and I found flying a bit easier than getting in a car seat.
'In a plane you don't have to worry about other aircraft as much as you have to worry about other cars. It's a lot busier on the roads than it is in the sky and people in cars do stupid things a lot more often.
'If you have to drive from A to B every day, it's mostly the same thing every day. With flying it's always different, the wind is different, the weight of the aircraft is different, there are different challenges.
'With flying the main areas where you can get into difficulty are take off and landing.
'You get more comfortable the more you fly, of course. I don't have the same feeling as in a car though - when I arrive at my destination in a car, I can't really remember my drive, I've sort of forgotten what I've been doing,
Ryan has logged so many hours at the controls, he hopes to captain his own aircraft in a couple of years
The 24-year-old has said that learning to drive was harder than learning to fly
'But when I land I know what I've been doing because I've been focusing and concentrating a lot.
'Usually, I'll get on my first flight from Stanstead airport in the morning and will do between two and four flights that day. I only have about 25 minutes on the tarmac between flights.
'The number of flights that I do a day means I can log a lot of hours towards getting an Air Transport Pilot's licence, which would allow me to captain an aircraft.
'One of the best experiences I've had was flying my mum. She was a slightly nervous flyer, in particular when landing. But when I took her for a flight, she was amazed that it was me behind the controls and said I helped cure any fears she had.'
Ryan was only 14 when he settled on the idea of flying as a profession after a flight with his mum inspired him to take up the controls and while still a teenager managed to achieve his commercial pilot's licence with peers who were at least double his age.
Ryan Louise gets ready to fly another batch of Ryanair customers on holiday
Although he had not decided whether to apply for the RAF or not, Ryan immediately took steps to achieve his goal and was flying gliders solo in the Air Training Corps, aged 16, before he decided to take the route of becoming a commercial pilot.
Ryan said: 'I was 14 when I first got the idea that I wanted to fly planes for the rest of my life - I was on a flight with my mum when the plane got out of the clouds and I could see out of the portal next to the seat.
'I thought that it looked incredible and told my mum that I wanted to fly planes. I don't think she thought I was serious at first, but said if I meant it then I could look into it. A couple of years later I was flying my first planes solo as part of my training with the Air Training Corps.
'At the time, I didn't know whether I wanted to try and join the RAF or not, but they had recently let go of a lot of pilots and so I thought that it would be a better career to go commercial.
'Despite a busy work life, I manage to strike a good work-life balance. Sometimes it is hard to find time to see my girlfriend, as although I get home at the end of every day she works different hours to me and we end up missing each other.
'My job does involve spending a lot of time away from home, but that is what I signed up for and I hope to be able to fly transatlantic voyages someday if the opportunity came up.'
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