It’s June of 2018, my bankruptcy has recently ended.  I have a letter in my hand declaring that I am released from bankruptcy and it gives me a feeling of relief and also indicates to me how time flies past when you’re busy.  I have had no more contact from any of the companies that purchased my small debts from my bank or credit card for pennies in the pound.  I refused point blank to reply to any of their I MUST ACT NOW letters and I ignored their repeated attempts for me to open my account with them.  The UK’s Insolvency Agency gave me sound, reliable and lawful advice and I simply followed it and, stuck to my guns.  I will shortly apply to all the big credit reference agencies to view and check my credit files to ensure that the bankrupt marker has been removed from them.  I am expecting defaults of payments on there, but I am going to challenge that simply because I went bankrupt PRIOR to defaulting on any payments.  Granted, I defaulted on the final payment, but not on ANY monthly payments prior to signing the paperwork from the UK Insolvency Agency.  I’ll work that out in a month or two as I have much bigger fish to fry at the moment.

So what now?  Well, now is where the real hard work begins.  For the entire Bancruptcy I have been out of work therefore ensuring that the debt collection agencies don’t lump me with the same debts all over again for another three years – Why would I have possibly declared myself bankrupt AND then tie myself up in debt?  It’s an utterly ridiculous concept, one or the other; Not both.  Remaining out of work with no income and simply toughing it out sleeping on couches, friends spare rooms and in my car was simply the ONLY way to start again fully clean and clear from the past.  The last 12 months of Bancruptcy have indeed been very hard work, but rebuilding my life, from here, will be a lot harder.  However, I am fit, healthy, motivated, and my head is straight.

I have had the all clear by the head of the Aviation Authority to return to flying and I have a new medical certificate to prove it.   One of the best decisions I ever made was to interact with, and seek the help of, my specialist Aviation medical practitioner as soon as I could see that life was caving in around me.  These are the guys that check us Bi/Annually depending upon your age and what machine you fly commercially, and they ensure that we are indeed fit to fly.  By approaching my Doctor immediately for help I was able to lean on him, and in turn he guided me and assessed my performance monthly over the past 12 months in rebuilding the stability for me to be able to fly commercially.  He saw me pretty much at my worst back in 2016, and he was the first person I called, in joy, when my medical certificate was authorised by the Chief Medical Examiner just a month ago. A failure at this stage to get a full pilots medical due to mental health issues would have rendered my entire life’s work and the past 6 years of study, exams and commercial jet pilot courses not to mention upward of £80’000 of my money in education and training costs, totally null and void.

I have my professional licences fully intact, authorised and I am clear to go to work as a commercial pilot, if of course I can find a job, but there is one last hurdle to overcome, and I am very nervous about it indeed.

The research I have done so far starting at least a month before I made the final decision to apply for bankruptcy in 2017, indicates that it won’t be a problem, but passing the company security clearances as a commercial pilot with a bankruptcy notice, is something I am not taking lightly.  All my efforts and my life’s work could be dismissed in a pen stroke if I am rejected upon the grounds of my previous bankruptcy.