Welcome jamestg. If you have the dream of flying then I would say follow it up. It's good that you are thinking to the future. There are plenty of books available to give you an insight into meteorology, principles of flight and navigation etc. If you are close to Kidlington then you could look into getting a trial lesson by way of a gift voucher. I would think good qualifications would help as I can imagine there is a lot of interest and BA can afford to be choosy. I second the advice of trying pprune for more help.