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View Full Version : Accommodation for GCAT TR pilots!!!!!


Mr GinoPino
21st Nov 2007, 14:20
We are two young pilots, just graduated from OAT and we're due to start our TR with GCAT monday the 26th. We are desperately looking for an accommodation:

from 25th November to 19th December in LGW

from 20th December to 8th December in LHR

we have a car and we can easily share a room. If anyone can help us will really appreciate!!!!!!

M & G

PaulW
21st Nov 2007, 14:48
Gcat have a list of approved accommodation. I would personally recommend Oakhurst B and B 01293 882425, just around the back of the CAA building 2minute drive from GCAT and they specialise in crew accommodation, really nice with shared kitchen and lounge and mostly virgin crew staying there. The rooms have lcd digital tvs and dvd players. Single rooms for crew but I think the twin room is 30 quid a night between two of you thats pretty cheap! or twenty quid for a single if i remember right.
Thats where I stayed when I was at GCAT. Out of interest which airline is it? or are you on the SSTR scheme and which type? I did an a320 course earlier in the year, and now Im flying something completely different.

Nichibei Aviation
23rd Nov 2007, 10:26
Why pay for a TR when you've only got 250 hours TT and no job warranty?

Not a smart move, considering you will have to justify that choice at your job interview...

Quoting our website (under construction):


The costs of these courses range between 75 000€ and 140 000€.
Students graduate with a little over 200 hours of time logged, which is far below the requirements of European airlines. On average, an European airline will consider a student with at least 500 hours of total flying experience.
Many graduates therefore try to make themselves attractive by self-funding expensive type-rating courses that cost over 20 000€. But a type-rating does not often work-out to the students' expectations as airlines do not consider a type-rating as additional experience.

MrHorgy
23rd Nov 2007, 10:36
What website is this?

Horgy

Artie Fufkin
23rd Nov 2007, 11:30
The GECAT TR scheme that is available to Oxford alumni is usually a self sponsored type rating that has a job offer attached to it.

200 hours is not far below the requirements of European airlines. My 146th hour was taking 148 passengers down to the south of France in a B737.

Lucky old pax :eek: they loved it!

Nichibei Aviation
23rd Nov 2007, 12:15
200 hours is not far below the requirements of European airlines.


It is. A regular European airline would require at least 200h on type experience for a direct-entry position.


My 146th hour was taking 148 passengers down to the south of France in a B737.


Well you don't need more than a PPL and a TR to have co-pilot privileges on non-revenue flights. You can do that with 80 hours on your logs if wish to. John Travolta is the best example ;-)

No, here we're talking about job applications and TR's, in the real world for a real career on a real airline :ugh:


The GECAT TR scheme that is available to Oxford alumni is usually a self sponsored type rating that has a job offer attached to it.

If I were to finance a TR I would rather like it the other way 'round: A job offer with a self-sponsored TR attached to it. ;)

Most FTO's promise the same thing: a job offer at graduation. When you graduate and you realise that you've been screwed (happens 80% of the time), you try to look for a solution...there the TRTO's fetch you and promise you a job offer. Once you graduate from TR, again you realise that you've been fooled (80% of the time again): you'll be put on an endless waiting list or told that they'll call you when they have vacancies...

How do you think those TRTO's manage to add a 10 million $ simulator to their collection every year? It's the students who pay for it!

Take a look on this forum and you'll find plenty of guys regretting their TR.

Artie Fufkin
23rd Nov 2007, 13:27
Nichibei,

Virtually all UK airlines will recruit a low hours first officer who possesses an fATPL with minimum hours. If, like me, you did the integrated route, your licence requirements are 195 hours of which 55 can be completed in a ground based sim/ FNPT2. which makes 140 hours. Add your CPL and IR skills test, and you get 145 hours.

Both myself and the 30 odd people who I knew at my FTO all went into airline work with around these sort of hours.

Some paid for type ratings, others did not. But maybe you don't consider the likes of BA, Easy, Thomas Cook, Jet2, Excel, Ryanair, DHL, BMI, Flybe and Thomsonfly to be "real airlines or real careers"?

Your original assertion that;

"students graduate (sic) with a little over 200 hours of time logged, which is far below the requirements of European airlines"

... is not correct.

Canada Goose
23rd Nov 2007, 13:39
R u guys still looking ?

Muppet99
23rd Nov 2007, 14:35
I'm looking. In a similar position - 230 hrs - resigned to the fact that having to pay for a TR is probably neccessary. Reluctant to do it right now though as the job market seems fairly dull?

Bad Robot
23rd Nov 2007, 16:15
Reluctant to do it right now though as the job market seems fairly dull?Only in the UK, the rest of the world is booming!
I thought you guys wanted to fly, to travel, to see the world, etc, etc ?
If you don't go out and get the jobs on offer, then there are plenty of others that will.

Or do you just want to go down the local pub and try to impress the girls with your shiny new gold/silver/platinum bars?

Believe me, I have actually witnessed it on more than one occasion.:ugh:

Back on topic, The Oakhurst B&B is Excellent.

BR.

Nichibei Aviation
23rd Nov 2007, 16:22
Some paid for type ratings, others did not. But maybe you don't consider the likes of BA, Easy, Thomas Cook, Jet2, Excel, Ryanair, DHL, BMI, Flybe and Thomsonfly to be "real airlines or real careers"?

Your original assertion that;

"students graduate (sic) with a little over 200 hours of time logged, which is far below the requirements of European airlines"

... is not correct.

This is the typical FTO propaganda. See what I mean guys?
Be careful :)

MrHorgy
23rd Nov 2007, 16:53
Yes and no. It can be done, but is very difficult unless you have been massaged into a place by your school, which is what Artie is referring to.

Horgy

Nichibei Aviation
23rd Nov 2007, 17:30
Yes there are a few exceptions (that's why I said "in 80% of the cases").

But these FTO's are very rare.

Artie Fufkin
23rd Nov 2007, 19:50
Nichebei,

I know I'm not going to convince you, but it is possible, so don't take my word for it, check out what #15 on the following thread has to say about getting into airlines with just 235 hours

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=300382

zerograv
24th Nov 2007, 00:35
Blime!!! :bored: ...... (the guy is only looking for accommodation)

Gino

For the Gatwick area, if you haven't already made arrangements, check

http://www.gatwick-guesthouses.co.uk/

LHR ...... Sorry! Not able to make any suggestions.

Best of luck with the training.

Zero

Nichibei Aviation
24th Nov 2007, 09:33
Dear Artie,

the whole point of the discussion here is that a TR wouldn't help you further if you only have 230 hours and can't find a job.

The best way to increase your chances of getting hired is by building (multi-engine) time.

The guys who opened this thread have just graduated and are paying for a TR just like that, because they think that's an additonal advantage and because OAT is advertising for GECAT...

About Brussels Airlines, it is true that quite a few students with only 235 hours have been hired, but you don't wanna know how many are struggling to find a job.
This is how it works: they have 8 vacancies per month that need to be filled. They take the most experienced first, and fill the vancies with the less experienced.
If you have 800 hours you immediately get the job, if you have only 200, go stand in the row among the other 80 candidates.
There are too few people with over 500 hours, so B.air has to compensate by hiring from the very large 250 hours category students. So if a guy shows up with 500 hours TT, he'd be hired immediately.

The all point is that if you only got a bit over 200 hours, you will compete with a huge amount of similar students. If you got a TR on B737 or A320, B.air will not care less (they might find you stupid because of the money you wasted), because all ab-initio's start on the ARJ's.


That's quite similar to what is happening in the UK.


Hope that clears it up.

MrHorgy
24th Nov 2007, 09:54
Nichibei,

(At the risk of turning this into an off topic classic TR debate) Where do we aquire these mythical hours on twins? The UK (and infact, a lot of Europe) has a very small airtaxi market, nothing like the states so the scope for increasing your time in more traditional ways is limited, unless you instruct.

I'm surprised OAT are making people pay for TR's these days, do people even have money left from the 65k they spent there? What happened to all the job coaching they do? Or is their marketing machine slowly falling apart?

Horgy

Nichibei Aviation
24th Nov 2007, 10:33
OAT has been bought by GECAT in June 2007. :ugh:

http://www.gecat.com/pdf/Oxford%20Aviation%20Press%20Release%20final.pdf

I don't want to advertise, but for the price you pay for a TR, you can get 100 SEP + 100 MEP or 200 SEP + 50 MEP.

That's alot more than the 15 hours on FFS and 2 hours on type...

asuweb
24th Nov 2007, 10:37
the whole point of the discussion here is that a TR wouldn't help you further if you only have 230 hours and can't find a job.Incorrect. The whole point of this thread, as the title suggests, is about accomodation, nothing more, nothing less. There are numerous threads discussing the pros and cons of paying for type ratings. Can we stick to the topic being asked? :ugh:

Artie Fufkin
26th Nov 2007, 18:57
Nichebei, yes all is very clear now.

"The best way to increase your chances of getting hired is by building (multi-engine) time."

Just done a google search on what services Nichebei Aviation offers... Didn't think this sort of thing was allowed on pprune.

Like you said;

"This is the typical FTO propaganda. See what I mean guys?
Be careful :)"

Nichibei Aviation
26th Nov 2007, 21:26
Dear Artie,

Tell me, where the hell on this forum have I advertised?

I think it's really sad to see that students have to pay these unaffordable price tags we see on the market.
Can you explain to me how the hell a B737 FFS should cost 1000€ per hour? I know that an FFS is an expensive investment, but still, if you tell me 500€ per hour, I would say ok, that's normal. That would still leave the TRTO a 150€ per hour pure profit margin.(If the FFS is used for at least 8 years)

Many students are very naïve and accept to pay these prices.
That's the reason why since a little over ten years, all airlines have switched to the self-sponsored training scheme: "If there are people crazy enough to pay for it, why should we pay for their training any longer?"
Now also the TR is about to enter that category.
At this pace, in about 5 years all airline pilots will pay to fly and unfreeze their fATPL.

Sorry but paying 62000£ for 150 hours of flying is over 350£ an hour (considering the remaining 60£/hour for ground school, simulators...). And most of these hours are flown in the US, where the same hours cost 90£.(incl instructor).
They are earning 260£ per hour on you guys, do you realise?

Sorry to post it in this forum but I think that things should be clear as they are.

Also dear students, be careful, many members of Pprune are actually FTO marketing departments who operate under innocent names such as "Artie". They will try to influence your decisions, so do use your common sense to evaluate facts.

Thank you

Artie Fufkin
27th Nov 2007, 00:18
I am not accusing you of advertising. Lets put this as simply as possible;

1 You accuse TRTOs and FTOs of posting on pprune to influence people in to taking their services.

2 You ridiculed the starter of this thread for doing an SSTR, saying that he would do a lot better building multi engine time to improve his job chances.

3 I can’t get into your website, but google describes you as “Aircraft rental / time building / hour building JAR / FAR Cessna 150 Cessna 152 Cessna 172 twin-engine”.

Can you see how some might see this as double standards?

Apologies to all for hijacking the thread, I shall now be silent as this has descended into total farce; first I’m a ppl flying a 737 with my mate Travolta, now I’m Oxford management, whatever next? the easter bunny?

If you really want to know who I am;
http://www.spinaltapfan.com/atozed/TAP00191.HTM

:p

Nichibei Aviation
27th Nov 2007, 11:51
You accuse TRTOs and FTOs of posting on pprune to influence people in to taking their services.


I have been approached by as many as 6 FTO's when I registered here for the first time as "student", just to see how clean this forum actually was...

I have nothing against FTO's when they actually identify themselves to the students as being what they are. Instead many pretend they are ex-students and try to recommend students a certain course.

I never ridiculised the thread starter, I'm just trying to give him/her and many others another perspective, and not only the perspective given by his FTO who is advertising for the TRTO that owns it...

If our company encourages hour building, I don't think we would open a TRTO :ugh:But that doesn't mean that we are advertising here. We'd rather have students build hours with the competition than pay a TR.

This is who I am : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis

Well I don't know whether we are still off-topic, the guys were looking for accommodation starting from yesterday...This forum is of no use anymore