Scott Duch

I've just sent my application off 2 days ago for the wings cadet program. I looked at their requirements under the 'selection' part of the website and i think i meet all the criteria:

Im a UK citizen thus right to live/work in EU
British so fluent in english
Have 8 standard grades betweent 1/A & 3/C including physics, maths, english, geography, chemistry and technological studies
I have 4 highers (ABBC) in geography, maths, physics and english

So if i meet their requirements should i get through to phase 2?

Thanks for any reply and dont mean to sound cocky/over confident just curious.

flyhighspeed300

yer, but be warnned if throught the process and manage to find £70K + livings costs for around two years, there is not always a job at the end of the course. lot and lots of pilot seating around at the moment. check and look on PPRuNe.
if you are one of the lucky ones to get a job. be propared to bring home £8K for up to the first 3years of your flying carreer.
reason why is that the money, you had found will want a min of £12K ayear back. normal new pilots job start between 16-23K. call it 20K for the first year, -12K for repaying loans and you get to walk home with 8K before tax. so it will be less than that. every year for the first 3 years.

just throught i may get you the heads up, if you think your goning to think that your make lots of money as a pilot. maybe after the 6/7 years after paying all that money back.

Scott Duch

I have a university offer lined up too so i thought i would just give it a try. Thanks for you reply...

flyhighspeed300

getting a degree, will also help. lots of pilot have a degree, otherwise you will be put at the back of the waiting list...
at the moment the list is very long, in the down trun.
why not look at signing up to the univertity air squadron, when you are at uni. save money and you will get lots of flying experience. ace
its free......
but you have to go to the right uni though.

Scott Duch

I'm aiming to study at the university of glasgow and they share a flying suqadron with strathclyde and i have emailed the flying squadron already and said it would be great for someone like myself and that they have stand during freshers week were i can seek more information.

sharpclassic

Scott Duch,

If you've got a place to study at uni, given the current climate, I'd defo recommend doing that. I did exactly the same thing during the last downturn, finished my degree, did my training and here I am at 4.15am in a hotel in Europe about to go flying - who said this job wasn't glamourous?!

Whichever option you take, you'll end up killing time to get a job. Either do your training now, accumulate a massive amount of debt and watch it get even bigger as the interest takes hold whilst you wait for a job or go to uni, kill that time by getting a degree then start your training and things will have picked up by then.

However, to save thread creep, if you meet all the criteria for the initial assessment, then yes, you should make it to Stage 2.

ozziecrew

i was also thinking about applying to CTC but worried about the current situation. for those who may know is there a good chance u will be taken on by an airline partner once successfully completed the course? Wouldn't airlines take cadets on lower wages initially for keeping costs down? hard to tell i think?

ScottFlyer

Nice one Scott!

Well done on the Highers and Standard Grades at school, they will set you up nicely for University.

You remind me of a younger version of myself and I can draw some parallels.

I too gained good grades at school and decided to go to Glasgow University where I studied on the Aeronautical Engineering course (which is accredited by Airbus and BAe) but you might already know this??

I never joined the University Air Squadron so I cannot give you any advice on their operations.

A degree will indeed help you with your career however by no means is it a mandatory pre-requisite for the Wings programme or a pilot in general. Also it is worth noting that if you do go to University that you will somehow be in debt come the end of your course. A few of my fellow students had £10-12k plus which should be taken into consideration.

It's your life. Do the research, take your time and go for it, whatever you do.

Better to be an employed cadet on reduced salary than an unemployed cadet?

minimum_wage

Have you looked at the Cathay Cadet scheme. Apparently it is open to worldwide applicants. Won't be in debt without a job in these hard times.