ka_pai,
Yeah I passed the selection a while ago. Im waiting to go out, hopefully in September. To be honest I think they will use the 737 sim as much as they can from now on. It was actually very good for this purpose of selecting candidates. Also everything you need is all on one big glass screen, I thought it was an excellent plane, although 45 degree turns while keeping the height right on takes a bit of getting used to. By the end of the trip though you are used to the plane and so the ILS approach and landing is the best fun. Again its all done by looking at this one glass screen, no visual reference. This was all quite strange to me considering I have only ever done UAS flying, which strictly forbids flying on instruments unless your at that stage of training!
You also get a printout at the end which shows your ILS and localiser deviation, good keepsake.
Also I was having a read over this thread and a few people were quite dubious over the finances of this scheme. But what you have to realise is that you get a type rating in this scheme as well. A self funding person will have to pay around £85k I think to get up to that level. That kind of loan from the HSBC would cost itself about £25 500. So you'll end up paying back £110 500. Plus you may have a few years waiting time to actually get a job in the first place. You will also be paying it back at a lesser rate than with CTCs bond, so you may in debt for over 15 years, this will increase the amount you have to pay back because of interest, so you will be looking at perhaps £150,000 out of your salary. That is certainly not an option for me. You may be in £110 500 worth of debt without even getting a job, nightmare! A position I know a few people to be in. Only 1/3 of people who get fATPLs in the UK get a job every year. The CTC scheme is the most cost effective and least risky way of getting an airline job. Fact.
Last edited by Mooney12; 28th Jun 2004 at 14:12.