Guild of Air Pilots Scholarships - one applicant's story
One of our regular contributors has written about his experience to encourage and help others.
When I heard about the GAPAN scholarships, I already had a CPL(H) and was hour-building towards the (then) 300hr mark to start an FI course. The appeared at what seemed like an ideal time… but would I have my hour-building completed by the (then) application date of April 8th?
The aim behind the scholarship is quite simple, and I quote: ‘to help those wishing to pursue a flying start to their career – with no strings attached.’
Application Form
I downloaded the application form from the GAPAN site (www.gapan.org) and it seemed like pretty standard stuff really – contact details, have you got the necessary hours and qualifications etc.
There were 2 short writing pieces to include
· Please give two examples of evidence of your skills of Leadership, Responsibility and Achievement’
· ‘Explain why you are applying for this scholarship’ - ie because I’m skint!
My best advice that I can give about these pieces – be honest! The selectors have been around the block a couple of times – they can certainly detect bullsh***rs.
If called for interview, you are asked to bring a character reference with you. This probably carries more weight than you might imagine so try and find someone with a connection with GAPAN if you can. A ‘Master’ or ‘Warden’ signature would be useful. ;-)
Although I sent my application by the closing date, I hadn’t quite fulfilled all of the criteria. I didn’t quite have 300TT (because I was still in the process of hour building) so my application was initially rejected with a standard ‘Thanks, but come back next year’. So I got straight on the phone to try and plead my case.
This was my first contact with the wonderful R, who runs things at the Guild at an office level. She had a word with ‘the powers that be’ and they allowed my application to stand on one condition – I must have the hours by the time of the interview (if I was called).
I’m not saying this situation will ever repeat itself but it certainly goes to show the extent that the Guild was willing to go to in order to help a ‘basket case’ such as myself!
Because of the rubbish weather over that winter in the UK (I’d only flown 30 hours in the previous 3 months), my only real option was to jump on a ‘plane to Florida in order to fly 70 hours in 5 weeks. Quite busy when you’re used to an hour a day at the time! But I guess that at least this helped me to ‘demonstrate a serious ambition and ability to pursue an aviation based career’ (another requirement from the application form).
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I managed to get the required flight time and was lucky enough to be called for interview.
Interview
You are asked to prepare a 10 minute talk on a subject of your choice.
The best advice I can give on this matter: don’t pick anything helicopter or aviation related because I can guarantee that the selectors will know more about the topic that you ever will.
I’m guessing that the selectors use this talk to see if you can demonstrate basic instructional skills: ie can you put across your info clearly and succinctly?, is it organised (is there a beginning, middle and end?) and can work to a time frame (ie 10mins +/- 3 mins)? – all skills that I’ve subsequently discovered are vital to good instruction.
All the interviews were held on the same day in May at the Guild’s offices in central London. The interview itself was a reasonably relaxed affair - well, as relaxed as it can be when there’s 10 grand riding on it!
The format of the interview was as follows:There were 2 selectors/interviewers – one ex-AAC and one ex-RN rotary.
First, I was asked to give my presentation. One asked some initial questions whilst the other checked my license and logbook.
Then came what I would consider to be some pretty standard questions – Why do you want to be a pilot? Why should we give you the scholarship? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Tell us about yourself etc.
(There were a couple of other slightly more testing questions but I don’t want to spoil ALL of the surprises!) It probably lasted 30 minutes and it certainly wasn’t a ‘grilling’. Once again, the best advice I can give is: Be yourself and don’t try to bullsh** them because they’ll see straight through it.
Anyway, a few days later, I received a letter to say that I had been granted the Weetabix GAPAN FI(H)(R) Scholarship.
Excellent news!
I started my FIC course 3 weeks later and passed the FI test about 6 weeks after this.
Within 4 days of finishing the course, I applied for a job advertised in Helidata, was offered it and have been working as a pro pilot ever since.
So the Guild’s original aim had come to fruition – with only a CPL, I had realistically no chance of getting a job. With the Guild’s help, I had finally vaulted the final hurdle from being a ‘wannabe’ to being a ‘gonnabe’.But the icing on the cake was still to come. As an award winner, I was invited to the Guild’s annual Trophies and Awards Banquet held at the historic Guildhall in the City of London the following October.
Myself and the other scholarship winners had a very small part to play in proceedings but I felt very privileged to be involved with such a grand affair. There was a brief presentation ceremony and photographs before the dinner but the highlight of my evening came during the dinner itself - a round of applause for all the scholarship winners from the gathered 600 or so of the great and the good of the aviation world before the speeches and other awards were presented.
And suffice to say that, once I’ve paid off a few more of my training loans and got a bit more experience under my belt, I shall certainly be applying for membership of the Guild. They were willing to help me so hopefully I can repay that aid some time in the future.
I hope that this gives a brief insight in to the application process and the workings of the part of the Guild that I had contact with.
If you are considering applying, don’t delay – the closing date for this year’s applications is 6th April.
And the best of luck to all.
Application Forms here:
www.gapan.org
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