Sitting around, twiddling my thumbs and spending toooooo much time on Pprune!
There is nothing to do really between AQC and getting hauled out of the hold pool. If I knew which aircraft I’m going to be type rated on I'd start studying the type, however I don't and I think I'd confuse myself if I tried learning about the 737, 757 and A320
I do take a PA28 or a C172 out for a spin every few weeks but apart from that I do nothing else aviation related.
It's very difficult to get work because you have no idea of when the call will come. I'm a contract railway engineer and I have picked up little bits of work to keep the money coming in, however most of the work available is either a long term contract or it's for work starting a month or two down the road, neither of which I can accept.
That said, work is picking up for me now which probably means I'll get a call from CTC asking me to start.
I would recommend trying to get yourself some work which you can quickly drop as you have no idea how long you'll be in the hold pool for. For me it will be 3 months by 11th Sept and no sign of being hauled out yet.
Of course, things can change very quickly and it could go back to the way it was in April of this year. I've been told that the guys who passed the April AQC finished on the Friday, had a phone call on the Saturday, went to Luton on the Monday to sign Easyjet contracts and started the type rating on the Wednesday.
SW