Adding my Two Pence
Hey boys n girls,
Not yet an AQC Holdpooler myself but i'm waiting for an AQC. Did my Phase 3 in September and passed with initial allocation for a AQC on March 5th. There was only 1 other AQC'er in my selection although i have no clue if he got through. Unfortunatly interview times crossed and never got contact details. All you peeps are going to be well into a TR before me (if i pass) but i thought i'd give you the info about what's bringing up the rear and hope that it can help complete some of the CTC jigsaw.
Seems that CTC are being more selective at Stage 1. I got through within a week to stage 1b etc. My training partner during CPL/IR (who has just got a job with Cityjet) didn't get a reply until Nov. Seems CTC are restricting AQC numbers from the offset. I also went through CTC Wings Cadet selection and they are given 'priority' as mentioned before. This is only because airlines can say 'next year i need x amount of pilots'. CTC can turn around and say how many are coming through their integrated scheme and assign them appropriately. We all know that airlines prefer integrated to modular or ab initio (even if we don't like it). To managerial staff CTC Cadets must be perfect as they can budget over a year in advance and know who they are going to get.
I've also had an recommendation to FlyBe, but due to their BACON takeover they've stopped taking people on. I'll be getting an update on their state of play soon. As said before on this thread, it's also been affecting employment all over cos pilots are jumping ship. Pilots are choosing whether to stay with BACON or goin to FlyBe or ESY. Most (according to the forum) seem to be moving on. To be fair, who are airlines going to prefer, the seasoned BACON guys with turbine time or the 250 hr wannabes with an AQC? Unfortunatly it's bad timing that one of the British budget carriers has sold out right over our employment windows. We just have to hang on and hope things sort themselves out. The amount of pilots with jet/turbine time looking for jobs will affect holdpool movement without question.
I'm still happy with the AQC scheme although as with most people on this thread i think the lack of info seems to be dire. I still haven't got the 100% confirmation that i'm on the March course and it took an email to the CTC team to give me a little more reassurance that it still looked ok. A little too close to confort as i have to book off work etc. Also seems weird to have no course material. As mentioned it's a hard course and most sensible people will want to commit time to getting SOPs as slick as possible (at least EOPs) before arriving. How hard would it be to have info online in PDF to download and read through.
Every airline has probs with training capts atm. I know (from staff contacts) that FlyBe had them and Easyjet. As the training capts retired off the top of the ladder captains had to be trained to be training capts before FOs could be trained for command before we could start to be trained as FOs. It's a vicous circle that started with the airlines lack of recruitment after 9/11. A friend had to wait 2 months after her type rating to do her base check. This with the aforementioned BACON buy out has reduced the amount of low houred FOs needed this year. CTC could not have envisioned BACONS demise back in July/August.
Think that this is (although i hope that it isn't) a year that CTC couldn't have foreseen and they're going to be struggling to clear the pool over the next 12 months. I hope i'm wrong for all our sakes. It still remains the most professional outfit for low houred pilots but ultimately seems to need to work on comms with its customers.
CT