Hey everyone, this is my first post on the forum after some (hours and hours) browsing so please be kind.
Ok so here I am on a Friday night, at home, thinking I don't want to waste money on beer when much more fun can be had in the sky...Incidentally I had my first flight experience today in the form of a trial lesson at Cranfield! Wow, never had so much fun!! I thought I'd be scared or nervous of flying but all was fine and I really enjoyed it! Managed to get a good feeling of the controls, I think my hand eye coordination is above average so my stick and rudder control was pretty good. (in my opinion of course!)
The future plan and long term goal is to attend OAA and an gain an fATPL...I have my class 1 medical booked for Wednesday so hopefully that will go through fine then it's decision time!
Long story short; I've just turned 24, i'm a uni grad with a 2.1 (BA) and I have a couple of job offers available to me at the moment. I recently decided that office life was not for me so went for Inspection roles- one in construction and the other for the Health and Safety Executive as a trainee Inspector (had to attend a full day assessment for this one) Starting wages are both mid twenties and as you can imaging the HSE job has great benefits and security.
Now, before I turn these down I obviously want to be sure I have the required aptitude to become a pilot! I can't fit in a GAPAN or OAA skills assessment before the decision has to be made and my main concern is my weakness regarding maths! Obviously I can do most of the basics but I wouldn't say I find mental arithmetic comes easily- I found the tests on the HSE assessment day quite challenging- Numerical Reasoning ones from SHL (similar to those used by banks). This is definitely an area that I can improve on although it is still a concern.
I guess a good question to ask would be how much rapid mental arithmetic is required during flying? or is most of it skills based- the ability to coordinate hands/feet and eyes effectively and scan the instruments etc.
I think I know where my heart is and my heads almost there, I am just a little concerned that I will be passing up on a good job opportunity when I may fail the pilot aptitude tests!
Any thoughts or opinions gratefully received, thanks!