In reply to A&C:
Initial selection process fee: £200 odd.
AQC cost £6.5K
Well worth the cost given I'd paid over £5K to CAE for their MCC in the past which was a (by far) inferior course and consisted of being shouted at by instructors followed up by being messed about for the Ryanair interview and which entailed a sim-check that was never meant to happen! CAE, if anyone, personify the "take your cash and run" attitude!
In reply to Kerosine:
You've hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned. Lesser of two evils indeed! Should I avoid paying CTC and try approach airline companies indepenantly, run the risk of passing an interview, forking out for a TR and then possibly getting the heave ho a mere month later (which has happened to people I know that did their training at the same time as me)?
How about RyanAir where you have to pay for an overly expensive TR, get paid cadet rates for 6months... and then told to wait for a call? This may be unsubstantiated... but can I afford to run the risk??
CTC's sponsored TR may not be "free" in many ways (between the low pay that's offered for the first six months and the cost of the AQC et al.) but critically, it does mean:
- I don't need to find £25K-£30 for a TR. Cash is King as they say!
- CTC have a vested interest in seeing me pass which RyanAir and other independant trainers may not (... 20 hours in the TR course... "Sorry old chap, you're just not cutting the mustard!" Off you go with neither a partial refund nor anything to show for your efforts!)
- As (pray God not IF!) and when the market picks up, I'm in a decent positions with a reputable company who's business interests centre on placing pilots - to that end, someone is working on my behalf trying to find me a job.
- I'm in a hold pool but can still explore other opportunities anyway. Surely you agree that's increasing my odds?
As I said, maybe I'm a fool for trusting CTC... but I'm of the belief that they are, quite frankly, my best bet and a decent lot!
