I haven't been on this forum for what must be a few months now... if you ont mind, i'll briefly summarise my thoughts...
last june i graduated from university with a 2.1 hons in microbiology. i had always liked the idea of becoming a pilot, and in my last year at university, is started researching the means to achieving the job... july came, and i applied for the CTC Wings course, having inquired about it some 2 years earlier and after reading just about every thread on this forum regarding CTC, they seemed like the best FTO - i passed Stage 1, no suprises, i had what i needed in this respect...I was still skint from a tortuous final year at uni, so gathering together the 200 odd quid to book stage 2 was a challenge, and at the time, it went against logic to do it, as the little voice in my head said;' statistically, you have approx 2% chance of being selected, and you are going to spent mor ethan you're last pennies on a subjective selection?'... regardless i booked it...
While signing up to science recruitment agencies and going to interviews for graduate jobs, i studied, ****ing hard, my phase 2 was on september 9th/08, and that gave me 2 months to absorb as much info regarding the aviation industry as i could. I bought and read books, sent emails out to every flight operator and airport in the country/region requesting work experience (with little joy thanks to religous extremism). I bought maths books and every night i spent hours just doing arithmetic as i knew that this was the weakest chink in my armoury. i had never flown a plane before, so i sold some of my belongings to get a few hours on my logbook and instantly knew i was doing the right thing. i spent an open day at newcastle's brand new ATC operation, and boy was that a great day. even on the journey down to southampton, i flew with easyjet one way, i could only afford the plane ticket there, so i could quiz the pilot after we reached stansted, i took the megabus back on a journey from hell...
The phase 2 was gripping... i arrived in southhampton the day beforehand, as i live in newcastle, so had a bloody long way to go, and wanted a good night's sleep - the facilities at the manor were spotty dog, everyone was freindly and the bed was very comfortable, but bugger me - was i nervous.i sepnt all night doing mental arithmatic, and revising how many 767s BA had, and where they flew etc, i gave myself 4 hours sleep so i could spend a further couple of hours in the morning revising.the next day, people started arriving for selection, and we were split off into two groups; i would be doing my group excercises first, and Pilapt second - i wasn't sure if i prefered this, or vice versa! the excercises were fun, and you had to try very hard to remain composed, behaving like they want you to behave...after this there was a break, and we got to know our rivals a little better, some had degrees, some didnt, some had PPLs, most didnt. instantly, you could weed out the ones you knew had already screwed up, and just talking to them validated your original suspicions that they had not prepared one little bit for the days proceedings, but never mind...
Next was pilapt, now, in an interview situation, i like to look smart, this means suit; tie; quality shirt (with cufflinks) etc- had i known the pilapt test would be so absrbing, i'd rather have worn a string vest! sweating as i was as, i peeled layer off after layer, i worked my way through the maths questions, not sure if i'd cocked up or not - you dont get much time. as for pilapt, a lot of it was ok, my favourite being where you had to fly through the boxes - my recent purchase of Fligt SimX probably got me through that one! the last task was truly an ordeal, even though i tried as hard as i could, no preparation could prepare you for the absolute assault on your mental capacity as you counted down, notifying exceptions in sequence, whilst simultaneously localising a crosshair, and identifying shapes, colours and numbers correctly. tough stuff and it didnt get any better during lunch...
Now... for 200 odd quid, i kind of expected a little more than some slices of ham and potato salad, but regardless, i wasnt much in the mood for food as i heard recantations of the other peoples experiences - the difficult ones to hear were the, 'oh the maths questions were sooo easy!' and 'i did my pilapt in about 10 minutes'. i tried to ignore it, but once we were led into the room where we were told that some would be sent home, some sent home and invted back for reapplication, and some going through to phase 3, the nerves really started tugging... the names were read out; 8 people sent into different rooms before finally mine, and a freindly austrian's were mentioned. so me, and this other chap were looking at each other (dont worry, it doesnt get mills and boon), thinking the same thing - out of the 14 candidates, some of which were very strong, there was no way that only us two made the cut, therefore, we were going home...
The lady that held the presentation that morning (through which i fell asleep several times and hoped no-one noticed, which they did) came in with a clipboard and a kindly expression upon her face, 'now, you know not everbody can get through, so i wont beat around the bush because its not fair on your emotions...' i nodded acceptingly- 'buggeration', i thought... 'congratulations, you passed phase 2!'
Couldnt believe it, i think my grin was wider than the fireplace, i immediately shook the hand of the austrian wo i'd later find out was called Michael...After what seemed like 30 seconds, the unseccessful candidates came through, and we chatted for a bit, some people being a little rude, but others being really nice and encouraging.
The interviews shortley followed, and the girl that interviewed me was very... 'appealing'... anyway, it was a very comfortable interview - i stumbled in a few areas, clearly not giving the right answer, but trying my best non the less, i felt pessimistcally opimistic. that was it, we'd find out how we'd get on in a couple of days, i took the train back to london with michael, we had a pint and i took the worst bus ride in history home- i'd had 4 hours sleep in the ast 36 hours by this point, and sitting next to a horrendously fat and smelly person, with my knees up to my chin due to economical seating arrangements was not going to improve the sleep deficit.
Two days later, i recieve the email i didnt want to see, i hand't been successful, but they felt i was close, so i could comeback in 6 months time for another go - this was a pivotal moment. I emailed Michael to see how he got on, almost sure that this guy was a dead cert - he flew thru pilapt and already had many hours on even MEPs! But apparently not, not even an invitation to try again whcih was very puzzling.After a couple of weeks, my assesor sent me some constructive criticism of the areas i needed to improve on - the main being my knowledge of CRM - i was a little puzzled at this, seeing as CRM is nothing you couldnt be taught whilst on a course, never the less, i embarked on a few routes to educating myself on the matter, namely buying the book 'The Naked Pilot' - a good book detailing the psychology behind air disasters. this book turned out to be dream shattering.
I came across the chapter which was based on pilot fatigue, and it drilled every single negative thing about flying into my brain - the hours, the monotony, the illness, the rotas, the missing of childrens birthdays, the divorce rate and stress... but most critical? the statistic that the 60%+ of pliots never reach retirement age. i'm not scared of crashing, but you have to ask, in an industry where you are fervently checked on medical grounds, can the job be so bad that heart disease and strokes reduce your life expectancy by 10-15 years? bugger that! add to that the section where the author mentions sleeping during flights - while i was at uni, i was known as mr sleepy, i couldnt get through 1 lecture without falling asleep, regardless of the time, and it is still the case today as i recently found out so how would i manage a transatlantic flight at night with the soothing whirr of jet engines and a cnfortablly heated flight deck?
After thinking long and hard, i've pretty much dropped the idea of being a commercial pilot - i think i'd get through the exams no problem, and i dare say i might enjoy the job for a few years, but i think i know myself that in the long run, i dont want to spend a life changing sum of money, gambling on whether i will a) find a job, and b) enjoy it. Just after my selection at CTC, i took an interview for an R&D job with one of the worlds biggest blue chip company's and was lucky enough to be successful, they say that with this particular company, you have more chance of getting into harvard, and perhaps in that case, CTC... with a reasonably secure graduate job with a sound future, looking back i do wonder about the what ifs, and whereas had the recession (which had ony just began to take affect last year) not happened, i might have been chewing my ear, now i look back and think... thank ****ing god. wondering about those ppor sods in the holding pool... i still have the option of reassesment, so who knows what will happen, one thing is for sure, i'll get a PPL, becuase flying is just the cats tats.
Sorry for length, hopefully i'll have inadvertantly answered a few n00b questions in advance, and give an opinion that isnt prejudicial at all on any FTOs... and for anybody that says "well if just took a book to put you off, then you cant really have wanted it much in the first place", can boil their heads...
Last edited by EvelcyclopS; 6th Jul 2009 at 16:58.
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