When I applied, the character reference only had to be available for the actual interview, therefore you don’t need to send it in the post with the forms.
As I said earlier, I applied for one of the flying instructor rating scholarships, for which you already need to have completed CPL theory as a minimum. This explains why my interview contained higher level theoretical knowledge questions. As this knowledge is not a pre requisite to start a PPL course, it would make sense that the interview for these scholarships may contain a few general questions on aircraft, but surely nothing quite as detailed. But as I say, I did not apply for one of these and therefore am not qualified to say.
If I remember correctly, there were about 60 people applied for the 4 FI scholarships last year. I think about 8-10 got interviews. They did ask me what I knew about GAPAN, so some interesting facts and info would go down well there. I am into History as well, so for me this was all interesting.
One thing I would say is make sure you know your motivations for applying and wanting to fly. Due to the numbers of people wanting the scholarship, this is clearly going to be one of the main things they will look at.
I cannot see them complaining about you applying for more scholarships in subsequent years, but as you need to have at least completed the CPL theory and 200 flying hours to go for the FI scholarship, I think you would have a very very busy year if you wanted to do it in adjacent years.
For my presentation, I used my own personal laptop to convey photographs and pictures to the board. I also used small cards to remind myself of the bulk of the information. As far as I can remember, you need to take everything with you. Pick something which you know about and expect questions about it.
One final thing, don’t be afraid to say that you don’t know to any of the questions, I know I did for at least one of them. Best not to try and guess otherwise you will end up in a hole.