***new Pprune Cadet Type Rating Course***

[Danny]

Good news and bad news...

First the good news:

PPRuNe are happy to announce another cadet type rating scheme in conjunction with Astraeus. Four successful candidates will be type rated on the Boeing 757, line trained and will gain valuable line experience flying the many and varied routes that Astraeus fly to.

Minimum requirements are that applicants hold a UK CAA or JAR fATPL. Successful candidates will have to put up £3000 which will be held by the PPRuNe Fund Cadet Scheme Account and paid back to them over the six months of the contract. They will also receive Flight Duty pay plus £500 a month towards living expenses from the PPRuNe Fund.

After the six month period, the cadets should have approximately 300-400 hours on type. Subject to mutual agreement between the cadet and Astraeus a permanent contract will be offered. Should Astraeus decide that they cannot offer a permanent contract then the cadet would be free to take their type rating and experience elsewhere with no further obligation to Astraeus.

As with the previous PPRuNe/Astraeus cadet type rating scheme, the PPRuNe fund would like the opportunity for the successful cadets to put back into the fund so that others may benefit from future schemes. Cadets would be expected to enter into an agreement that once they have successfully gained permanent employment as a pilot with their type rating they would repay to the PPRuNe fund at a rate of £100 a month the sum of £5000.

The bad news:

Successful candidates have to be able to start the ground school on the 21st January 2005.

That's it!

As it is such short notice, I require anyone applying for assessment to hold a valid UK CAA or JAA fATPL and be able to confirm that should they be successful that they could start a full time B757 type rating course on the 21st January 2005. Also, they must confirm that they are able to deposit £3000 into the escrow account which would be repaid to them at £500 per month.

Assessment for cadets will take place in the LGW area on 15th January where 8 candidates will be selected for simulator assessment. Four successful candidates will be offered the B757 type rating course and temporary contract employment with Astraeus. Date for the simulator assessment will be notified.

Time is of the essence and because of the short notice we understand that many of you will not be eligible to apply. Those of you who are in a position to apply please email me at [email protected] with the following information:

Name, address, age.
Total flight hours.
A very brief summary of your experience and background.

Nothing more is required at this stage and due to pressure of work and other commitments I cannot enter into dialogue. Please be patient and bear with me.

To avoid the inevitable harranguing that some posters feel they have to get off their chests, no money has to be put up by anyone except the final four successful candidates after their course has started. For information on the previous PPRuNe/Astraeus Cadet TYpe Rating Scheme please use the search functions of this website.

[AIRWAY]

Danny,

Congratulations once again :ok: Very good news indeed, something that the industry needs and good luck to all that will be applying.

These opportunities are rare so let's make the most of it.

Regards,
Airway
:8

[Sensible]

This is a superb and unique opportunity for four aspiring FO’s to achieve their ambitions of becoming flight crew. Many people including InFinRetirement, Hamrah and Capt. PPRuNe have worked very hard to provide these opportunities for PPRuNers and I for one hope that these truly genuine opportunities are taken up in the spirit in which they are offered. It is worth bearing in mind that many wannabees will never achieve their ambitions of becoming commercial pilots in spite of obtaining FATPL’s. The road to the flight deck is more difficult than many PPRuNers ever imagine in their worst nightmares. Four of you WILL win a unique opportunity. It is simply an opportunity for employment in the industry which you aspire to, accept it for what it is and go for it!

I know that InFinRetirement especially has put an awful lot of work over a number of years into getting the PPRuNe fund up and running. It is a genuine fund, independent of Ashtraysareus and which is intended to enable PPRuNers to achieve a foothold on the ladder to the left hand seat.

[flite idol]

Great opportunity! The best of luck to those fortunate enough to be in a position to apply. The folks that set this up deserve credit for their hard work, a genuine effort to pull some PPRuNer`s on board!

[calypso]

I was one of the original 5 cadets and I absolutely recommend this scheme.

I remember reading an advert such as this one three years ago and settling down to write the loooong application form, it took me about five hours as I recall. I had a friend staying for a few days; him and my wife kept moaning and asking when I would be finished so we could go out for a few beers. One step led to the next and suddenly I was facing the sim in a weeks time. I was soo penniless I could not afford any sim time to practice. I trotted off to WHsmith and bought a copy of MS FS 2002 and a top notch joystick. I could not afford even this modest outlay so I told the cashier "is for my nephew, can I return it if his computer is not powerful enough to run it?" I put in 8 hours everyday flying the profile we where given out of Manchester. It was bloody hard at first with the tiny EADI and the oversensitive joystick but practice makes perfect. When I sat at the sim it was almost easy compared to the one at home. At least the screens where much bigger and the controls had more feel.

The day after the sim I had a lost call on my phone. I called the number with trepidation and spoke to Mrs Hamrah then to Hamrah himself. I cracked it, the chance was mine to take. I must admit it has been hard at times but above all great fun. The learning curve almost vertical at times, the people great, the destinations varied and challenging. It was a great opportunity and so if you are, like I was, wondering where to go with your few hundred hours and FATPL. Get stuck in, tell your mates to wait, tell your girlfriend you will be a while yet and get stuck into that application form. It worked for me...

BTW I did go back to WHsmith and told them that, sadly, my nephews computer was only a 486 with 1mb of ram so the sim did not run. They where very understanding. I always buy my magazines from them now.

[no sponsor]

PPrune is to be congratulated and saluted for such a great opportunity.

Not an age restriction in sight!

Perhaps next time for me. I will be qualified in June.

[Heliport]

calypso

Congratulations, but .....

I wonder if the other 'penniless' candidates you beat in the competition - or potential employers - will admire you for your initiative in successfully cheating WHS, or just have doubts about your honesty and integrity.

You clearly think the end justified the means because you got one of the cadetships, and may think I'm being harsh and old-fashioned, but professional pilots are expected to have honesty and integrity as well as good flying skills.

Behaving dishonestly is never good, but boasting about it on a public forum when you were one of only five cadets, and could easily be identified from your previous posts on PPRuNe, shows a serious lack of judgment.


Heliport

[salapilot]

Danny, Hamrah and Co......... THANKS !!!

I've been a long campaigner for a repeat of this scheme and i'm really pleased that this will happen again........writing my short piece as we speak !!!

sp

[buzzc152]

Do you need an MCC to be eligible or is it included in the TR course ?

Buzz

[reverserunlocked]

Heliport, you're being a tad oversensitive.

I don't feel Calypso was bragging about 'cheating' WH Smith. On the contrary, his post was quite touching, and spelt out the lengths that the truly committed will go to in order to reach their dreams. How different is this to someone who's broke but desperate but for a new job buying a new suit, only to take it back after the interview, just so that they can look the part on the day? Shows initiative if you ask me.

If I was penniless after shelling out fifty grand on an ATPL and all that came between me and a career was a lousy free copy of FS2002 then I'd do whatever it took. You do realise that WH Smith would have simply repackaged the game and sold it to someone else?

Desperate times, desperate measures old chap. I don't think the fraud squad will be banging on Calypso's door anytime soon.

RU

[calypso]

Helyport,

I little harsh I think, in any case this thread is not about your moral righteousness (we all know you are above reproach) or my sin of returning a CD at WHS (who knows, one day I may even browse a magazine and not buy it). It is about the PPrune Cadet scheme. Far from boasting I was illustrating the point that people will find obstacles and problems and it is important to try to overcome them. You imply that I got ahead of other candidates by returning the CD, that is fuzzy logic. Surely the point is that I got ahead because of the hours of practice I put in.

So back to the thread. This is a very good scheme. I recommend it from experience. Time is short, neither Hamrah nor Danny nor anybody else will come to your house and offer you a job. It is up to you get it and this an excellent opportunity.

C

[Fly747]

Heliport you are sad!
Good on the guy for getting off his ass and succeeding.
I took years of perseverence and now fly the "queen of the skies".
I also get copy software from HKG and delight in ripping off Mr Gates.
So there, stick that in your trumpet.

[pjdj777]

I was also one of the five cadets three years ago. It gave nme a great opportunity and to date a really good career.

It is great news that this scheme is back, all the best to everyone who is going for it, be yourselves and enjoy the experience, flying with Astraeus is a real laugh, wierd destinations and lots of variety.

[randomair]

Hello,

I've already E-mailed the details required a few days back, however I was wondering if anyone could tell me when the chosen few will be informed?

Just bearing in mind that the selections in Gatwick will be on the 15th!!!geez

Cheers

[Danny]

We will only accept applications up to 1900 UTC on Monday 10th January 2005. Anyone sending after that time will not be eligible for consideration.

Applicants will be informed later tomorrow night whether they have been successful. A reminder that the assessment day will be on Saturday 15th January 2005. We will be inviting 25 applicants to the assessment day and we will be selecting 10 to undergo a simulator assessment, probably on the B737 sim some time during the week following the assessment. We have decided to increase the number of sim assessments from 8 to 10. The final four cadets will be chosen after the sim assessment to begin ground school on the 21st January 2005.

Please remember to let anyone you know who would be elligible and availabe to post send me their email by 1900 UTC tomorrow. Anyone who is not eligible, ie. does not hold a valid UK CAA or JAR fATPL or Class One medical, should not send their details as they will not be considered.

At the time of this post I have received 168 valid applications. They have been sent from 12 different countries. Please remember to keep the email short and to the point. Read the first post in this thread to see what I am asking for. Some people are attaching CV's. If you are going to attach a CV, please do a bit of research on what information is important and what isn't and rearrange it as necessary. There are plenty of posts that are searchable on here with excellent advice.

Thank you to everyone who has applied so far.

[Danny]

With less than an hour to go to the cut off time, I can confirm that we have had over 300 applicants. Successful applicants will be invited for the assessment day on Saturday 15th January.

Also, I have just had confirmed that we will be able to assess 14 candidates at the British Airways simulator at Cranebank, Heathrow on Monday and Tuesday the 17th and 18th of January. We have two six hour sessions available and I'm grateful to Hamrah that we will be able to give even more of you a chance to experience first hand the selection process.

So, to recap; We will be inviting 25 of you for an assessment day on Saturday 15th January and out of those 25 we will be selecting 14 of you for a simulator assessment on either Monday 17th or Tuesday 18th January. The four successful cadets will be starting B757 ground school on the 21st January. Good luck.

[biminiflyer]

danny
can you check your pm's?

thanks

biminiflyer

[celtflyer]

O man the suspense is KILLING me, Have people being informed yet????? will we all know by tonight? I keep running to the computer to check. Reminds me of ground results day.

[Crashlanding]

biminiflyer does this mean you are on for saturday or are you also tyring to find out if the results have gone out too

[mjc9967]

....you sure hit the nail on the head about groundschool (hog) day!!!

killing isnt it??? :uhoh:

[Tim_Q]

Likewise celtflyer, just keep hitting that refresh button! :ugh:

[TheFlyingDJ]

Fingers crossed :)

the F5 button is about to come off my keyboard ;)

[mikepops]

Has anyone received any word yet? :confused:

[biminiflyer]

crash landing

Neg nothing to report just another sad lunatic sitting here kicking the cat and the wife in frustration at waiting to hear.....

sod it im off to the spare room for a sleepless night

:mad:

[Blue Bug]

So...go on, who got lucky?
(not me....:sad: )

BB

[TheFlyingDJ]

Out of all the people I have........ unfortunately not been chosen.

better luck next time i guess..

Those who will be there, good luck to all of you!

Lets hope there's more like this to come :ok:

[speedbird145]

i didnt get chosen either but it would be nice to know what experience the people that got chosen had and how many hours they had etc.

[mjc9967]

I agree - it would be great have an idea of the successful profile...

oh well - I suppose even if everybody was the best natural flyer in the world there'd have to be 295 disappointed naturals....the numbers are the numbers!

..grateful to have been in it at least....and isn't this experience soooo much better than the usual??? (hanging on for weeks, no replies etc)

well done to those who go through....be proud for that if nothing else i say!

I reckon thanks are due to Danny et al for slogging through it all so quickly so we could have the reply!

Good luck everyone.

:ok:

[Danny]

Decisions made. All emails that were received within the deadline have been replied to and anyone who didn't have their email configured properly may not receive a reply as I've had two bounce already!

So, check your email. Good luck.

Ages ranged from 22 - 43
Hours ranged from 240 - 6000

There was no upper or lower limit to hours or age. It came down to experience, presentation and what we hope will be the ability to complete a B757 type rating course. That's not to say that those who were unsuccessful this time could not complete a B757 TR course. We just had to narrow it down to a manageable number. Please remember, only four will make it to the course out of nearly 330 (plus the ones still arriving but not being considered) who applied. No thanks to those of you who sent umpteen copies of your emails.

What did stand out was those of you who attached CV's, how many were poorly formatted. In some emailsand CV's it was almost impossible to find out hours. In some, the level of detail was uneccesary with breakdown into minutes and tenths.

SOme CV's were well presented and it was fairly obvious who had taken note of the requirements. THe graduates of the major schools had obviously had lessons in CV presentation. In a nutshell, your CV needs to be ONE page only. Your flying experience and hours has to be the most noticable thing on there. Other achievements such as how well you did in flight school are secondary and anything else is down the list.

Can you imagine how frustrating it is to go through a pile of CV's and to have to search through half of them for the relevant information. I'm just suprised and disappointed that some of you haven't done your research very well.

Needless to say, it didn't matter if you attached a CV or not. What was important was how you 'sold' yourself to us with a very short email detailing only the important bits.

We hope to be running some more of the old PPRuNe seminars later this summer. They used to be very successful and gave wannabes a lot of insight into what was required of them and how to go about getting noticed. Watch this space for more information on them.

Thanks again to everyone for your applications. I just wish we could have accepted more but the number of places is finite.

[Hamrah]

Guys and Girls,

when the dust has settled, Danny and I will put something together detailing the sort of things we looked at, and the sort of things it is worth thinking about when it comes to :-

1) Gaining Experience

2) Writing an " attention grabbing" CV

3) Things to avoid

Can I ask that you give it a bit of time to let us manage the rest of the process and get the cadets training first?

Thanks to everyone who applied.

H

[mjc9967]

That would be marvellous...thanks again guys.

[Kerropi]

Unfortunatly I was not selected for the Type rating scheme... better luck next time :(

There were only 320 people applying for this scheme? what does this tell us... is this a lot ??

First I thought with all those unemployed pilots there will be at least 1000 applicants...

K.

[wobblyprop]

there will be some people who couldn't apply because they couldn't start the type rating course in 2 weeks.

[jthall]

absolutely right!

i would also have loved to apply, but i need to give a months notice in my current job. As much as i dislike my current job i am not about to walk out and risk crap references. After all Astraues will want references from employers.

But what an opportunity this is - good luck to all those who applied (i did mention to my boss about leaving a week on monday - she actually thought i was joking!)

[Nereus]

good luck to all those who were in a position to apply.

If I could, I know I would!

[Dusty_B]

Oh no.

That'll serve me right for not checking this forum since Friday lunchtime. How things can change in a long weekend!...

I feel quite sick now :sad:

Have fun on the sim guys, good luck!

[loftustb]

I know two people who knew nothing about this until I told them.

One of them "couldn't be bothered coz I won't get it anyway" and the other "couldn't find it on pprune"!!!!!

Oh well, cuts down the competition for the rest of us who are out there actively researching and following up every opportunity.

[Danny]

In the less than 90 hours that this scheme was advertised and considering the time limitations on being eligible to start, I think that 320 is an impressive number. It just goes to show you how quickly things do happen in this business. There are still applications being sent. I just wish people would read the threads a bit more carefully.

As for anyone not checking PPRuNe or even knowing about it, well, I do believe it has been mentioned in the past. Something about being in the right place at the right time!

We have our uses! :cool:

[Dusty_B]

Certainly not a whinge on my part Danny - just banging my head against the wall (well, desk actually, got very strange looks from everyone else in the office). :ouch:

It is a complement to you and the PPRuNe team that there are so many wannabes frequenting the forum that even in a weekend (and those that can be bothered) you can get such a huge response. Also, all credit due of course to everyone else who's donated to the Fund to make the scheme available again! :ok:

[Andy_R]

Good luck to those that got through and make sure you grasp the opportunity with both hands. :ok:

[InFinRetirement]

Yes, good luck indeed to all those who have been selected. I wish you all well in the next week or two.

Just to add to the joy that we have bought I have also posted on this forum that we are interviewing 8 students on the 19th. Five of whom have been selected, subject to interview, to receive a BGS course and to have a GAPAN aptitude test at RAF Cranwell, also paid for by the fund.

In the next couple of months we will also join with GAPAN in their annual PPL sponsorships by donating £3000 towards three or four of these. This will be good for PPRuNe and enhance our association with GAPAN.

I personally have been looking forward to this year for a very long time and now that we are giving people their first steps into the airlines I am thrilled to bits.

More will follow. But right now I am desperate to build the fund still further so watch out I may be after your money.

IFR

[Flying Farmer]

Danny many thanks for the opportunity, good luck to those selected.

With the reply was a mime attachment, can any one shed any light on what it is?

FF

[Voidhawk]

The mime-attachment is just the email you originally sent.

[WX Man]

Just read this and I AM KICKING MYSELF!!!!

Available on all those dates...

Money in the bank....

Gatwick 25 mins away from home...

Where was I all the rest of this week? Not checking PPRuNe, that's where!

Lesson learned :\

[carbonfibre]

This is definatley the hardest part, getting the chance to do what we trained for:

Its frustrating but credit to all who managed to get in, i just hope for an opportunity soon like most. I applied for this scheme but like others not this time.

Ill keep chipping away, with an axe if need be. Good luck to those who make the selection grade

:ok:

[Danny]

26 hours after the deadline for accepting applications they are still rolling in. It's fairly obvious some people do not read the threads in great detail which leads on to wonder how they would get on with manuals. Believe me, there are an awful lot of manuals you have to get to know your way around once you are working in a jet job.

Total applications received so far: 357.

[Snoop]

Can't believe I missed out on this.

[Sensible]

I think that the reason for the applications still rolling in is more likely out of sheer desperation rather than inability to read! The volume of applications received is an indication of the sad state of the current job opportunities!:ugh:

[Danny]

Maybe. Just to reiterate though, we are not accepting any applications. Any received are not read. We have selected our candidates for the next stage.

On a slightly different note, it suprised me that so many people use unreliable email ser4vices such as hotmail. Many people who were notified didn't receive their notifications immediately because hotmail decided that it didn't like email from us for whatever reason.

Also, many responses were filtered out by my anti-spam software because of those silly little free ads that many email service providers like to append to your email if you are using their free service. Due to the amount of spam that does the rounds, I have filters that look for advertising and automatically trash emails that have ads in them or appended to them.

I'd like to suggest to all of you out there that should you have to rely on email for important information then you invest in an email service provider that gives you plain vanilla email without all the free ads etc that the other services attach after you send it. It's a tiny investment for something that can be so important. It also makes sure your emails aren't treated as spam by others who have to have fairly high level spam filters in place.

[Flap Sup]

Another rejects question:

How many of the selected are British? Please note that if I was on a selection board, I would probably take as many locals as possible, but just for the sake of my own pride, I would like to hear that most selected were British (from my spelling, it must be painfully obvious to you that I am foreign).

Brgds
Flap Sup

[pjdj777]

And can I just add a note.

I've had a load of PM's from people asking me for advice on how to get into the Astraeus scheme. The vast majority of them have been from people that I don't know. While I'm happy to give advice as much as I can, I have been unable to reply to all of the mails I have received. I apologise for this but I'm currently running around like a blue bottomed fly and only have so much time to spend on line right now.

As I'm no longer with Astraeus, and it's been three years since I got into the cadetship, I feel my advice would be somewhat limited anyway, and I do find it diffifcult to recall what the selection was like (the sim ride was a blur, I honestly can't remember what it entailed!).

So best of luck to all, apologies to those I couldn't reply to but give it your best and learn from it, even if you don't progress. As with all things in aviation, your biggest hurdle is always the next one, so take a good run at it.

[Haul By Cable]

26 hours after the deadline for accepting applications they are still rolling in. It's fairly obvious some people do not read the threads in great detail which leads on to wonder how they would get on with manuals. Believe me, there are an awful lot of manuals you have to get to know your way around once you are working in a jet job.
I was one of the people who heard about this opportunity only a few hours too late. I read the whole thread twice, kicked myself, and moved on only to be convinced by my partner that I should apply anyway in case a couple of people dropped out for whatever reason and you ended up having to pick some replacements.

I thought you would have been one of the first people to advocate not giving up, i.e. let the recruiter decide there's no sodding chance!

Best of luck to all those selected! Let us all know how you get on!

[Danny]

Apologies if my tone was misinterpreted by some. I have nothing against people trying whatever they can to get themselves noticed. There comes a point though when persistence can become a nuisance. You have to be careful. My post about people still applying was an attempt to stop people wasting their time. Believe it or not I am still receiving applications today!

On the point of applying after the deadline in case someone drops out, please remember that we had a huge number who applied before the deadline. In fact, we did have one drop out and a shortlisted candidate was invited to the assessment as a replacement. We were able to choose a substitute from within those applicants that submitted their emails before the deadline. It is a cruel world sometimes but we just set the limits and then sort through the applications.

It is equally frustrating for us when there are so many applicants. We had to choose 26 and using various criteria we narrowed it down. Just because someone wasn't selected doesn't mean that they wouldn't have been able to complete a B757 type rating. It just means that we had to reduce the numbers to something we could cope with on the day. After Saturday there are going to be some more disappointed candidates who are not selected for the sim assessment and after the sim assessments there are going to be more disappointed candidates who don't make one of the four places available on the course.

You can't win them all and the enthusiasm that many of you show is commendable but you also have to learn to live with not always making a success the first time around.