L3 Sponsored FI program

[thepilot91]

Hello fellow aviators, lurking newbie here!

I've tried a fair bunch to find out about the assesssment for the sponsored FI program at L3: Bournemouth that I'm about to attend in 3 days.

Obviously I've asked friends who are instructors at different schools and prepared the best I can my self with the information I got from L3 about the assessment & interview.

But I can't find anyone who has attended such an assessment, nor can I find much about L3/CTCs history and background, except at their own webpage.

So even though it's on very short notice: can anyone shed some light upon this?

- How long does the brief need to be, did you use powerpoint/whiteboard?
-Were there many questions about previously flown aircraft(s)?
-Were there more aptitude tests to be performed at the assessment day ? and were they harder/easier than the online tests?

Kind regards: thepilot91

[MANIK.FL000]

Heard they are so desperate, the assessment is just a formality
Carefull what you're getting yourself into, particularly if going down south

[V737]

Hello,

I was reading your post about L3 with a lot of interest...
Could you give some more details about the interview since you already completed it?

Thank you!

[FlyingDutchman24]

Hey 91,

In relation to V737's recent post, I was also wondering if you could provide and help us out with any information that you've gathered from the assessment. I've sent you a PM but unfortunately the system gave me the heads up that your inbox is full. Thanks for your help!

================================

You can’t use the Private Messaging system, add url links or images until you have an established posting history.

[thepilot91]

Hello dutchman,

Yes sorry as you mentioned a few others have had questions regarding L3, sorry for that. I'll make a reply here of my experience so far in a couple of days.

Hope you can hang tight :)

Kind regards

[pilotsaad]

Hello Guys!
I check the online assessment and I have got an appointment for a call interview.
My question is did you hear anything about the sponsored FI program? I ask many of L3 instructors in LinkedIn but nobody would share his opinion!
I feel it's really strange.

[thepilot91]

Allright guys sorry for not doing this earlier, but there was little intrest in this thread up until very recently.

So I will now try and describe my experience of the whole L3 recruitment process, I'll try and make it structured and easy to read, but I'm no author :8
I will describe almost everything purely out of memory, so there are defenitely details that I wont recall.

Flightdeckfriend.com is where I found out about the position (Sponsored FI program)

I applied online on the L3 website (I think)

Got an email a few days after saying I have progressed to "online tests/assessment", there were a few tips and some info about the tests in the email I got. I'm not gonna talk much about these online tests since everything was fairly straight forward and explained on forehand, just make sure you read instructions and prepare with the preparation material (not much) you are given, BUT above all, make sure that when you do the actual test you have peace and quiet (no distractions) some of the tests require a fair amount of attention.
The tests were peroformed on a site called "cut-e".

A few days (maybe a week) after having completed the online tests I recieved the exciting news that I was being invited to L3 at Bournemouth airport in UK for Assessment and interview. I was told I was going to prepare and perform a pre-flight brief (as if I was an instructor), and perform a flight in the simulator "you will be briefed on this at the day of the assessment". I was to contact them and discuss a date that suited me (a friday or a monday), so we agreed upon the 11th of January 2019.

I travelled to Bournemouth (city) the day before and spent the night in a hotel close to the trainstation woke up early to get prepared (eat breakfast, and buy something to have for lunch at the school) and took a cab to the L3 school at the airport ( ~20 minutes from the trainstation)
I was there around 09.45, the assessment was to start at 10.00, I spoke to someone at the reception and got let in to wait in the "lounge"/"cofferoom"

The Assessment(s):

HR INTERVIEW:

A lady came and picked me up from the lounge, we sat down alone in a room I showed the papers I was required to bring for the assessment,
she asked me a few questions about myself (where are you from? when did you want to become a pilot? what do your parents do for a living? etc.)

She went on to ask more job related questions: what do you know about (CTC)L3? why L3? why should they pick me? why instructor? would I want to remain an instructor for an extended time? etc.
She was really nice and friendly, and the whole interview probably took around 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Back to the lounge...

BRIEF/TECHNICAL INTERVIEW:

After a while a gentleman came and picked me up and we went to his office, we first spoke a little about me, where I come from, my heritage (probably to make me feel comfortable) great guy, had a great sense of humor.
We went on to the brief I was to perform (straight and level flight) I had prepared an approximately 10 minute long brief (and some footage from FSX to demonstrate what I would say in the brief, this was not a requirement). But he started off with saying "this will be more of a conversation rather than you performing a brief", a bit surprised but relieved, we went on to talk about straight and level flight, whats importaint to emphasize as an instructor etc. etc.

Eventually he said he was satisfied with the conversation/brief and I was lead back to the lounge, I was informed that the next step (simulator) I was to "teach something, anything"
This part probably took somewhere 30 minutes to 1 hour.

I waited there for a while before the next gentleman came and picked me up.

SIMULATOR:

We sat down in the DA42 simulator I got a moment to "feel out the aircraft" (I've done all my ME training on a DA42 so I was familiar with the aircraft, even if the simulator was a bit more sensitive) I performed a few turns and stalls.

I took the obvious easy choice to try my best and teach "straight and level flight" I found this segment hard because it was so long ago I actually did that particular lesson in flightschool myself, and there is not much to it (atleast when you have done it all the way through the training) but I did my best to teach it (as if it was to a student) ,we discussed back and forth and he showed me sort of how he would do it.
Simulator didn't take more than 30 minutes maybe.

After that I went back to the lounge, worst part of the day... just sitting there waiting to be called ( you can imagine one starts to really go trough and criticise oneself and how I should have done some things differently) after what felt like an eternity (probably wasnt very long) I got called in as was immediately told that they were pleased with my performance and I would be sent an employment offer for a sponsored FI-course and consecutive employment contract in Bournemouth (with a 3-year bond)
We spoke a little while after that, I had some questions, but I was on my way back to get on the train in bournemouth around 14.30 o' clock.

So am happy to announce that my course will start April 8th!

I hope this wall of text is somewhat understandable and readable, english is not my native tounge.
And I really hope it helps future applicants out, feel free to email me if you have any further questions.

Best of luck!
Regards: thepilot91

[pilotsaad]

Allright guys sorry for not doing this earlier, but there was little intrest in this thread up until very recently.

So I will now try and describe my experience of the whole L3 recruitment process, I'll try and make it structured and easy to read, but I'm no author :8
I will describe almost everything purely out of memory, so there are defenitely details that I wont recall.

Flightdeckfriend.com is where I found out about the position (Sponsored FI program)

I applied online on the L3 website (I think)

Got an email a few days after saying I have progressed to "online tests/assessment", there were a few tips and some info about the tests in the email I got. I'm not gonna talk much about these online tests since everything was fairly straight forward and explained on forehand, just make sure you read instructions and prepare with the preparation material (not much) you are given, BUT above all, make sure that when you do the actual test you have peace and quiet (no distractions) some of the tests require a fair amount of attention.
The tests were peroformed on a site called "cut-e".

A few days (maybe a week) after having completed the online tests I recieved the exciting news that I was being invited to L3 at Bournemouth airport in UK for Assessment and interview. I was told I was going to prepare and perform a pre-flight brief (as if I was an instructor), and perform a flight in the simulator "you will be briefed on this at the day of the assessment". I was to contact them and discuss a date that suited me (a friday or a monday), so we agreed upon the 11th of January 2019.

I travelled to Bournemouth (city) the day before and spent the night in a hotel close to the trainstation woke up early to get prepared (eat breakfast, and buy something to have for lunch at the school) and took a cab to the L3 school at the airport ( ~20 minutes from the trainstation)
I was there around 09.45, the assessment was to start at 10.00, I spoke to someone at the reception and got let in to wait in the "lounge"/"cofferoom"

The Assessment(s):

HR INTERVIEW:

A lady came and picked me up from the lounge, we sat down alone in a room I showed the papers I was required to bring for the assessment,
she asked me a few questions about myself (where are you from? when did you want to become a pilot? what do your parents do for a living? etc.)

She went on to ask more job related questions: what do you know about (CTC)L3? why L3? why should they pick me? why instructor? would I want to remain an instructor for an extended time? etc.
She was really nice and friendly, and the whole interview probably took around 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Back to the lounge...

BRIEF/TECHNICAL INTERVIEW:

After a while a gentleman came and picked me up and we went to his office, we first spoke a little about me, where I come from, my heritage (probably to make me feel comfortable) great guy, had a great sense of humor.
We went on to the brief I was to perform (straight and level flight) I had prepared an approximately 10 minute long brief (and some footage from FSX to demonstrate what I would say in the brief, this was not a requirement). But he started off with saying "this will be more of a conversation rather than you performing a brief", a bit surprised but relieved, we went on to talk about straight and level flight, whats importaint to emphasize as an instructor etc. etc.

Eventually he said he was satisfied with the conversation/brief and I was lead back to the lounge, I was informed that the next step (simulator) I was to "teach something, anything"
This part probably took somewhere 30 minutes to 1 hour.

I waited there for a while before the next gentleman came and picked me up.

SIMULATOR:

We sat down in the DA42 simulator I got a moment to "feel out the aircraft" (I've done all my ME training on a DA42 so I was familiar with the aircraft, even if the simulator was a bit more sensitive) I performed a few turns and stalls.

I took the obvious easy choice to try my best and teach "straight and level flight" I found this segment hard because it was so long ago I actually did that particular lesson in flightschool myself, and there is not much to it (atleast when you have done it all the way through the training) but I did my best to teach it (as if it was to a student) ,we discussed back and forth and he showed me sort of how he would do it.
Simulator didn't take more than 30 minutes maybe.

After that I went back to the lounge, worst part of the day... just sitting there waiting to be called ( you can imagine one starts to really go trough and criticise oneself and how I should have done some things differently) after what felt like an eternity (probably wasnt very long) I got called in as was immediately told that they were pleased with my performance and I would be sent an employment offer for a sponsored FI-course and consecutive employment contract in Bournemouth (with a 3-year bond)
We spoke a little while after that, I had some questions, but I was on my way back to get on the train in bournemouth around 14.30 o' clock.

So am happy to announce that my course will start April 8th!

I hope this wall of text is somewhat understandable and readable, english is not my native tounge.
And I really hope it helps future applicants out, feel free to email me if you have any further questions.

Best of luck!
Regards: thepilot91

Dear!
I am so gald for you.
What do you think about the salary and the benefits ? Is the program involved MEI IRI and SEI?
Kinds

[thepilot91]

The salary isn't anything fancy, it's alright to put food on the table and roof over head pretty much, but there are some benefits (travel benefit, relocation benefit, LOI, etc.) and one have to consider it's a bonded sponsored program when looking at the salary.

But yes I believe the goal for L3 with all the instructors they hire is to fast track them to ME IR instructors as quickly as possible, but I'm not sure yet, time will tell and obviously I'll have to perform well!

[parkfell]

The salary isn't anything fancy, it's alright to put food on the table and roof over head pretty much, but there are some benefits (travel benefit, relocation benefit, LOI, etc.) and one have to consider it's a bonded sponsored program when looking at the salary.

But yes I believe the goal for L3 with all the instructors they hire is to fast track them to ME IR instructors as quickly as possible, but I'm not sure yet, time will tell and obviously I'll have to perform well!

Would you like to give an update 4 months on from your interview.

How was the instructor's course? Was it what you expected? Busy?

[thepilot91]

Would you like to give an update 4 months on from your interview.

How was the instructor's course? Was it what you expected? Busy?


Hi Parkfell,

It was quite intense yes, but I enjoyed it!
I started standardization at the end of July and have now started instructing students, and it feels a bit odd now being the instructing one rather than the student but as the instructor who was doing my standardization says: "It certainly beats working for a living!"
Don't get me wrong, it's hard work and sometimes long days, but you get to fly aircraft for a living! :D