The CTC Wings (Cadets) Thread - Part 2.
Join Date: Nov 2015
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Cadet applied, and got an interview, that is different..
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Join Date: Nov 2017
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Does anyone have any recommendations for pre-course reading?
I have six months until I start with L3 and have been given access to my Padpilot ATPL iBooks. Do any current or previous cadets have any recommendations on particularly hard topics/ concepts that would be beneficial getting my head around before starting.
I have six months until I start with L3 and have been given access to my Padpilot ATPL iBooks. Do any current or previous cadets have any recommendations on particularly hard topics/ concepts that would be beneficial getting my head around before starting.

Join Date: Apr 2018
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I would be in the same position as you Benshaw. I don't have a PPL so might be behind the curve to begin with.
Does anybody know when CTC might be sending cadets to Portugal?
Does anybody know when CTC might be sending cadets to Portugal?
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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Does anyone have any recommendations for pre-course reading?
I have six months until I start with L3 and have been given access to my Padpilot ATPL iBooks. Do any current or previous cadets have any recommendations on particularly hard topics/ concepts that would be beneficial getting my head around before starting.
I have six months until I start with L3 and have been given access to my Padpilot ATPL iBooks. Do any current or previous cadets have any recommendations on particularly hard topics/ concepts that would be beneficial getting my head around before starting.
2. Don't touch PadPilot until you start the course, its utterly pointless. You might think you can get ahead but you can't.
3. Go buy Pukka Pads, coloured pens, highlighters, Post-It notes, a medium size whiteboard with drywipe pens, mechanical pencils and a big laminated world map for your room.
4. Go see all your mates/family beforehand and have a laugh and relax. I went on holiday before starting and it was great because I started nice and relaxed and in a good frame of mind.
5. Get to know your course mates on the first day. Having a social on the first Friday is crucial as its the only real time you can go out and have a laugh as a CP until Module 1 is over. Its astonishing how much the performance varies between CPs that gel well and those that don't. I got lucky and my CP really get on. Your course mates really do drag you through.
6. Keep positive. There is an awful lot of moaning that goes on that you will hear from CPs ahead of you. Most of it is attributed to EASA exam stress, but there is some discontent about the dreaded delays at the end of ground school. Ignore it all, you are 6 months and 14 exams away from finishing Ground school so your only job is to work hard and get good results. I have heard the word "sausage factory" banded about a lot, while its an unkind name there is an awful lot of guys and girls being put through the school, and the pace is relentless. Every cadet is all guilty of a moan at one time or another; just remember to not let it drag you down and try be the fattest and tastiest sausage in the whole factory!
7. Enjoy it where you can. Yes some things will seem so abstract that you wonder how on earth you will ever pass an exam on it, but the key is to keep chipping away at it and it will all fall in to place. The subjects are genuinely interesting for the most part and the instructors are genuinely great, you will have a laugh in lessons.
Good luck.
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Any improvement on the utterly horrendous delays inflicted on the flying programme? Is it getting any better?
Any update on the Portuguese operation?
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Join Date: Aug 2018
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Even those on MPL courses are seeing huge delays despite needing to be at the airlines. Those of us on Wings have little hope of avoiding months of delays, without the option of getting a job in the meantime.
Join Date: Nov 2017
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To add to the above. Some friends of friends have literally been told, having done 9 months training at an extremely slow pace in Bournemouth, that they are to go out to New Zealand and do their CPL there.
It seems it gets worse and worse for those guys and girls over at L3 by the day. The RAF situation is the main cause of the Bournemouth woes. I hear those guys fly Monday to Friday every day whereas L3 guys barely get a flight a fortnight.
It seems it gets worse and worse for those guys and girls over at L3 by the day. The RAF situation is the main cause of the Bournemouth woes. I hear those guys fly Monday to Friday every day whereas L3 guys barely get a flight a fortnight.
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Unfortunately management can't see in front of their nose, which results in huge backlogs at various stages. Then you get told of being stood down for some weeks or months. Then the company buys out a new facility and releases a press release along the lines of 'we are aware of the delays, this is us dealing with it'. Of course this doesn't help the people that have just been delayed as it takes time to get a new place up and running.
Then they convince many more aspiring pilots to join, then further overload with RAF people.
Repeat the process.
What's happening with the RAF ?
The RAF cadets were only due to start in August 2018, so I would suggest any ‘Bournemouth woes’ prior to August are due to some other cause.
One hundred RAF students over three years according to the L3 and RAF press releases, to receive multi-engine CPL/IR courses, following basic flying training with the RAF. ..............
https://www.pilotcareernews.com/l3-t...or-raf-pilots/
It seems likely this group of students is being trained at Bournemouth on the DA42, on a hastily competed contract, necessitated by failure of the RAF to fund and procure enough crystal balls for their now civilianised flying training system (MFTS)
LFH
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