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The CTC Wings (Cadets) Thread - Part 2.

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The CTC Wings (Cadets) Thread - Part 2.

Old 15th Jan 2009, 12:36
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Anyway. I'll be unemployed as the Depression wipes out airline after airline so hold pools and supercars will all become somewhat academic.

People have no idea how bad this will become.
Stop listening to Coldplay!

I'm getting really scared now.
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Old 16th Jan 2009, 05:29
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Recent updates from CTC managment:

As you know, we started type rating training speculatively with a number of Cadets to avoid a potential bulge in the early part of this year and we have recently been able to confirm that all 32 of those Cadets will go onto Base and Line training. What is less certain for the moment is the commitment period from easyJet. By that I mean, at this moment we do not know, indeed easyJet do not know, whether or not those Cadets will be employed at the end of the 6 month Line Training period.
At least they're being open about employment prospects after 6 months...


There is now an opportunity to place a significant number with Aer Lingus at their Gatwick base. Aer Lingus has made a presentation to all concerned and interviews are currently being planned. The airline's intake will be 16 immediately, followed by an additional 16 later in the year. 9 candidates have been planned for interview this week and the remainder will interview in Feb and March
Whether these opportunities materialise is open to debate (form an orderly queue please), however at least the airlines are talking
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Old 16th Jan 2009, 19:29
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Phase 4

Hey people,

I am new to this forum so I do apologise if im firing up an already talked about subject but I was just wondering if any of you can give me a heads up as to the Phase 4 maths aspect, are we talking serious maths while flying or just basic sums. The reason I ask is simply because I understand the basis of Phase 4 but nothing in detail. Any advice or breakdown of events would be awesome...

Thanks,
Icemaan
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Old 16th Jan 2009, 19:58
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You won't get any specific detail because there isn't a specific way the trainer will conduct the flight...

I've heard all sorts of maths questions from addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with a few percentages etc thrown in. Nothing that difficult but challenging all the same.

However, when I did mine, I didn't get one maths question at all....no idea why. Maybe it was because I was asking general questions as we were going so he was satisfied that I had some capacity other than the task in hand, but that's just a guess.

The main theme that I felt I was being tested on was improvement. When we started a steep turn at 8000ft (we were in the dark so couldn't see the ground) it went belly up...i.e. nose up and down, not keeping an attitude, over-trimming, an erratic scan and over compensation on the controls. I did it again and the scan was better...I found a good attitude just above the horizon to keep the nose at and was acutely aware that a few seconds later the back pressure would need to be upped considerably to stop the nose dropping horrifically as it did the first time.

Stay alert and keep the scan going. When you see something going array, correct it slowly whilst carrying on the scan.

Your scan will break down. Trick is to limit the damage it does. As the training Captain said in our briefing..."If I had a pint for every time your scan will break down, I'd crawl out of here on all fours..."

It will also be tailored to your experience.
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 11:22
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Phase 1, phase 2, phase 3...

Hi everyone,

I've only recently joined this forum so I apologise if I appear completely naive by posing a question that has been asked several hundred times. I'm heading down to CTC's selection day shortly following their open day, and I was just wondering if the structure of the pilapt tests, or indeed the day itself and how it is conducted have changed significantly since the accounts provided in the old thread, around the time of summer 2006.
I'm also curious as to whether the questions in the interview are exclusively based around your competence and flying experience etc, or if they ask questions pertaining to the industry and recent developments? If someone could direct me to a recent account of someone's assessment experiences that would be great. Also, are the introductions presented to the entire group or just when you have the one-on-one interview? It seems odd to talk alot about yourself when there's 12 other people waiting to have their turn.

Cheers.
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 14:39
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Get A Head For The Sky

Hi,

I've just read the posts praising this book; can anyone confirm this is a valid and legitimate website, since you can't order it through a bookstore?
For those who have ordered and received this book, did it arrive in good time and in a good condition?

Many thanks, Rob.
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 14:39
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RobStob, look at page one of this thread, still by far the most useful page you will see. As I understand things have changed very slightly but you won't go far wrong with the info you find there.

PAJ, you are on the ball with numbers, its 38 in the pool plus a handful of BA guys with another 10...ish joining in the next few weeks, after that roughly 12 a month is not a bad guestimate, sometimes less. The guys dropped by Easy and Monarch aren't taking cadet jobs as such and neither are ATP guys. WWW stop making up numbers, please!

Speculating on the size of the hold pool tomorrow would be both flawed and a waste of this thread as only a select few actually know. These are hard times for those waiting and for those joining the pool in the near future but what to do. If you are joining CTC tomorrow, you will finish in a different climate so go enjoy NZ!
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 14:41
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Post Selection process

Hi RobStob,

If you trawl back in this thread there are loads of posts similar to yours with some pretty detailed answers.

Basically, phase 1 is essentially being asked to come to an assessment. CTC look at you application and decide whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Phase 2 is when you are invited to Bournemouth to take part in the pilapt computer based assessment . This is quite simple if you've into computer games! You have a joy stick and a pad with four buttons. The early testing is using just the joy stick for example flying what looks like a plane through squares over a course. Another one I remember involved keeping a dot in the centre of some cross hairs. This involves using the joystick to try and keep the dot as close to the centre of the crosshairs. As you advance through the different 'games' it gets more tricky, involving you to listen for certain words and react to them whilst doing these earlier tasks at the same time. Eg you will hear something and have to press one of the four buttons whilst doing the crosshairs game. There's a memory game too, anywhere up to 6 or 7 digits and your given like 10 seconds to remember them.

And then.........you will do the maths test. 15 questions in 15 minutes. These can all be done with basic GCSE maths. You will not have a calculator and unless you can remember how to do long division, long multiplication, decimal division etc you will struggle...I am very much of the calculator era and I had to do some serious brushing up!! I think it was multiple choice, but all the answers are pretty similiar unfortunately.

Stage 3 is pretty good. Before you attend you are sent a set of questions which you must return to CTC prior to your visit back. Things like..Why do you want to be an airline pilot etc... When I was there, I was part of a group of eight sat around the board room with three assessors. There's a short presentation giving you more information about CTC, the course, funding and to congratulate you all on getting this far etc. Once that is over you are divided into two groups of four or so and each team does a number of different exercises. The main one was a discussion exercise about a hypothetical situation i.e. being stranded on a desert island . You must discuss and agree with your team how to best get rescued, but you are only allowed to carry a number of items with you. Other things happen along the way but it was fun. Just remember not to over dominate but make sure you contribute!

The other task we had involved some LEGO type stuff, and we were asked to build a vehicle which would 'drive itself'. Using rubber bands we succeeded....well kind of. Again acting as part of a team...contributing...you get the idea.

The final part of the day is the interview. Mine was with a current training captain and a member of the HR team. I had no flying experience so they asked some basic aircraft questions for example: What does an aileron do? Explain how an aircraft generates lift? Also be prepared for questions about the partner airlines...what aircraft they fly, their main bases etc. Show that you know what you are talking about and have done some research. There are also some general HR questions...give me an example of a time when you had to work as part of a team....what would you say are your poorer qualities...usual things. Rehearse these sort of questions before you go in, otherwise you will be umming and aahhhing the whole time.

99jolegg gave a good description of stage 4.

Pprune has a LOAD of information about CTC so here is a good start for revision. Wikipedia.org is good for airline info. It worked for me.

Hope this info helps. Good luck with your selection

Nev.
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 15:28
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Thanks very much for your response, Nevilinio. I'm pleased you've told me to research partner airlines because it hasn't really been mentioned in what I've read so far. With the maths, are you required to solve equations and the like or pretty much just long multiplication/division etc?
Obviously you have to provide answers to the competence questions you are sent by e-mail, so do these form the basis for the answers you give when they discuss them in the interview, or are you expected to provide different examples? Is anyone aware whether it even takes that much to pass phase 1 (which I have done)?
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 16:39
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You don't have to do any algebra. It's just division, multiplication, adding, subtracting, percentages etc. Some questions involve multiple calculations to get the answer their looking for. Also there were some speed, distance and time calculations.

You will be asked to give other examples in addition to the ones you wrote on your question paper. Its quite a relaxed interview, they want to get to know you as best they can so want you to elaborate on your skills and talents and give 'evidence' of when you used them. In my interview they went over the answers I provided, which was good because you have the opportunity to ensure they understand your desire to become a pilot. They must get so many very similar answers to the "when did you decide you wanted to be a pilot?" question, so its important to try and get a personal touch to ensure they believe you!

As far as I am aware stage 1 is passed once they look over your details you provide online, to check you meet the minimum requirements....but I may be wrong.

Nev.
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 17:44
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CTC Information

Thanks again. You mentioned pprune having lots of information regarding CTC; is there a specific thread or did you just mean trawl through and compile bits and pieces of info myself? What kind of information are they looking for you to provide, company background and services etc? I'm surprised at the length of the interview, to be honest. They must ask a fair few questions to sustain it for 45 minutes or so. Either that or your answers need to be of some length!
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 18:26
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Sepi, can let us all know your reasons for saying the Wings Cadets are to be placed ahead of the Wings ATP pilots? I know there's a numberof ATP guys who keep an eye on this thread who would like to know.
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 20:39
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My understanding was that ATP guys will get slipped in between wings cadets as and when placements become available based on when they completed their AQC relative to other ATP guys. Contractually, I can't say whether the various agreements CTC have in place favour Wings cadets over ATP guys. However, the Wings cadets hold pool will build quickly as a number of CP's who have been bunched up together finish within a month or two of each other - not sure what that number is, but something in the region of 30 can't be too far off the mark. Given that cadets are much greater stakeholders in CTC (to the amount of about £60k compared to what ATP guys pay), seeing a number of ATP guys given priority would likely create a great deal of upset! However, none of us manage that policy.

(Sepi, i envy you down in Cyprus mate! It's bloody freezing here!)
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Old 17th Jan 2009, 21:18
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RobStob, your applying to a highly selective and intense training programme to be a commercial pilot and you think 45min interview is to long? To short if anything! Loads of questions covering all areas, give answers with examples of everything to backup what you are saying.
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Old 18th Jan 2009, 05:56
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PAJ, thanks for your input.

My understanding of the hold pool is that there is one hold pool for both Cadets and ATP pilots, the only difference being if an airline has a preference for one group or another? I know of ATP pilots who have been bobbing up and down in the hold pool for nearly a year now so I'm sure seeing recently qualified Cadets placed ahead of them must be causing them a great deal of upset too!

I understand the Cadets have handed far more cash over to CTC, but (without knowing the figures) the mark up on both courses must be at a similar percentage, and that any placement fee would be close to if not the same for both sets of pilots?
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Old 18th Jan 2009, 08:01
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EasyRed, I didn't say Wings guys are placed ahead of ATP guys, I hope my post wasn't misinterpreted (though obviously it has been). All I meant is there is a different process for placing the two so those adding the two hold pools together are coming up with an irrelevant figure.

As to how CTC decide who gets placed out of which pool and when, I'd hate to speculate, must be a bloody nightmare!

PAJ its all good down here, still jobless though...sigh! My passenger hours with Monarch are racking up, maybe I should drop a CV under the cockpit door on my next flight...hmmm. Pleased to see all is well with you, so jealous you're flying!
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Old 18th Jan 2009, 09:47
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easyRed, there are two holdpools, but I would very highly doubt that CTC would like an airline to request just ATP guys (although I am aware the Vietnam deal was predominantly ATP, largely because the cadets had selected to go to UK based airlines) as the number of cadets significantly outweighs the number of ATP guys, and continuing to sell places on the Wings course requires CTC to be able to say that they are still placing cadets. They have the option of closing ATP like they have at the moment (and no doubt will do for the forseeable) when demand is down. For example, the TCX course back in October was just cadets and the CTC 'White Tail' courses all now going to EZ were all cadets (to my knowledge!).

I can understand ATP guys who have been holding for a while are just as frustrated, but as I said, a cadet's loyalty and financial contribution to CTC is such that they might expect to be pushed ahead given the delays most will have experienced by the time they are ready for type rating and the fact that unlike an ATP guy, there has been no opportunity to earn over the 16 or so months they have been in training. Just my 2p worth; ideally everyone would be placed straight out of training but those days are gone, and accordingly, placement selection has to be judged slightly differently.
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Old 18th Jan 2009, 12:37
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Thanks for your thoughts gents. I guess the only people who know what's going on re. placements are those employed by CTC, and I'm sure they're doing all they can.

Lets just keep our fingers crossed for a miracle and for the pool to start draining sooner rather than later, for the good of everyone keeping their head above water.
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Old 18th Jan 2009, 18:38
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Stage 2/Stage 3

Hello...I am attending stage 2/stage 3 on the 3rd Feb, and was just wondering firstly, if anyone else is, and also I read that you need to know about flying, I only have a couple of hours under my belt so would have a limited knowledge...How in depth do they go on specification of flying knowledge? Thank you
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Old 18th Jan 2009, 20:02
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Well they arnt going to be silly, they want to know whether you are a good, decent person with the ability and indeed the enthusiasm to be successful and are not simply trying to find out if you can read wikipedia.

That said, reading wikipedia wouldnt be a bad thing. Simple things about aircraft would be a good start, knowing a few terms (the likes of which could be picked up by, say, flight sims (for example, i know what VOR navigation is all about, how it works and things purely through a bit of trial and error in fsx (though probably not enough to pass an exam on the subject and/or do it for real))) wouldnt be a bad thing. If you went in not knowing the feintest thing about the industry youd be wasting your time!
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