Cheers MATT. Have you joined BALPA as an associate member? It's free for trainees, you just need to fill out their form and include a copy of your APL letter confirming you passed selection, and a copy of you class 1 med. Worth it just for the access to their advice etc.

Flights to NZ
 

All been very helpful on this topic, thank you all.

One thing, when i was flicking through the trend i came across people talking about the costs of flights from Nz to the UK, does this mean we have to pay for the flights?

Thanks again for your help guys

Lee

Flights to UK/NZ
 

Lee,

Flights to NZ and back are paid for by CTC if they relate to course requirements. Therefore they send you out there and bring you back to attend the course in NZ or want you in the UK for exams. If you want to go back home during christmas etc, you pay...makes sense

Stefan

You get two return trips to NZ paid for by CTC as part of the course - out to NZ, back to the UK for the first bit of leave and your first bunch of ATPL exams, then out to NZ again and back after the end of the NZ multi-engine phase.

There is the possibility to get back over the Christmas break if you so wish, but that does come out of your own pocket and it is expensive at that time of year - and the break isn't really that long. Some (like me) thought it was well worth it, others take the opportunity to explore NZ while the weather is good or just hang around Clearways and enjoy the sunny Christmas atmosphere! You don't get any other holiday as part of the course other than the specified leave periods back in the UK (i.e. there are no weeks off as part of the course when in NZ.) If exceptional circumstances do arise you can request leave, but you must be able to justify it and it mustn't have an adverse impact on your training - don't automatically assume you'll be permitted to have time off.

Here's how it works with Easy,

Say in an average month you net in your pay cheque £3000 after tax, £1000 of that will consist of the bond repayment to you, or rather to the bank. You haven't paid tax on that £1000, only on the £2600 ( ish ) gross you earned, so there's the benefit to you.

So as soon as the £3000 enters your account on pay day approximately £1030 will come back out again to pay off the bond at current interest rates, this is based on an amount of £65,000 pounds initial loan. That extra 30 ish pounds comes out of your taxed pay, on top of the fixed tax free £1000.
So from £3000 entering your account on pay day it drops to £1970 immediately.

Hope that helps, and ps yes, join BALPA!

WBV

MY / WBV

Not joined BALPA yet but def on the list of things to do before I fly out. I can't see that there's much of an argument not to is there? :confused:

Stage 3
 

I know i should not post this on this trend but, the other trend has no reply

Hello,

I passed my stage 2 on 30th may;) , and doing my stage 3 on the 15th may, is there anyone else doing stage 3 on this date?

Hope to hear from someone,:ok:

Regards Lee

I thought I would just share some good news that I found out that would probably be applicable to a number of CTC cadets heading out to NZ:

We can claim our income tax back for this year assuming you havnt earnt over your personal limit of around £5,400 since 6th April this year.:D

Not sure though if we can claim it back straight away or if you have to wait until 5th April next year?:rolleyes:

socloss

chief training captain - started out as an organisation designed to train up training captains, moving into further training and consultancy work.

CTC meaning
 

Wasn't it Cheaply Trained Captains? Feeding Easyjet with cheap pilots?? Or was that just a phase 2 joke?

I'm sure LW once told us it was Crew Training Chiefs, but after various management changes is now meaningless. Plenty of other possibilities though.....

CTC airline partners
 

Hi,

I'm preping for my interview, and looking at the airline partners. the CTC website only lists 7 (Easyjet, jet2.com, thomson fly, monarch, my travel, thomas cook and first choice) i've seen been told there are 8, is the 8th one BA????

Regards Lee

Hi Lee,

Yes the 8th one is BA though it always is a questionnable one but Ive no idea why! I said it was a partner airline at interview and they didnt say it wasnt. Think I read in the literature that it is a parner airline, though they still do their own recruitment strategy, ie a full blooded interview/selection process.

socloss

Hi Socloss, Lee,

I asked that in the interview and they said something like BA have a policy of only accepting cadets from integrated courses, so while CTC wasn't officially offering integrated courses they couldn't be official partners even though unofficially CTC ran a mock-integrated course approved by BA. Now I believe CTC is offering integrated and so BA is happy to officially be a partner.

Useful to have these kind of questions for the interview :ok:

stefan

Practice Questions for CTC Phase 2
 

Hi guys,

I'm sure this has been asked before but does anyone know of any suitable practice questions available for viewing online in connection with my CTC Phase 2 Assessment Day on the 1st June? (Is anyone else going on this day at 13.00?) I've loacted the company NATS use which provides practice questions. Is this similar, or not?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Chris.

CSutton - which questions are you talking about? The maths questions? Or the four brief essay questions?

If it's the maths questions, if you can handle GCSE arithmetic and get some numeracy test books for practice questions you will be fine. Have a look at Bill Handley's Speed Mathematics book if you have enough time. It's pretty good.

IIRC you get time at home to fill out then fax back the essay style questions. They are competency style questions and are very straightforward.

Stage 2 on the day is just maths and PILAPT.

May the 9th be with you.

Hmmm, that doesn't quite have the same ring, does it? :)

Pilapt/Numerapt
 

Hi folks,

My first CTC-based post, and I aplogise if my question has been asked, or answered, before (did a search but couldn't find it).

I have the Cockpitweb Pilot Aptitude and numerapt software. I am enjoying the challenge of brushing up on my arithmetic after such a long time!

Does anyone know if the Cockpitweb software is a reasonable approximaion to Pilapt: the vendors say it is but they are bound to. Some of the tests are very similar to Micropat which I did a number of years ago, but are they relevant to CTC?

Also, would any successful CTC cadets be prepared to reveal some of their Pilapt scores: I'm thinking particularly of deviation indicator and frames?

Many thanks folks

BAC

From what I've heard (I've not done the CTC tests yet) the one you really need to watch out for is the final test. If I remember what I was told correctly, then it is deviation indicator, listening for changes in a number sequence and watching out for certain coloured shapes with numbers all at the same time!! It certainly would be interesting if any successful candidates would be willing to share their scores though.

Cockpitweb's software has the shapes and numbers on it-but not combined with the deviation indicator.

Its a test of capacity reduction whilst multi-tasking, and you'd be suprised how tricky this is when you actually try it. If you learn all the possible number sequences by heart this makes it all so much easier.

For e.g. if the difference between the numbers is 5, then the last digits in the countdown will have to be 9-4 or 8-3 or 7-2 or 6-1 or 5-0. These are the only possibilities. Similar sequences exist for differences of 2,3,4 etc. and there are not too many to learn them all!

The last test is without a doubt a toughie!! best thing to do is break it down - its a capacity test in itself to be able to prioritise multiple tasks at once whilst still being able to actually do them. The best advice I can give is focus on the deviation indicator first. Keep this as centralised as possible at all times. Then bring the number sequencing in - memorising the sequencing might help but anyone who has the mental artithmetic standard CTC are looking for can count down through the sequencing. Work out what the next number should be before the computer tells you so you can match it. it's only when the number changes when you have to divert your attention completely to make sure you have the correct new numeric interval. This is where prioritisation comes in - you can always find the centre on the deviation indicator again, and you can just take the next shape as it comes, but once you lose the sequence once, that pretty much it - lose it early and you're outta there!!

The shapes are a peripheral vision thing - listen to what the computer tells you and first compare colours - you brain processes colours easier than shapes. If the colours match, then divert your attention to see whether the shapes match - if so, find the number and enter it!

There's no point anyone saying this is easy - FTE do PILAPT but do not include this test as far as I know because it goes beyond the standards they look for. I was fortunate to do well in this one (properly cocked up the hands though - only got 4 on that!!!) as my feedback said I stayed in the upper band for all parts of the exercise. Can't remember exactly but I think I got 10 hits and 4 misses. Don't hold me to that tho! Good luck those who have it though - its absolutely amazing over here and worth the struggle!

Thanks for that PAJ!

This is a useful insight. I was aware of the multiple capacity test: sounds like fun!:rolleyes:

The cockpitweb software misses a few tests out that CTC use, such as the colour shape grid, shape within shapes task and as stated the final deviation/shapes/number test.

Also i find the flying through squares on cockpitweb really isn't very good, also when doing pilapt I found the joystick was a lot more sensitive than I first expected it to be and ended up flying everywhere at first.

However the software as far as I know is still the best practice tool you can get for the aptitude test.

Hi PAJ,

I just recently got through the selection process, down to come out there in early september on CP53. When do you get your feedback on the selection process? I'm quite interested to see how i did!

Rob

I dont know how but I only had 1 miss on the final test!!!

To this day it still amazes me, I must have been that up for it my mind went into super focus mode :p

Congrats RC203! You can now consider yourself one of the very elite few!!! Feedback does take a while - I went out on CP49 on very short notice - flew out 19 days after my stage 4 so I was acble to chase up my feedback. Think I got mine about 10 days later. It can take longer though - Mary Brown is the lady who does all this so if you havent recieved anything in a couple of weeks time, try calling her. It's really useful, but there are a few things that you may disagree with quite strongly. Either way, you're in so take heed and just start looking forward to it!

"You can now consider yourself one of the very elite few!!!"

That's tongue in cheek, right?

Mate, you read the exclaimation marks how you want!!

Don't believe everything CTC tell you!

Enjoy NZed. ;)

Why is that? What's so hidden?

Just after a touch of advice.
I've got my Stage 3 coming up and I'm currently writing my responses to the 4 pre-Stage 3 questions.
As someone who has a reputation of being able to write pages about nothing in particular, I was wondering how much most people have written.
I don't want to write too much, seem like a waffler and leave myself going over what the assessors have already read when it comes to the interview.
At the same time I don't want to only write 4/5 lines and appear that I haven't taken much care and attention.
So how much to people recommend? A whole essay or keep it 'short n' sweet'?
Any replies much appreciated.
P.S. See what I mean about being able to write loads about nothing in particular?! This post couldv'e been summed up in just 1 line!

When I did my written part, the forms I downloaded to fill in gave about 1/2 a side of A4 per question. Depends how big your writing is as to how much you can fit in! Don't go on forever - I think they want to see that you can be concise. Good luck!

Not specifically related to CTC, but this is what I was taught on our management communications course at work.

1. Try to write down about 5 bullet points in response to the question.

2. Decide what you want to say and say it. Make the answer make sense (rather than just a list of points) by connecting the points in a natural way, re-ordering them if need be.

3. Sum up in one sentence at the end that highlights your main point and relates it back to the question so that the reader gets the main points you are making subtly reiterated.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the advice guys, I want to make sure I'm left with 'new' things to tell them in the interview so will do as you suggest.

''You can now consider yourself one of the very elite few!!! ''

LOL - i hope this was a joke.....

ah the famous last words of keen NZ-bound newbies...

"...am writing this on the flight to singapore, am loving connexion by boeing..."

"...one of the very elite few..."

excitement takes a distant backseat when the hard work starts.

Blimey perhaps I should have just kept bloody quiet!! Bottom line is CTC is a damn sight harder to get into than any of the others (I know - I got a place at the others) and a fantastic training organisation. I'm really proud I got in here and I know loads of guys out here and back in the UK who feel the same! I know I'm just an inexperienced newbie but I love the getting up at 5:30 for lectures, enjoy the fact that I don't know what each day is going to offer. After working where I was before CTC, there is absolutely no comparison!!! By all means have your say tho guys and girls, that why we post here - just wanted to add a bit of balance as I know some people want to know that its not a bad deal all in! People tend to bash things much easier than compliment them. (Tho our car is making funny noises at the moment!!)

hi there. i have my phase 2 on friday and am really keen to do well. i'd been told by someone i know that the maths would be basic multiplication. i've since found out they are wrong. i have only 2 days to revise for the numeracy test. can anyone recommend particular topics to look at as i don't have time to revise the whole gcse syllabus. i wouldn't have thought they'd include questions on quadratics and simultaneous equasions anyway, but i might be wrong

Maybe brush up on general use of equations, then I would advise making sure you are familiar with long multiplication and division (e.g big numbers 95x63, 1024/50 etc) and also multiplication and division with decimal numbers.

It isn't too hard if you have a good standard of maths already and you get a pen and paper so don't have to work everything out mentally.

cheers. long multiplication and division are just about the only thing i know right now. i'm fine with the common sense aspects of maths too.

anyone know where i can find a map for directions?

if you get to stage 3, do you book it, or do they tell you when you're coming?

do i actually have a chance of getting on this course with no experience whatsoever, very little knowledge of the aviation industry, and no way of getting a secured loan? it just seems a bit too good to be true. i've always wanted to be a pilot, but never persued anything to do with the industry as i didn't think there were any courses for people from poorer backrounds such as myself

are there any other courses that can secure funding for you?

sorry bout all the questions

The answers to all your questions are already available in this thread, in the old CTC thread and in other FTO threads.

For other schools, check out OAT, FTE, Cabair etc. There's plenty of places willing to take your hard earned, and a variety of funding options. Rest assured, CTC is not your only option if you are switched on and determined, as reading around on here will demonstrate.

CTC will take people with little or no prior experience provided that they demonstrate the qualities, motivation and the knowledge/prep they are looking for. They are quite open about what they want, there's no tricks involved in selection.

Turning up and saying "I don't know much about this lark, but I wanted to do it as a kid" is not going to get you very far in an hour long interview, so if you feel you are not ready, perhaps delay and spend however long it takes to become ready. The way it worked for me recently was that they get you to try and agree a phase 3 date at the end of the phase 2 tests (you find out the results before you leave phase 2), and they were as short as a week and as long as 3 weeks away.

With regard to the maths (this may sound cocky but it's my honest opinion - flame me all you want) it was comparable to GCSE standard. Applying sound exam technique helps as well.