The Worlds Favorite has a pilot surplus and it is hard to find out the plan for the next few weeks/months let alone the next few years. Claiming we will need 400 is complete rot. Anyone going in to flying training on the basis of that is a complete buffoon... but hey ho, crack on!

The beak
 

I really do hope you dont check pprune at 5:30 am - you have got it bad! Oh i am at ctc by the way, so its evening here

Well I can't blame CTC for telling such nonsense, Oxford does the same with a nice banner on its web site saying how surprised we would be by the answer to the fatal question "Is now a good time for training?"...

They need people!

If you can afford it start now and with CTC it will maximize your chance. Otherwise, don't risk your parents house and go modular it will take longer and by the time things should look a bit brighter.

Anyway, let's not think too much there's not a lot we can do, just hope things won't turn too crazy this winter... Finger crossed!

(400 pilots by 2011 for BA:O:O:O:O and all from CTC of course:D:D:D Can't believe they actually said that...)

I went for a few drinks with a BA pilot last night and he absolutely couldn't believe the 400 pilots in 2011 story, the way things are going in the airline at the moment. It just won't happen. As I said, FTO marketing = mostly garbage.

ctcpilot2b is winding you up. hook, line and sinker......

lot of people talking :mad: on this thread. people actually seem annoyed/shocked that flight schools might want to persuade wannabes to start training and shell out £70k. and, god forbid, might actually oversell future employment prospects......!

welcome to the real world people.

It's not surprising that the FTOs do that, but it just makes it more important to come on places like here and offer the opposing viewpoint. Because when that over-selling employment prospects stretches to people parting with £70k for a course and effectively betting someone's home on those over-sold employment prospects, then it's important people have a balanced view beforehand - not just some fancy FTO PR and a few numbers about pilot recruitment plucked out of the air.

This isn't a game - people don't seem to realise that the numbers on those bank forms have a really serious value and one day they might have to pay it all back. It's so easy to sign everything away when you don't actually see any of the cold, hard cash and you don't have to worry about it for a couple of years.

Also one other thing; TheBeak, if you were sure the guy was a troll, why did you bother writing a three-paragraph reply?! Don't rise to it.

if some joker roles up to a flight training school open day, loves what they hear/see and subsequently parts with £70k (with no backup plan, info about what is really going to happen in the future) then, in my book, they deserve everything they get. do people have to be spoonfed everything these days cos they're so clueless??! here's a thought, use your brain and figure things out for yourself. :cool: then you wont have to read the ramblings on this thread......

Zippy,
I have to disagree old chap. This place is full of plausible BS (well meaning and agenda driven) and shouldn't be given much weight.

On the whole, I think FTO's are fairly restrained, CTC's own FAQs are fairly frank. When I attended Phase 1 they wouldn't be drawn on the likely hood of a job or timing. Most of what is written here about what CTC promised/suggested/said is spun or fabricated for effect. Can you imagine what the business would be like if the people behind those "retrain for a career in IT" telly adverts did pilot training, cadets would be expecting company cars.

I can only come on here and speak from my own experiences as an ex-CTCer. I have no agenda other than to answer questions and offer a viewpoint as to what it's like being on the Cadet course, and offer my own personal opinion that at the moment, I feel it's a bad time to spend all that money on an integrated course. I say that because:

a) A lot of my colleagues are now in their second year of 6-month summer contracts wondering how they are going to keep paying their loans in the winter months, and indications from some of the airlines involved are that there will be no recruitment / FlexiCrew only for the forseeable future.

b) Some of those that started flying on the line in spring this year actually finished the course in the middle of last year and had a long wait, watching the interest on their loans mount up.

c) The holding pool is filling up fast with new cadets; when next year's recruitment starts, will the airlines be able to soak up all the previous years' six-month lot in addition to those coming in at the bottom now?

It's good to know the company are being restrained in their approach to questions about job placement and timing. Even so, it doesn't alter my opinion, and it is only my opinion, that now is a bad time to fork out all that money on training.

I would be absolutely delighted to eat my own hat if BA really do take on 400 new pilot recruits in 2011. :)

Anyone going to the Phase 2 / 3 assessment day next wednesday (22 July) ?

Understood Zippy,

Just in case you thought otherwise, my "BS" remark wasn't aimed at you. Anyway, as you pointed out, after a year or so of flying around you get a new perspective on the industry (positive and negative), so I think we're heading to the same picknik area, just by different tracks.

Interesting one this, and good example of the obfuscation on offer in this thread. These quotes cover the "400" issue in chronological order:
See the problem with this thread?

hey,
does anyone know what kind of numbers are in the hold pool at the moment and if airlines have started taking in cadets again yet?

cheers

Sorry Roboa,

Did you actually ask are airlines taking cadets again?

Yeah lol with the thinest sliver of hope! Just wondered if there had been any sort of movement within the industry since I looked last (march-ish)

roboa

If anything, things have got worse.

How so?

roboa

Roboa,

I'm not sure if you're a wind up, which if so, congratulations, you've got me but have you any idea what's going on in the industry at the moment?!

You just posted that without bothering to read anything on this thread from the last four months, or on any other relevant threads?

The answer to your question is emphatically no. In addition, rumours are abound that TCX will be returning some cadets to the hold pool come the end of the summer.

Sharpclassic,

No, hence the reason i posted.

Zippy Monster,

To answer your question, yes I did look. But, there are several pages of complete off-topic posts in this thread making relevant infomration a pain to find sometimes

ctc selection question
 

Hey guys,

I've been put through to phase 2 of the process, and of course I'm aware theres a small numeracy test with 15 question and a computer based aptitude test.

However, if you sit the numeracy test first and happen to fail it, do you find this out straight away and get sent packing......or do you also get to sit the computer based aptitude tests and then find out ALL you results at the end of the day in the feedback section.

In other words, can you sit everything throughout the day even if you fail the first test at the start of the day?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Gav.