Chris,

Phase 2 is conducted in a large room where all candidates are seated. The presentation is delivered, then you come out while the room is reconfigured. You then go back in and take a seat at a terminal with your back to everyone else.

The maths test is done on a piece of paper. The PILAPT Test is done on the computer terminal at your station. There are no distractions as you can't see anyone when you're looking at the screen.

The invigilator is present in the room during the test, but again is not a distraction. Certainly, there was no breath felt on my neck although others may have been disturbed by my heavy breathing as I squeezed an M1 grunt during a barrel roll and loop on the "Boxes" test. :)

The atmosphere is as relaxed as it can get, in my experience. Settle yourself with the thought that you are not competing with anyone else in the room. It's all about you and the line CTC have drawn in the sand.

PS - Requesting a flyby then singing "Great Balls of Fire" on the deviation test is a no no.

I was wondering what questions it is best to ask in the interview?

CTC have recently update phase 2 so that the maths test is now on the computer. It is pretty much the same test and you get given a pen and paper to do working out, the only difference is you click the answer on the screen rather than circling it on your paper.

You can also skip over questions review your answers etc.

:DThanks MajorYaw:D. My Wife is getting a bit uptight :{ that I (potentially) would be away from her and my 2 week old daughter for a long time.

This will definately reassure her and as she's a Psychiatric Nurse would be able to get a temporary job in NZ no probs.:ok:

RS999 - good luck for July 4th. I'll be flying out that day! I would get on the blower to NZ Immigration about the possible Visa types your wife could apply for sooner rather than later. You may have bureaucratic hoops to jump through so the earlier the better. CTC's visa situation is quite specialised and designed for one person so it's processed quickly, whereas your wife might have to be processed in a separate channel depending upon work and your kid etc.

Anyway, if it's any consolation, I've just hit 30 and there's a married guy of similar age heading out too, so the old dandies with responsiblities are making it in as well as the carefree young guns. Best of luck to you.

Thanks matey. Yup got Stage 3 on 4th July and provisionally booked for Stage 4 at Nursling the following day so here's hoping. Its been a nightmare revising and having a 2 week old and moving house to my monster in laws and now moving into my new house next week!!!!!!

Still, if I can handle staying with the Monster in Law for a week or two I'm sure I'll make it in the RHS :cool:.

If we don't communicate beforehand, good luck in NZ and hopefully we'll meet there one of these days!!

confused!
 

I began my application to CTC wings many moons ago, I think it was some time in October of last year. I can't even remember if I sent it away of if I didn't.

Recently when I logged in to re-apply it said that I had voluntarily withdrawn my application so I emailed CTC to get a new app' number.

They emailed me this morning saying congratulations I have passed stage one and have given me a list of dates for stage 2 testing.

Obviously I'm very pleased about getting to stage 2 but is this email an error or something? I'm pretty confused!

If anyone could help It'd be much appreciated, I can't seem to find a phone number to ring 'em.

my phase 3 is in less than 3 weeks. i recal a lady a phase 2 telling us how we should revise the partner airlines and first officer responsibilities. i'm having trouble finding detailed accounts of latter. i need to know the pros and cons of the profession, and how the job may vary between airlines

this may be a stupid question. what is meant when people say airlines fall into different 'categories'?

JAA Medical Directions
 

Hi all, just a quick question for those that have been down already to do your medicals, where exactly is the JAA medical building? I remember reading that is just minutes away by bus from Gatwick airport. Anyone have any better directions for me to get there from Gatwick?

Thanks very much. I'm in for the week from Canada, so am a little out of my element.

First post here...about time I contributed.

equinox_code...

Yes, it is likely they'll ask about the role of a FO. First Officer responsibilities can include the below:

- Pre flight duties - weather? Is the airfield in perfect condition?
- External walkaround
- Checklists
- Either Pilot Flying (PF) or Pilot Not Flying (PNF) duties as arranged by CPT and FO.
- Post flight duties

PF will control the aircraft i.e. control surfaces and speed. PNF will handle communications and checklists providing the PF with information along the way (In a nutshell).

Pros and cons of the profession...

Pros:
Why do you want to be an airline pilot? - anything good about it is something that is a pro.

Cons:
How is being an airline pilot different from other jobs, why can this pose a problem? A bit of thought here will provide you some valid cons.

oates76...
-Go to the South Terminal
-By Arrivals, there will be an information desk followed by a Costa Coffee shop; to the right of this are grey double doors. Follow these downstairs, out towards the bus stop in front.
-Go under the subway by foot to get to the other side of the busy road or you'll go in the wrong direction. Bus stop is on that other side.
- CAA will give you a list of buses to get - catch one.
- It's only one stop - get off, turn right, there'll be a building to your right that they call the Beehive building but looks similar to a VOR.
- Follow the road and before the junction is a huge grey CAA building on the right.

Hope it helps.

Airline categories .... All I can assume they mean there is whether the airline is legend, low cost, charter, scheduled etc. and in terms of industry awareness, they might ask you something about what corporate strategies a certain airline from one (or more) of those categories might do to maintain or grow from their position in the market.

Also, the last post mentions a lot of the key responsibilities a FO has - also note the heirachy on the flight deck - I got a few questions on that. Know what sort of hours you might work, what flexibility will be expected, perhaps citing someone you know as a source of information for this who flies.

Check here for any relevant information:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=251490

Also, type what you want to know into Google - I found a few useful websites that way. It need not be any more complex than that.

id be interested to know if anyone's been turned away at stage 3 despite feeling quite well prepared. or, if anyone's ever been accepted even though at the time, they thought perhaps they should have done more revision

Hi guys, I'm new to pprune and was wondering if anyone could help with a couple of questions regarding CTC.

1. I'm looking at applying to the wings cadet scheme, but i'm concerned by the delays reported by the ATP'ers. Do the cadet course graduates enter the same holding pool as the ATP'ers after the AQC stage? If not, what sort of time lag are people experiencing between finishing the AQC via the cadet route and getting that first job?

2. As far as I can see there is little financial benefit in doing the cadet route as apposed to self sponsored modular, as you still end up paying for your training in the form of reduced earnings. The supposed benefit is the enhanced prospects of getting that first job. From my current position I reckon I could complete my fATPL and a type rating for about 60% of the cost of cadet bond. Is a CTC cadet really in a significantly better position to get a job than someone who has done their own type rating a bought a few sector hours?

Thanks

Cadets do not really enter the holding pool. Generally, training will be uninterruped (save a couple of weeks here or there) up until the type rating stage. I have heard of people waiting two or three months to start a type rating course, but my understanding is that this was people who were holding out for a particular airline.
As yet, no cadet who has passed all stages of training has failed to be placed with an airline. I'm pretty sure that the same goes for every ATP pilot who has passed the AQC and entered the holding pool.
I cannot comment on how employable one would be with a self sponsored type rating and some hours paid for on type, but I would venture that the chance of getting a job through the CTC cadet scheme is much higher.

Hey guys, I just did my stage 3 and 4 on the 6th and 7th June, and I'm going to be off to New Zealand with CP53 in September!

In terms of the stage three, the posts on page 26 by PAJ and the summary by "Borat" linked at the start are excellent in terms of helping you prepare for both the group exercises and the interview. Remember that Google and Wikipedia are your friends here, especially with Wikipedia linking all sorts of interesting information in relation to the partner airlines and current industry events. If you're interested enough to read around the subjects a bit then this will come across well. Always remember that CTC want you to pass and do well, so try and relax and don't worry about being asked trick questions.

The only advice for stage four is just to listen to your instructor and try to relax. The instructors there are excellent and explain everything really well, so even if you've never sat at the controls of an aircraft before they'll be able to look after you. If you do make a mistake, such as loosing height in a turn, this is okay as long as you identify it and say that you've identified it - it shows that you've been listening and know what's going on, and if you can take corrective action even better. It is difficult to handle it if you've little experience (I only have 8.5 hours in a Cessna 152), and I completely messed the landing up, but I was able to discuss what went wrong with the instructor afterwards and show that even though I messed up I knew what I did wrong and what to do next time. All in all great fun and an amazing experience.

Good luck to all of you who have stages coming up, and I hope to see you out in NZ, especially the guys who I met over the last few days who helped make the stage three and four fun!

Andy

PS. If there's anyone else out there on CP53, say hi!

Applicant / student ratio
 

Hi there,

After spending the last four years trying to save money to enable me to get my fATPL, I’m feeling that I’m almost in the position (finally!!) to go for it. However, I still want to explore the possibilities of getting on a course like CTC offer and thus get a low risk loan. :ok:

Does anyone know roughly how many people apply, and then how many of these applicants actually get on the course? I was under the impression it was a kind of elite course. I know I can definitely fly but I’m no rocket scientist!

Thanks for your help.

When I was down at nursling doing stage 4 a guy was telling someone they had 3000 applicants last year, 144 made it through to stage 4 and 100 through to new zealand, going by that its like 3% but they did say they are starting to take more, plus theyve got the icp course as well now...

Ive no idea how reliable that information is, just what I overheard whilst I was there, im just happy to have made it through to be honest lol

Insurance?
 

Also I meant to ask, has everyone on here just used PJIS for the insurance? Thats all I've got left to sort now but was thinking about shopping around first, at the moment the policy from PJIS comes out at just under £1200!

Cheers

I think most people just bite the bullet and use them because the policies are quite specialised... however, you're free to shop around if you want, that premium is double what I paid this time last year.

hi

i was wondering if anyone knows how the interview is conducted at stage 3. do they ask a question and then wait for you to finish your answer, or do they often interrupt and question you on specific points you make?

also, is the questionairre i'm sending off particularly important? i'm not sure whether i should use a lot of my best interview 'answers' in the questions it specifies. i wouldn't want to repeat myself in front of them

any advice appreciated. please pm me if you have any additional help

cheers

They want to get to know you as a person, because they want to know you're right for the job. Like any interview they might ask you to clarify a point or elaborate on something a little further, but it's not some game where they're waiting for you to make a mistake and catch you out - what benefit would that bring? Just try and relax - easier said than done, but if you're relaxed the real "you" will come through better and that's what they want to see.

cheers. i've been trying to practise my interview technique, but i get nervous even when i'm talkingot myself! i know i really want this, and i know the reasons why, but i have trouble explaining myself thoroughly when called to. i've put in a lot of work too in making sure i'm familiar with the information i need to be. having trouble remembering the fleets though sometimes. would anyone know whether it's more important to know how many craft and what makes are in their fleet, or which particular models they own? i'm having a little trouble remembering all these things

also, safety and trust issues aside, is there any reason an airline would choose airbus over boieing, and vice-versa? i know about the interface differences. but does any particular model excel in practical application or for certain journeys or destinations?

equinox_code - the more you know about the partner airlines' fleets the better. I know I was asked about them and while maybe knowing specific quantities of types of aircraft would be overkill, knowing who has what type of aircraft would show them that you have indeed done some preparation. At the very least I would recommend knowing roughly what the total fleet size of each airline is, which airlines have mixed Airbus/Boeing fleets and which airlines are going to be among the first to get the Dreamliner.

I think how much they will expect you to know about fleet details will be commensurate with your flight experience/ exposure. Knowing the number of aircraft in each fleet is not too big a deal - thought the mergers are going to complicate things in that department considreably for a while!

In terms of why an airline might select Boeing over Airbus or vice-versa, a great deal is about politics - ie. American airlines supporting American companies like Boeing, and European airlines supporting Airbus. They will not expect you to know interface differences between aircraft - Basics such as Airbus being Fly-by-wire is one thing you might want to mention. Also you see all airbus aircraft have winglets and now the 737NGs are doing this - why? (aerodynamic efficiencies from wake vorticies). I would concern yourself more with knowing about what you are actually going to be doing as a pilot on a day to day basis. Also, get together loads of examples showing how you have demonstrated different core qualities.

does anyone know how the mergers are going to affect the way some of the partner airlines are run? i haven't got much of a business brain and have had trouble understanding how this side of the industry works

Tough to know at this stage as very little has been published. I suspect the first thing we will see will be management restructuring - integrating two (or in TUI's case more!) companies is always a struggle and may take some time. In regards to the charter market, and how it will respond, we are now going to see two key players competing for market share. Perhaps this has all come at the right time with further pending climate change policies likely so how the companies decide their long-term strategies will be interesting. Growth is obviously key so we may see cheaper package deals emerge to allow more consumers to get in on the action, digging at niche markets that have been left to specialist tour operators until now but generally attemts to out price each other.

In regards to the airlines continuing to operate individually or to merge, we still don't know. My personal opinion is that MyTravel will become Thomas Cook Airlines more to do with brand awareness than anything, plus it is not as visible a company as the others (all of whom have high street stores of the same name, ie Thomson Holidays, First Choice Travel etc.). I have no idea about the TUI/ First Choice merger. TUI is rebranding all of its subsidies over the next 18 months or so to all be TUI Airlines, so that means we will no longer be seeing Thomsonfly airlines. With this in mind, perhaps they might choose to get maximum brand exposure and take on First Choice, but First Choice in themselves are a very strong company so they would be benefits in keeping both airlines seperate. We'll see though.

With fleet expansion, recruitment etc, there will be a significant slow down for a while as the new combined assets (both aircraft and people) are assessed and compared with what they require to meet what is set out in their respective stratefies. All of this is just conjecture on my part but I hope it can be of some help.

thankyou very much. really helpful*

hey all glad to say that I passed stage 2 today. Anyone else there today pass as well?

I would just like to highly recommend the GAPAN tests at this time. They are very similar to CTC's PILAPT tests and prepared me well for them.

Not sure when I'm going to be back for stage 3. I'm going to be completing OAT/NetJets stage 2 assessment before I do CTC's. On paper they look very similar, anyone have any experience with both?

For anyone going to the CTC assessments, I stayed in the Fishermans Haunt and found it to be quite nice. The room smelled a bit like old people and was a little dated but it was fine just to brush up on my maths the night before and get a good nights sleep in prep for the PILAPTs and maths test.

Should also add for the maths test, make sure you know all your squared numbers up to about 20 as well as a lot of long division and multiplication.

And relax and enjoy it, the people there are very nice and friendly and the other candidates were also very nice and talkative.

feeling pretty well prepared for the interview now. just having a bit of trouble with the maths as i've got to resit. how would i solve an example problem like this- a plane bruns 42 litres of fuel over 120 miles. tavelling at 500mps, how far will it have travelled when by the time it burns 350 litres?
having a little trouble getting my head around situation problems like this. not sure whether i should be figuring it out accurately or getting a faster approximation.
if anyone else can remember any particular maths questions they were asked, pm them to me and i'll shower you with praise. only got 3 days of revision left so trying to focus my attention more specifically

@ yaw. thanks for the reply. tried to send you a message explaining how appreciative i was, but your inbox was full

Thats not too tough - basic performance calcs. Doubt the figures you will get at selection will be quite so oblique - generally they tend to be more rounded numbers. Anyways, for that example I would do the following.

42 is close to 50, and you know 350 is divisible exactly by 50:
350/50 = 7
I would then multiply this by the number of miles each 42 litres will take you:
7 x 120 = 840 miles

With this, check against the choices you are given. If there is a clear cut answer, then there you have it. If there are a couple close by, you need to go a little further....

Via long division:
350/42 = 8.3
Then through long multiplication:
8.3 x 120 = 996 miles

The crude estimation works out to be nearly 20% different so I guess it's all down to the factors you choose. Take each question as it comes and decide how precise you need to be - you dont necessarily have enough time to labour over precise calculations for all the questions (much like on the flightdeck).

Phase 2 times
 

Hi everyone, just wondering if you can give me an idea of how long the phase 2 assessment takes? I am booked into the 9am session and was wondering if it would be safe to catch the 13:55 flight back to Glasgow.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Hi there. I assume you are flying back to Prestwick with Ryanair?? If so, their return flight leaves BOH at 1535hrs.

I've used this flight before when I sat Stage 2 and then when I went back down to resit Stage 2. I had plenty of time to make my flight back to PIK.

Will be using the same flights when I sit stages 3 & 4 in a couple of weeks.

Theres enough time for you to chill out and have a couple of beers in the (excuse for) a departure lounge at BOH after your Stage 2 prior to your flight too which is a bonus:)

That's good to know as I'll be using the same service next Tuesday after my stage 2

Does anyone know what kind of sim they use at Stage 4?

Is it a 737NG or a classic 737?

I might be jumping the gun here but was just curious!!

A post from Nov 2004 said it was a 737-300 so just wanted to make sure this was the sim still in use.

Cheers

hi all, hopefully my last questions as my interview is tomorrow

during my trial flight, we were guided back to the runway by atc. i seem to recal there being a specific name for this approach. can someone tell me what it's called?

also, do british airways do charter or schedule? (sorry, really can't find anywhere that gives me a specific answer to that question)

Phase 2 mathematics are more than easy. The only thing you have to be able to do is being able to divise and multiplicate with a pen and a paper (I know it's a long, long time ago but it comes back pretty quick).
15 minutes is really enough, I bought Speed mathematics and must avoid that the book is fantastic and really interesting as you learn some incredible way to calculate in less than 10 seconds 95X102.......But this is totally useless for the phase 2. This is my point of view.

Please do not worry about the maths, even if you read :"give the cube root of 125....." Just have a look at the results it's obvious.(5X5X5=125)

The pilapt is really much more stressful as it starts by the deviation indicator. For those who downloaded the pilapt test, be advised that both of the Deviation indicator are wrong. On D-day you will have to push it right to bring the cross on the right and left to bring it back left....seems obvious I agree but I was quite surprised.

I'm on phase 3 in 8 days, but if successfull.....No course before November!!!!

Enjoy, try to relax, those people from CTC are really nice.

"hi all, hopefully my last questions as my interview is tomorrow

during my trial flight, we were guided back to the runway by atc. i seem to recal there being a specific name for this approach. can someone tell me what it's called?

also, do british airways do charter or schedule? (sorry, really can't find anywhere that gives me a specific answer to that question)"

one more question to add to these- is terminal 5 funded solely by british airways?

New Zealand Immigration Service Visa Application
 

For those who need to know about the Visa process turnaround, I sent mine special delivery on Thursday night. I received it back on Tuesday. Now that's good service. I didn't even have to write a letter asking them to treat it urgently.

Circumstance meant I was cutting it fine, but it all came good in the end. My advice is to do it sooner rather than later, but if it has to go to the wire send it special delivery and they'll sort it out quickly.

Phase 4
 

Hey Ezyramper.

If I remember rightly from my phase 4 it was the 737-300 at nursling. Certainly wasnt the NG! Great fun though. Enjoy and good luck. :)