Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
 

I have an interview with parc aviation coming up and I would like to have info about it.

actually now that you have posted that question

if anyone has the list of shareholders, it would definitely be of interest


thx in advance

whats your interview for ? then maybee we would know what info you need. Are you going to work in the office, or on aircraft, or are you flight crew - contract or permanent

I am going for a 737 Type rating.
I would appreciate any info about the interview.
Thank you in advance.

Interview is 2 days:
Day 1 starts with a couple of classroom tests (after introduction), consisting of a math test, pesonality questionaire, verbal reasoning. Afterward you either have in interview with an aviation psychologist or the simulator grading.
Day 2 if either the interview or the simulator.

The sim is done at Air-Lingus training center on a 737-200. They check your general handling and IR skills. I can't remember the exact details, but you will get a good pre-briefing. You will fly as crew with another trainee, and they will also be looking for your pnf skills.
We flew from MAN.

The interview you will be asked to tell you live story. The psych will ask you to get in some sort of relaxing dialog.

I can recommend Parc. I followed their course, and it is very professional. The training aids are very good, the instructors are the best!

When will you be doing the assessment? Good luck anyway!

Yours,
H

Thanks for your help, I have an interview the 29th and the 30th of september.
Are you fliing for an airline now???
Are there any technical questions during the interview?

Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
 

Hey Folks out there,
I just wanted to know if somebody did the 737 type rating course with Parc Aviation.
Do you have some information about that for me. How are the chances of getting an airline Job with them afterwords....

Hope somebody can help me!
Thank you in advance!

Really nobody here who did it?
Or knows/heard something about it?

sent off the application ages ago and nothing heard

its probably like all these TR questions, if you have £20,000 to blow, you don't need help! Why not try Parc!

Sure we did, it's just the same as the other. Pay the cash and you get the rating. Own risk, no guarantees. I believe there is an assesment which obviously you have to pay for and which is (also obviously) non refundable.
Why you want the info on Parc?

Just completed my MCC with them. Heard that most, if not all the lads on the last couple Type Rating courses have been placed with airlines by Parc.

Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
 

Has anyone on here been through the Parc B737 SSTR? I have spoken to several who have been to the selection but didn’t make it onto the course. These people have provided some useful information regarding the selection process, but has anyone been through the course? Parc say they have placed everyone in employment, so are you all happily flying?

Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
 

I recently attended the Parc Aviation SSTR assessment in Dublin. The assessment is for the Boeing 737-3/4/500 type rating from which Parc say they have a 100% success rate of placing students with airlines. There is limited information regarding the number of courses they run a year and which airlines students are placed with. The cost for the assessment with Parc is £500, but you will need to spend two full days in Dublin. At the end of it you may, or may not be offered a place on the £18,500 TR course, but the selling point of the assessment is that even if you are not successful, you will receive feedback to help future assessments with airlines etc.

I searched high and low for information on this assessment prior to attending it and found very little, so I thought I would post my own experiences for those considering it. I do not comment on the implications of SSTRs, and I hope this post does not degenerate into the tired old SSTR debate.

I applied to Parc several months ago and I was contacted by them very shortly after filling out the application form. I paid up the £500 for the assessment and was given a date to fly to Dublin.

Several weeks after being given the assessment date by Parc, I was offered a job flying turboprops with a small European operator. I accepted the job of course. Having secured a job on turboprops I had no intention of paying for the Parc TR, but as I had paid for the assessment I thought I would attended it for my own information and hopefully learn more about my areas of weakness.

The assessment takes place at the Dublin Parc offices. On arrival at 0900 I was directed into a small room with 9 other candidates. There was no introduction or information given regarding the course and after a short wait it was in with the written tests. They consist of:

*40 min Verbal Reasoning test
*Un-timed Psychological test
*30 min Numerical Reasoning test

After the written tests are completed you are split into 2 groups. One group has their interview with the Psychologist and the other has the simulator assessment. I was to have the simulator assessment, but the sim slot wasn’t scheduled until 1900 and the written tests finish at 1200, so there was lots of time to kill. The assessment is conducted on a B737-200 sim and takes approximately 30 mins. Basic instrument flying skills are tested as well as PNF skills. The route is a SID out of Dublin, then RVs for ILS and it’s all flown raw data.

The following day I had my 30min interview with the Psychologist. Questions covered flying history, family, reason for wanting to do course etc.

Even though the assessment sounds quite substantial, it felt almost superficial. Except for the sim assessment, there seems little interest taken in candidates sitting the tests and getting information on the TR course was like getting blood from a stone. In addition to this I really think the assessment could easily be done in one day. I would say having it over two days has more to do with Parc saving money than anything else. Unfortunately it wasn’t a very positive experience and I learned very little from actually taking the tests, but I hoped the feedback would be revealing.

I received the feedback by mail about a week after doing the assessment. It consists of three pages.

The first page is an Assessment of Core Competencies which takes the result from all the written tests and compares yours to a set of norms. It really means nothing to anyone who doesn’t know how they have came to the adjusted scores. I couldn’t glean any useful information from this set of results. It seems the majority of competencies (almost all actually) are taken from the psychological test with the verbal reasoning and numerical tests counting for very little. There is no information provided regarding how well you did at the verbal or numerical tests. At the bottom is your overall score and the “minimum score required to be at airline standard”. As I said, I got no useful information from this page at all.

The second page is a written report from the psychologist. Mine was only several lines long and apart from some strange comments that contradict my working experience, it really said nothing at all. I was hoping for a lot more here.

The third page is the simulator assessment report. Most of which was taken up with flying details, licence number etc. At the bottom of the page was a two line comment from the assessing pilot and a score out of 10.

And that’s it! No letter, No thanks but no thanks and no guidance on what any of it means. It was all a bit disappointing and you are left wondering if you have been taken for a ride. Anyone thinking, as I was, that the feedback would reveal areas to improve on, think again.

Anyway, that was my experience with Parc. It may differ from other peoples, but I hope it gives anyone thinking of doing it a better idea of what to expect.

Did they recommend you for the scheme then?

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments and congrats with your TP job. Your experience of Parc sounds quite disappointing and not in line with a lot of the comments i hear about their MCC course - which i was seriously considering until i read this!

Be interesting to hear other peoples experience of Parc.

Many thanks for the information provided.

Number Cruncher, I did my MCC with them in November and I would highly reccomend them for their professionalism and competence.
All the other guys I know who attended the MCC with them were seriously satisfied.
I have no experience with the B737 SSTR scheme.

Regards

It was interesting that no where on the correspondence did it say if I had been offered a place or not. The give away that I hadn’t was my score on the psychometric testing was 52, and the score required to be of “Airline Standard” was 60. It was so vague I actually had to contact Parc to double check I hadn’t got a place.

I wouldn’t let my post put you off doing the MCC with Parc as by all accounts it’s quite good. In fact, half the people doing the assessment had done their MCC through Parc and were very positive about it.

psychometric stuff is b*ll!!!!! anyhow. Nowadays its the size of your wallet that counts. Sad but true,

Ricky god how much costs the type rating and how long it takes?do they give u any feedback for employment opportunities after u finish the course?

Parc SSTR assessment & Selection
 

Hello All,

I sat the assessment tests - paid 800E, did verbal and numerical tests, untimed 183 question psychological questionaire, and psychological interview.

They claim they have a 100% employment record. Given that they have a selection about 5 per year and that they 'accept' 2 or 4 each time makes life nice and easy for PARC as they have only 2 or 4 candidate to find jobs for. And this is the problem.. They are under no obligation what-so-ever to find you work, and although they have contacts within the industry, one they're done with you, you find yourself in a position to find work yourself just as much as PARC finding you work - even with 30,000E spent. I don't want to get into the dabate on sponsoring yourself as that a matter of personal opinion so lets get to the selection process....

It is exactly as the person who started this thread described!
40 minute verbal which is the "Watson and Glazer" test. Inference, interpretation, etc. English is my first language and its not easy. The numerical reasoning is very straight forward - just need to be fast. Its the mathematics one would have done by the age of 13 or 14 in school!!!!!!!!!! 30 minutes test.
You cant pass or fail the psychological interview or personality quesioaire - its just you describing your opinion in the quesionaire and talking about your life and flying in the interview etc.

Simcheck is: Take off and departure brief (BE CONFIDENT AND SURE OF YOURSELF!! No "am" "uh" "eh" - be very sure what your brief is. Liffy2A SID and once you pass the DUB VOR its time for airwork. This could be anything - accellerating level, climbs, climb & turn, descent or descent and turn, steep turns. Asked what your QDM/QDR is? Scan is CRITICAL and THE VSI is my opinion is ULTRA important. Then Radar vectors to a go around or to a landing and then airborne again/doing the G/A to do another vectored ILS.
No hold entry asked, but - the key is - Any Aspect Of Your IR FLYING Can Be Asked!!!

I got feeback 5 days later....PARC use this as one of their selling points of the course/selection procedure but, WHAT A JOKE. THEIR FEEDBACK IS USELESS!!!!!!!!

Like the person who started this thread - this so called "feedback" is no good to anyone. No where in my life have i seen a report on a persons performance which was so false, unsupported, with no backing to support the given feedback. In my education and working life for example, team-work has been the back-bone of success, winning business and making ideas work. I have worked in many pressure multi crew roles - yet this "psychologist" will report back to you in the feedback that you only get pityful results from their "assessment" of your teamwork capabilities. which is one of the "core competencies"...Its bull!!!!.
How can a person deduce, from a maths test, a verbal test and personality questionaire and interview about your family and training say to you that you have mediocre ability to "Plan ahead to avoid problems" its just not cunducive to anthing constructive and there no excuse for the feedback". You get no results from the numerical and verbal tests. The only meaningful result you get is from the sim-check, which is funny because he tells you at the time of the sim-check in his own words.

Its interesting to note that they ask you in the interview if you have applied to the CTC scheme, or any other airlines, and if you have been accepted for another selection by another airline. I indeed have been, and the person who started this thread stated they are working in a TurboProp job. Interestingly neiter of us was accepted.

In a nutshell, if you've been accepted by another airline, have a chance to work for another airline such as upcoming sim-check / interview, they will reject you. It seems that its so hard for "low-time" new pilots to get a start with their first job, PARC is a way in for those who cant get anywhere with their efforts. So whats the answer - dont tell them anything about any other prospect you have. The feedback is no good at all.

If you really want a place on the course:
1.... Dont tell the psychological interviewer that you have any other job opportunity.

2.... Myself and other applicants were advised by employees of PARC that the risk is too high. I could not believe this when i heard this!!!

3.....Ask PARC for e-mail addresses of as many past candidates. Interestingly they will only give you addresses of successful candidates, and none of unsuccessful candidates. Ask for addresses of unsuccessful candidates also and see if they can support any of my comments.

4.... Be very aware of the risk factor with SSTR whatever your opinion of them (Self Sponsored Type Rating Schemes) that have NO JOB GUARANTEE!!!

MAY 2006 BE A FRUITFUL YEAR FOR US ALL!

Interesting, I too scored low in the area of team work. I really struggled to see where this came from as there was no group activity and written tests cannot possibly give an indication of an individual’s ability to work effectively in a team. It was made doubly odd as, for the last 4 years, I have worked in an industry where excellent team work is essential and I have actually won awards for it! So go figure!

This whole scheme/scam just seems to be a numbers game in turning over as many £500's as possible...in....out....in...out..

Out of interest could you give a few examples of questions asked on a psychometric test please?

Hello All,

I was one of the first guys through the PARC scheme - finished my CPL/IR then did my MCC with them and straight onto the selection for type rating. The selection process that has been described sounds like it has not changed since I did it. I agree that the feedback is largely irrelavant. As mentionned earlier they take about 2/3 or 4 from each assessment.

When the programme started candidates were guaranteed a job on successful completion of the type rating. This made parting with the cash a lot easier. There are no guarantees now though.

The boys that got through all got jobs flying 733. However some found jobs in the time it took PARC to find the rest of us a job.

My experience of PARC was a very good one, there are of course people that will disagree with me. I could not fly a cessna 2.5 years ago and now I finally have the dream job flying a jet - with the hours I had this would simply not have been possible at the time I finished training without PARC.

Best of luck to all and have a great New Year.

Air Asia
 

There where some guys/gals typed earlier this year by Parc destined for Air Asia then the contract fell through?

Any of you still out there looking? Did you ever find jobs/the AA contract came good in the end?

Re: Air Asia
 

AA contract came good - some went to Portugal. A lot of us are back flying from AA and now flying for Ryan or BMI.

Re: Parc B737 SSTR
 

Hello, do you know where can i find online the watson and glazer verbal reasoning test?? (free if possible ;) thank you¡¡

Parc aviation or CTC?
 

hello, I would like to try or the parc aviation SSTR 737 or the CTC ATP scheme, what do you recommend me? I know the selection process is very difficult in both places but, where is easier to find a job after finishing?
I would like to know personal experiences on parc or CTC. Thank you

Re: Parc aviation or CTC?
 

SC,

I must admit I do not have any first hand experience with Parc, however, I would give CTC a shot first, simply because you will not have to part with the money for the cost of the type rating. If you are successful with CTC, you will be required to fund the AQC, which I think is in the ball park of six grand.

I am not sure on the current situation, but when I was at CTC last year, candidates were being lined up for ThomsonFly as soon as they had finished the AQC. Te general concensus was positive were respect to employment.

All the best with it.

Re: Parc aviation or CTC?
 

Thank you for your help, I think i will try CTC first, the problem is that i have heard that doing the course with CTC takes a lot of time instead that parc that is almost straight forward since you pass the initial exams.

Re: Parc aviation or CTC?
 

Hi there,

Just finished a type rating at CTC, good outfit.

More to the point I'm pretty sure you'll get employment with a good british airline.

I've heard alot of guys who go through parc end up in turkey and asia etc (not that theres anyting wrong if thats what you want)

Also, like someone else said you will only pay for the AQC course rather than a full rating.

Some of my colleagues did a rating at parc and they didnt get alot of change out 25000 plus hotels and food etc

Ali1

Re: Parc aviation or CTC?
 

There was a very informative thread on the Parc scheme a few weeks ago on this very forum. The search function is not working, but I will try and find it.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=203563

Re: Parc B737 SSTR
 

I would be interested in the Watson & Glaser test as well.
Thanks to anyone that could help us.
Cheers

Re: Parc B737 SSTR
 

Ask the 'aviation psychologist' if she is qualified to make such judgements and can her results be validated? She is full of b**s***

Re: Parc B737 SSTR
 

Ask the 'aviation psychologist' if she is qualified to make such judgements and can her results be validated? She is full of b**s***

Parc Aviation or Bond TR scheme?
 

Hi,i was considering to follow the self sponsored type rating scheme with parc aviation.does anyone know if they are a good TRTO??

Don't know nothing about the training with Parc Aviation, but I'm sure they are a good TRTO and...
...they are in touch with lots of airline, that's mean lots of opportunity to find a job after your TR.

Good luck! ;)

Parc Aviation or Bond TR scheme?
 

Hi all

I was also wondering if anyone has been on the Parc or Bond Aviation type rating scheme?
Ifso please could you PM me or leave a message on here so i can PM you with a few questions.

Many Thanks

Foil

Hi All,
I am interested in the same information. If anyone could advise, many thanks

best regards

sbab

I've found dealing with Parc spectacularly bad. The lady who gives her name in the adverts on this very site is bad at following requests up. I applied some time ago in December, but have heard nothing since. I guess they must have too much demand.

Bond seem to be quite responsive. I passed their SIM assessment, and they seem reasonably forthcoming.

The only issue is hours. A TR on its own is useless and 100hrs on type is not enough. All adverts for jobs indicate 500hrs.

Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
 

Currently considering doing a 737 type rating with Parc aviation, who claim to have placed all of their students so far. Has anyone had any experience with them? Anyone done the TR and has not been placed? Anyone got a job as a result? All advice greatly appreciated. :O