MEET & GREET & APD1 #5

Meet & Greet & APD1:

Airline Prep

Me in CTC uniform for the 1st time

Having left home at 7am I arrived at Nursling for the meet & greet which was very exciting but also quite daunting. I was anxious to get to know my course mates. Luckily I had been in touch with a few already through facebook which made initial introductions a bit easier.

We all sat around a table in the canteen chatting as people gradually arrived. Eventually everyone arrived and we were taken through to try on our uniforms and get given our fight bag containing lots of goodies, it was like Christmas all over again! Apart from my trousers being a bit long everything fitted perfectly which was very good news indeed.

We were then given the keys to our house and went off to find our new homes for the next 5 months. I met my 2 house mates, DJ and Luke (who are both top lads) and we started unloading all of our stuff (and there’s a lot of it). The house is in the middle of the New Forrest in a very quiet place, it’s a good house and a beautiful location. I think we are going to be very happy here for the next few months. 

Very proud of this small collection

My new house

Future pilots trying to work out how to open a bag

My new room

Having unpacked and got settled into the house we headed back to Nursling to meet up with our parents and have a presentation and tour. We were awarded our epaulettes, something I had been waiting for for a long time and then showed our parents round where we will be working until July.

It was then back to the digs to finish settling in, have a few snaps taken in the new uniform, say goodbye to the parents and cook my own meal! A struggle for any teenager so I’m going to have to learn fast! 

CTC Simulator hall

Teasing us with a 737 sim

The next day we went into Nursling for the first time as cadets, in full uniform for our APD (airline preparation day). It was the most amazing feeling walking in there as an official CTC cadet! We were told that around 4000 people apply each year to CTC and out of that lot only 200 get selected so I think everyone felt a great sense of achievement knowing we were in the top 5% of applicants.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day, we talked a lot about how to work in a team environment (referred to as CRM), what expectations are laid upon us as future pilots, how to deal with failure, how to balance our time throughout the training and much more. There were plenty of group discussions/exercises and opportunities for us to find out a bit about one another. It is clear that there is a huge variation of age (the youngest being 18 & oldest 27), culture, flying experience, hobbies etc so I’m sure there will never be lack of conversation between us.

Later, a few of us headed down to the pub for some unofficial team bonding and enjoyed a rare free night before the hard work starts. It was good seeing everyone in a more relaxed environment when they were 'off-duty'. We had a very nice evening, even though I couldn't drink as I had lost the coin toss for designated driver, DAMN IT! Luke, DJ & I managed to win a game of pool against another house though which was a great success (even if the only ball I potted was the wrong colour).

Unofficial Team Bonding

I find it impossible to fault my course mates, everyone seems genuinely nice and it’s great being in an environment where everyone is in the same boat with the same motivation. I think we will really help pull each other through this course and I can’t wait to get started with the ground school on Monday. 

Meet & Greet Presentation

Going to be spending a few hours here....

I am going to spend my weekend reading over all the hand-outs we’ve been given so far and get cracking on the CBT to make sure I start ahead of the game.