SELECTION #3

Airline Prep

I spent every bit of spare time I had during my 6^th form years preparing for my selection day with CTC. I read every single piece of information on their website, watched every video, read every blog and regularly checked airline websites for the latest news. I could not wait to get in that right hand seat of a commercial airliner.

As soon as I met all the entry requirements I filled in the online application form which soon after was acknowledged and I received an email inviting me to choose a date for selection. With the date booked I worked extremely hard on my maths and aptitude skills. As I said earlier, I have never been much of a mathematician, however, I practiced and practiced and practiced until I was confident my mental maths skills were good enough for that of the exam. I used various online sites such as 'latestpilotjobs.com' and 'pilapt' to practice my aptitude which were extremely useful and although they were slightly different to that of the real thing, the concept was the same and made the actual tests seem much more manageable. The most beneficial practice was the multi-tasking test which was much harder on the website than the real thing. After hours of practice on all the tests and double the practice on maths I felt reasonably confident leading up to the selection day. In the mean time I was brushing up on the latest world and airline news and preparing for some of the obvious questions that may come up in the interview. Having done drama for five years at school, I felt quite comfortable with talking to people and presenting myself well. However, finding the right thing to say and how to say it took a lot of practice. I luckily found a company based at Gatwick airport called ‘Airline Prep’ which was an intensive day course, preparing me for my selection day. I had a one on one session so I learned a lot from that day and it made me feel much more confident with the interview and group exercise.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: www.airlineprep.co.uk/app 

For the interview, practice answering why you want to be a pilot and why you want to train with CTC. Try to be concise, tell them what they need to know but don't ramble on. Know about the course, the partner airlines and the career, be aware of the reality and the ups and downs that come with the job. Express your passion! Also have a few examples of when you showed leadership, team work, success, failure, conflict etc and show how you've used/applied airline pilot qualities. They don't have to be anything spectacular, just real. DO NOT MAKE IT UP!

With the group exercise, if you've had previous team experience then this will help. Find a good balance between listening and contributing. Ask open ended questions that involve every member of the group. Don't be demanding and over powering but at the same time don't just sit back and let others run it. Ask people for their opinions and always look involved and interested. Remember, you're being assessed on how you interact with other people, not the end result of the task.

how a few of the tests would appear

So, when it came to the selection day, although I was very nervous, I was quietly confident that I would perform well. I arrived at Dibden Manor the evening before the selection day so that I didn’t have to get up stupidly early the next morning and travel which would only add to the stress of the day. This allowed me to take my time, get used to the facility and most importantly, talk to current cadets who were doing their AQC (Airline Qualification Course). This helped me settle down and took care of most my nerves. After a good night sleep my nerves had returned but I kept telling myself how prepared I was and made an effort to chat to everyone who turned up for the selection day and every member of staff I saw. Once everyone had arrived and gotten to know each other we were given a detailed presentation on the CTC course and then divided into groups. One half went straight into a room that looks very similar to that of a driving theory test room and completed the maths and aptitude tests, whilst the other half did the group exercise. Once the aptitude tests had all finished there was a short break and the groups swapped over.

I was very nervous as I was waiting to start the aptitude tests but once I’d got those headphones on and got the first couple of maths questions out the way comfortably, I settled into it and ended up going through it at my own steady pace. Everyone then met up in the lounge and discussed how they thought they’d done. The groups then swapped over and I moved on to the group exercises. I actually enjoyed this part, it was fun discussing and working with the other guys in my group. We didn't finish one of the exercises in time but we worked well as a team and didn't panic when the extra items were added. 

Both groups then met up and had lunch whilst discussing how their second morning session had gone. In the mean-time the selectors were deciding who would be offered an interview and who would be going home. The wait seemed to go on forever, it was very tense! Eventually we were split into two groups again (different to the morning groups) and told whether we had passed or failed the morning assessment. Thankfully, I was one of the lucky three that was offered an interview. I was absolutely delighted. I then needed to wait another hour or so to have my interview. I spent that time talking to the current cadets who were giving me advice and it really settled me down. When I went into the interview I felt surprisingly laid back and was just myself, I got everything across that I wanted to and came out feeling pretty positive. The next day I got a phone call from CTC offering me a place on the Wings Cadet course. Finally! All the work I’d done had paid off and I was absolutely ecstatic. I’ve never felt so happy. So, with a place on a CTC course secured it was time to deal with all the paper work. Lots and lots of paper work….

My main tips would be:
1) PREPARATION - "If you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail". Make sure that you have got a reasonable grasp of the aptitude tests, get your mental maths up to scratch and do it under timed pressure, practice answering potential interview questions to yourself in the mirror or to friends/family, get used to expressing important things that will make you appealing to assessors.

2) LOOK SMART, ACT SMART - Dress in a smart suit, dark (shined shoes), tidy hair, clean shaven; look like a pilot. Interviewers are looking for future pilots and if they can picture you as a pilot then that's no bad thing. If you turn up looking scruffy and disorganized then that's not going to help your chances. When do you ever see a pilot looking untidy? Also remember that you are always being assessed (even if it is not an allotted selection time). Don't let you're guard down. Look and act like a pilot!

3) BE YOURSELF - Assuming you've prepared well enough and have given yourself plenty of time, just relax and be normal. Interviewers will see right through you if you're pretending to be someone you're not. Back the skills you've accumulated so far and do your best.

Dibden Manor

PREPARATION FOR SELECTION #2

Airline Prep

Preparation for selection:

Aero-tow in a K21 glider @ Parham (South Downs)

I was given a trial flight in a Cessna 152 from Shoreham airport as a 15^th birthday present, and later a flight in a modern Diamond (DA40) aircraft. It would be fair to say that I ‘caught the bug’. As soon as I decided I was definitely going to be a pilot I started researching ways of fulfilling the dream and what requirements were needed. I was also fortunate enough of knowing Terry Buckland, a senior member of the CAA (civil aviation authority) who had a daughter training to be a pilot with CTC Wings. They were both so helpful and provided me with a load of information that I was and am so grateful to have. I also had the pleasure of spending four hours in an Airbus A330 simulator at Heathrow airport with three members of the CAA which was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I got to spend an hour at the controls, practicing take-offs and landings in and out of Gatwick, Birmingham and JFK. If my heart wasn’t already set on becoming a commercial pilot before, it certainly was afterwards! I then took up gliding at the age of 16 to learn as much as I could about the basics of flying and to get a general feel for it. Needless to say it is also the cheapest form of flying which pleased my parents immensely. 

Trial Flight @ Shoreham Airport in a DA40

Before I made any full commitment to flying I went to Gatwick to get my Class One medical, just to be sure that there weren’t any issues that I would later discover that would prevent me from flying. Although it was expensive, it was definitely worth checking before spending large sums of money, only to find out I was couldn’t fly for some reason. As far as I was concerned I was perfectly fit and healthy and I expected to ease through and that would be it. However, I failed my initial colour blindness test which left me sat in the waiting room feeling extremely anxious. I was offered an advanced colour test (CAD Test) to see how serious my condition was. This consisted of staring at a small computer screen for twenty minutes, trying to pick up faint squares and identifying which direction they’d moved. When I’d finished I had about a ten minute wait, which felt like hours! I have never been so on edge! The lady came out with a piece of paper in her hands and a warming smile on her face. To my relief I had met the CAA requirements and was deemed fit to fly commercial aircraft. I had never felt such relief! It turns out that there are certain degrees of colour blindness and even if you can’t see the patterns on the cards, there’s still a chance that you can fly.  

Me Flying the sim into Gatwick

From all the research I’d done and people I’d spoken to, I decided that doing an integrated course with a leading FTO (flight training organisation) was the most promising route. The three main FTO’s that appealed for me were CTC Wings, Oxford Aviation Academy and FTE Jerez. With recommendation from close contacts and hours of research, I decided that CTC was going to be the best place for me and give me the best chance of landing a job at the end. This was due to the large number of partner airlines CTC holds, the quality of training and the location of the of the flight training. The advantage of training in New Zealand is that the weather is very similar to that of the UK and the most common conditions you will be flying in, only the airspace is quieter and therefore safer for cadet pilots.

ABOUT ME #1

Airline Prep

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog! Over the next 18 months or so I will be posting updates which will aim to provide friends and family with my latest progress and aid aspiring pilots like myself with as much information as possible to help them achieve their dream of becoming a commercial airline pilot. I’ll leave my email address for anyone who wants to get in touch and ask any questions and I’ll be happy to answer them asap! – harryinnesclark@googlemail.com

About me:

For as long as I can remember I have always been passionate about flying. I have pictures of me as young as four years of age dressed as a pilot, flying aircraft on my Granddads flight simulator etc. My favourite TV programme when I was a child was ‘Thunderbirds’. I remember being fascinated by the huge aircraft flying at break-neck speeds, transporting huge loads of machinery and carrying out daring manoeuvres, the whole time wishing I could fly them (especially Thunderbird 2). I have bleared visions of looking out of the sunroof of my parents’ car, viewing the underside of mighty 747’s and the magnificent Concorde coming into land at Heathrow airport. My Grandad was a squadron leader on Hercules’ in the RAF so he obviously had a massive influence on my aviation career and my knowledge and passion for it.

I must at this point add that I would not have got to where I am today without an enormous amount of help from my Mum, Dad, Grandparents and God-Father Nick Tester. Their support over the last few years and sacrifices they've made have been so helpful and I will always be thankful to them for that.

The first glimpse of what was to come

From about the age of 8 I have been heavily into my sport and wanted to play professional sport of some kind until around the age of fifteen/sixteen. At that stage I was very much on course to playing professional cricket. I was in the Sussex academy and had trialled for the England youth side the previous year (unsuccessfully sadly). It was at this stage that I had to make a very realistic and serious decision about what I was going to do for the rest of my life. This was a very tricky decision and I used the long hours stood in the field as an opportunity to think. 

Me in my playing days #Ardingly 1st's

Me in my playing days #Sussex Academy

I eventually made the tough decision of giving up my ambitions of playing professional cricket to pursue a long-term career in aviation which has always been my passion. At the time I was unsure whether I had made the right decision but with a new and very different career lined up I suddenly became much more focused on my academic work and threw myself into a range of different activities, achieving more than I could have ever imagined as a pupil at Ardingly College (West Sussex). The wide range of activities I did in and out of school I feel helped sculpt me as a person and give me a number of skills that have given me a huge advantage in certain situations I have encountered since. For example, doing drama and school plays built up my confidence to perform in front of crowds which proved useful in group exercises and interviews. 

Landing a K-21 @ Parham (South Downs)

I achieved one A*, three A’s and 5 B’s at GCSE, ticking the necessary academic boxes that most flight schools and airlines require. I then decided to take maths, physics, psychology and drama for A-level, thinking that maths and physics was absolutely necessary if I wanted to be a pilot. I can honestly say that I have never got on with maths or physics but I was willing to give it a go. However, not being a natural mathematician meant me falling behind almost instantly and I couldn’t cope with the complexity of A-level maths. I therefore had to request dropping it to allow time to focus on my other subjects. Even after dropping maths early on, I was still finding it hard to keep up with everything and after a great deal of hard work and determination (and one retake), achieved two B’s (and a C for physics AS). I was very much out of my depth with A2 physics and after a few challenging weeks, decided it was not in my best interests to continue with it. However, just because I couldn’t keep up with A-level maths and physics didn’t mean I ignored it completely. In the spare time I had, I took up extra maths lessons, focusing specifically on mental maths and basic techniques that would be needed for my selection and future job. I also practiced GCSE standard physics problems to stay reasonably clued up on the basics that I would need. So for those of you who are like me and don’t fancy themselves as academic geniuses, don’t panic! Just make sure you’re clued up on basic maths and physics and can solve reasonably simple problems in your head under time pressure (that comes with practice). You don’t need all A*’s in maths and science and a degree in engineering to become a pilot. I advise taking subjects that you enjoy and feel you can do well in whilst becoming involved in a range of activities that will broaden your horizon and add a few extra strings to your bow.