Followup meeting

So with my issues regarding financing, I arranged to meet up with the PTC again as they were setting up for another open evening at Manchester Airport.

Plenty of things discussed which I shan't go into here, but it left me with a clear plan and a mission to get parents to come along to the open evening on the 17th. So, as soon as I arrived home and had sorted my dinner I called my parents to see if either of them could attend. Due to prior commitments and nobody else to watch the dog, only my dad was able to come but one is better than none. So we'll see how things go tomorrow evening at the open evening.

Funding

This post is fairly sparse at the moment, I'll be updating this with my experience of the funding options and how I personally (hopefully) secure the funds.

Now this is the hard part, To keep the flow of this blog I'll be updating this post and leaving it after the  aptitude tests instead of making new postings.

Options 
Personal funding is probably the safest way to cover the cost of your course, but isn't necessarily going to be an option for the vast majority of us, certainly not myself.
If this was the route you wanted to go down, you'll need to start saving early as you're looking around £80,000 to fund your course. So unless you're in a high paid job then you'll be looking at a few years worth of hard saving to cover this all by yourself, so it's likely that you will need to cover at least some of the funds from an alternative source.

Family unfortunately isn't an option for me personally as my parents aren't in a position financially to be able to lend me the amounts of money required for the course.
However for those of you reading this looking to do a course, family is by far the easiest way and I'll explain why. Your family will have an emotional stake in your success in this course regardless and will want nothing more than to see you succeed and as such will be more willing than a financial institution to lend you money, even if it means them going via a bank to do so. This has many advantages for you as a trainee pilot, you personally have less to worry about while you are studying, you won't necessarily be tied down to an immediate payment schedule if your parents can afford to keep you going till you qualify and let's face it, your parents aren't going to let you slack off and not get yourself a job at the end of it.

Financial institutions are almost certainly going to be involved in your life as a trainee pilot at some point and for the majority people will potentially be the largest source of funding, certainly for those that aren't able to be supported by their family.

Sponsorships have been intentionally left till the last option in my list. They shouldn't be relied upon to fund your course as there is so much small print and quite a high risk carried with such schemes if you're not careful.
The other reason I have left his option till last is you will still need to cover the large majority of your funds from elsewhere and usually prove to the school/sponsor, that you can afford to pay for the full course without these funds anyway, as there is always the risk of not meeting the sponsorship terms and losing your eligibility to the funding.

Aptitude Tests

Pilot Training College Assessment
04/02/2011  0800-1400
Crowne Plaza Hotel - Manchester Airport

Slight delays in getting to the assessment due to really bad traffic on the M60, however I managed to get there at 0805 leaving me just enough time to have a brief chat with my 5 fellow candidates and rush through the partnered MCC exercise prep.

The first stage of the day was each member of the group introducing their partner from the MCC exercise to the group (From this exercise onwards, we were being recorded and assessed on our every move).

After the MCC exercise was done with, we then had a brief presentation about PTC and a 'day in the life' video from a recent successful First Officer from the college before moving on to the core tests.

Assessments
First up for myself was the Maths assessment. (70%)
Expected a few small issues with this and there were one or two but I fought through, only guessing at 2 or 3 answers when we hit the end of the time limit.

Second came the Aviation Knowledge assessment. (80%)
This was an either know it or you don't test, I can't stress how important it was to have read the prep material I was sent to pass this. Apart from one or two questions I didn't have too much trouble with this, although those that I did miss are ones that I should have committed to memory a little better than I had.

Third for myself was the Psychometric examination. (PASS)
Not usually the sort of test that has right or wrong answers, but in this sort of situation, there are undesirable answers. One of these 'Strongly Agree' through to 'Strongly Disagree' type of assessments that are used to gauge your personality and suitability for various aspects of your intended career.

Finally we had the 'Hard Skills' assessment. (30)
Maths again was the letdown here, made slightly worse by having to answer each question in succession in a time limit, no opportunity to go back and try a question again. I did miss at least 5 or 6 questions in this, but still came out not too badly scathed. On the flip side though, the HARDEST of these COMPASS tests (the Task manager) I hit a perfect 7, whereas my control needed a little more work with a 4/7 (though use of pedals is a little awkward with a badly injured knee).

Soft Skills weren't too shabby either.
These guys do assess EVERYTHING, so when something is said, it's expected to be taken in and adhered to. I had my mobile out once during a break (for about 30 seconds) but this was spotted either on camera or by one of the assessors and did lose me a mark as we'd been told to leave them off earlier in the day. Only two scores at 5, the rest were 6's and one 7.


Overall I unfortunately didn't meet the standard for the Flybe sponsorship (the required mark for maths is 75%) but I DID pass the overall assessment quite well and was told I probably have too much personality for Flybe anyway (in a good way).
To have been given the UK Directors personal mobile number, I must have made a good impression. I also have to thank the officer from the ATC for the Typhoon tie pin that myself and the other former cadet were given on the day, it really is something that stays with you throughout life.


Now comes the even bigger challenge of €84,500 to secure my place on the 14 month Integrated Airline Pilot Training programme that they offer. My certificate is hung on my wall currently as proof of my accomplishment at the assessment day and is valid for 12 months, but how a 24 year old retail worker on £16k per annum, renting their flat is going to find that money is a very steep hill to climb...