CTC easyJet Cadet Pilot Programme – Week One

The past few weeks have passed by faster than I could have ever imagined. From finishing my last shift at my retail job just a few weeks ago, I’m now living in a new house and am officially enrolled on course EZMPL01 (part of CP110) at CTC Aviation. To be here training at last feels amazing, and pretty unbelievable!

After a relaxed week  frantic couple of days of packing early last week, I loaded up my car and set off to Southampton for our ‘Meet and Greet’ day. It felt great to be back at the Nursling centre and pretty unbelievable to think that I was there to pick up my house keys rather than attending an open day! The day was well organised, and after picking up our keys in the morning we had a few hours to settle into our houses before returning for the Meet and Greet. The day allows cadets and parents to speak with the staff and find out more about what we are about to take on, and is also where we first meet face to face, try on our uniforms and collect our equipment. An EasyJet training captain was also in attendance to present each of us with our first set of epaulettes and spoke to those of us on EZMPL01 about the course outline and our future careers at easyJet. As the course name suggests, this is CTCs very first easyJet MPL course and it’s very exciting to be a part of. Throughout the duration of our course, we have a liaison easyJet pilot (who is himself an ex-CTC cadet) on hand for any questions we have, as well as regular contact and updates from EasyJet via email. It’s pretty cool to be receiving easyJet staff emails already – it allows us to keep up to date on the latest company news, and really makes us feel like part of the airline even at this early stage!

After some refreshments and a tour of the facilities, we had our pictures taken for easyJet and we slowly made our way back to the house to finish unpacking and have a good look around the local area. An early night beckoned, however, as we were up early the following morning for APD1. This was the first of our Airline Preperation Days which target the development of key skills needed by commercial pilots, and it was extremely well delivered by a couple of hugely experienced commercial pilots who lecture at CTC. The day also aims to address any concerns about what we are taking on and put us in the right frame of mind for the start of Groundschool.

Friday night and Saturday morning involved a meet up with the other members of CP110 in Southampton which was great fun, but what we were all really looking forward to was the official course start on Monday. It was pretty amazing to put on my uniform for the first time!

Now, when people tell you there is a lot to learn, they aren’t lying – we started off on Aircraft General Knowledge and have already started Instruments! So far, I’m finding the workload manageable and the theory is proving really interesting (but ask me again when we arrive on Air Law)! Generally, after finishing our day at the training centre, we drive back and have a half hour break before working for around three hours going over the days theory and doing some practice questions. I’m living with five other easyJet MPL cadets, and we are all getting on really well. It’s great to be in a house with like minded guys, and we are finding that talking through the days theory is a great way to get to grips and fully understand the subjects. On Thursday we were scheduled to have our first CBT day, but we were called into the training centre as the easyJet Head of Training and Chief Pilot were visiting. We had a room set aside for us to work through our theory and later in the afternoon we had a fantastic talk with them both about the airline and our training. It was fantastic to hear more about the airline, and all of our questions were answered honestly and with a bit of Scottish humour! There is a ‘buzz’ and excitement from both CTC and easyJet about both the MPL and Wings courses, and it’s great that we get the opportunity to speak to such senior employees from the airline – another advantage of training where the airlines train!

So, that is my first week in a nutshell! Next week we will be concluding Instruments before returning to AGK the week after. My next post won’t be too far off, as I’m sure I’ll have something to talk about…

Speak soon!