A brief background of how the dream started.
When I was 7 my parents had organised a surprise trip to Orlando (I literally didn't know until we were following my cousins boarding a 777. I was told we were just waving them good bye on their holiday). It was a night flight and not long after we reached cruising altitude the pilots were offering views of the flight deck. Naturally I wanted to go in there to see it. As soon as I entered the flight deck and seen all of the displays, the lights and the street lights of the ground far below, I was keen to one day live the dream and become a pilot.
From that day forward, I have done everything possible to make the dream into a reality. This involved work experience at British Airways Maintenance Cardiff (highly recommend to anyone chasing a pilot or engineering career) which was fantastic experience of the real world of people working in teams and having a taster of working shift patterns. Other work experience included GE in Nantgarw, again great experience for seeing how a jet engine is stripped to singular parts and then built back up to working condition.
During my final year of A-levels in school, I went to a CTC open day to help decide whether or not I should apply straight away to aviation school or go to University. A great day out where I met the current cadets, CTC admin staff and the instructors. Learnt a lot about the process on that day and for anyone considering going to CTC I would recommend going to a careers event. Lastly, the simulators, they are simply amazing! I had the chance of landing both the A320 and the B737. Both completely different to fly even though I only had a couple minutes to experience them both. The A320 was quite easy to get a soft landing. The B737 was a bit more challenging with a harsher landing, but I enjoyed them both.
Even though I started my application on that day, I decided to postpone the course and do a degree in Aerospace Engineering. There was a good reason for it. (well it seemed like a good idea until the 2nd year of it) I thought that if I learn how a plane functions and how Engineers design the birds of the sky, then it should ease my learning when I start a course with CTC.
Following obtaining my degree I was given the oppotunity of a job as a Graduate Metallurgist at Timet in Swansea. I took full advantage of using my wages for my flight training and use the industry experience to toughen me up and become more confident in dealing with people . I started my flight training a month after starting at Timet. After 10 hours of flying my instructor let me loose for a solo circuit. What a feeling, no words can describe how I felt. Then 11 months after I started, I was taking my flight exam. After landing and parking up, the examiner gave me the news....I had passed. Just when I thought the best feeling was going solo, this exceeded that feeling, again I could not describe the feeling as you only ever get the chance of experiencing that once. Although when I finally get my CPL/MPL licence I may well get that feeling again.
