Wednesday 18 January 2012

Yearly update :)

When I started this blog I didn't plan to post yearly.2011 has been a very busy year for me in terms of work and studies. The first sets of the ATPL exams were finally passed in August. I kind of expected these passes I think I was also a bit lucky. I had to put the work in but I needed a bit of luck too. And the school. Bristol.gs was probably the best choice for me. I went down to Cheddar for two weeks in July for the brush-up just before the exams. The course structure just works perfectly. 2 weeks intensive studies in the classroom plus the amount of homework was incredible however it paid off at the end. I spent around 15 hours with the studies per day and there was no Facebook, no drinking and chilling and no life at all.Sleep and study.Simples. It sounds very demanding but it works. The first week was a killer we went through the whole material within a week and than we've done more practise exams on the second week. The instructors are brilliant. All very well prepared and experienced and surprisingly, entertaining!Most of them are ex-RAF and ex-Airline pilots navigator and engineers.
Tom's Airbus-Boeing comparison is the best of all!
You get all sorts of jokes and experiences during the classroom sessions.It probably the only way to resist it. I stayed in Brian's B&B (availability on the school's website) for the whole 2 weeks for a reasonably price. Cheddar is nice and quiet just what a student needs.
In the meantime dropped both of my part-time jobs in May to make some more time for the studies and then in July I finally left the catering industry behind after 8 years. I joined to a well-known financial institution's call centre as an adviser. It's not a rewarding job at all but it pays the bills and I can just as much as I used to when I had 2 jobs. And most importantly less physical work and even a day-off at the weekend. I'm looking for an aviation related job like a ramp agent or in ops but it is quiet hard into somewhere.
Unfortunately I haven't done any flying in 2011 which is a shame but I had a good reason: money. This year is going to be different because my loan application has been approved 2 weeks ago (still with a crap APR but I push it down.I've got 4 years for it:)). It looks like once I'll be over the February exams I start to look for an hour building place somewhere close around Edinburgh possibly in Perth.
The Etihad guys didn't get back to me regards to the cadet application and also my other cadet  application was turned down by Atlantic Airlines too. There is not much I can do I just have to get on with it...
Otherwise not many changes, I moved to Stockbridge in March (it's probably the nicest part in Edinburgh) and I love it.I should have done this earlier. And I still don't have a driving licence but I'll need to start working on it after March.
That's all for now and here my results too, I just scanned them: