Journey to flight school-Cabair selection

Selection, for this course was in 4 stages.

Stage 1:

Well this stage was simply the application stage. Nice and easy. If you have the qualifications to become a pilot, then generally you should be okay to pass this stage. But.....nowt as queer as folk. Some people still managed to fail at this stage?? Huh, what they applied with no qualifications? Perhaps, but some still had the required minimums, which to be honsest is GCSEs in maths, with A-levels to help, but still failed. So how did they fail? Quite simply, they had a scruffy application form. "They must have filled it out whilst eating their dinner off it" was one quote I got.

About 100 people applied for this stage, about 50-60 got through

So lesson here wannabees, for Gods sake, take time to fill out your application and make it look nice. You can get a new one if you spilled coffee/curry/bodily fluids on it. Perhaps this was the real reason that it done by hand.

Stage 2:

PILAPT and Maths/Physics test.

Now for the real cutter, can you answer GCSE maths and phyics questions, with a calculator, and demonstrate good aptidue? This is generally the point of stage 2.

So overview, well questions on Maths and Physics were generally non-challenging, but considering that it has been about 10 years since I have seen these questions, I should have revised a little more before this day. Generally, GCSE level. Revise it!


PILAT, pilot aptidue test. You get a joystick, a mouse and a keypad with coloured buttons and ABCD on it. Can you hold a set of crosshairs in the middle with random drifting? Can you identify which hand the square is being held in when the chap in either unsidedown, backto front or both? Can you spot when the audio count down rate changes, while looking out for a coloured shape and keep those crosshairs in the middle. If so, then you shouldn't have a problem.

Stage 3:

Well despite my aging brain, I passed Stage 2 and was invited to Stage 3. One of about 16 people who got through the pilapt tests. This generally consited of an introduction to the school followed by a group discussion on a variety of topics and an interview with Cabair.

Stage 4:

Well I must admit I thought I did okay in Stage 3 but not good enough. They wanted 8, I was 9th, apparently. Oh well... Stage 4 would have consisted of an interview with Flybe..