Tuesday, April 29, 2014
CTC - Life as a pilot trainee
Its been 3 months since I arrived to New Zealand.
I could still feel the excitement when I got the acceptance offer. the offer to train as a pilot trainee with Qatar Airlines. You can never imagine the joy I had, after all the disappointments in life I had, from SYFC, to RSAF, I have to do this, to give my best and pass this phase and be the pilot I always wanted to be.
The Wait.
waiting for CTC for our results in selection was the longest wait I ever experienced in my life. it was only 2 to 3 days before they told you the results, but when you are that eager to know how you fare, I guess time slows down to such drastic rate, it felt like I am in field camp during BMT. I could still remember the shock I had when my Qatar interview only lasted 5 minutes. I questioned myself on the drive back to London from Southampton, pondering did I answered the questions wrongly, or was I too nervous on the job I wanted that badly. turned out, I passed.
The disappointment.
I thought everything was an all clear to me, I passed the selections and was up for signing the contract and in the midst of doing my aeromedical. Qatar is pretty stringent, the fact that we had to do 2 Class 1 medicals, 1 with CAA and the other with QCAA speaks a lot about how perfect they want things to be. I had a shock of my life when I failed my class 1 medical with CAA, even when I passed my military aeromedical and my class 1 aeromedical in Singapore. I couldn't sleep for a week. I booked for a review for my eyes failure. Turned out that my eyes do wonder around when I fall aslp, but to my relief, I am able to control my eye muscles so well, the doctor, in all his 30 years with CAA, said he would pass me as a special case, but it would be my own risk to pursue such a career as my conditions may deteriorate in the future. But I am too close to my dreams. I wont give up. I accepted that risk, and signed the contract with Qatar.
The Arrival
I only had 3 days to pack, I was rushing for almost everything, thinking of what to bring, saying goodbyes to my friends in Singapore, trying my best to eat almost everything I love in that small little dot that is called Singapore. I had to say, this is my second goodbyes, the first was Liverpool, my best pals, Marcus, Isabel, Michelle, Jinglun and also my beloved Singapore Society committees that sticked with me thru all the shits, even with my stubborn ways in governing the society, from sourcing sponsors, organizing fresher's events, to trying to permanently remove all politics and hatred amongst fellow Singaporeans. we had our ups and downs. but surprisingly, we pulled through. I am glad I did my term in Liverpool as the President, and I missed it all that badly to be there, sleeping on the couch, cooking for the sisters, laughing and teasing, planning trips for our easter breaks. skyping late at night for no particular reasons. Thank you Liverpool, you have made a good impression and an awesome memory I would never forget. Back in Singapore, my 5 day university friends camp which landed me into a small but tight clique, Dione, Jiayi, Eugene. We have our ups and downs, even a supposed leaving of 1 of our "member" that I still feel upset about, but I guess she is doing ok right now. Thanks for being there when I broke up, cheering me up with all the Singapore singlish and studying in NUS, gave me an insight on how life is, studying in a local uni, as expected, everyone is chasing grades, which is the worst system I can imagine as compared to an overseas education, I know I am not in a position to judge, but it is clear to me, if given a choice, I would have gone to Liverpool still, even if it means keeping my Ex-gf by my side. It opened a whole new world of insight for me, and my gay buddies from the Army, Darren and Edmund who stick around, even though we didn't know each other from our BMT, we seem to clique pretty well and had each other backs, sad to say, we are in 3 different countries as I typed this message. lastly, my gay bud Mr Ong ee cock chow, whos been listening to my rants and problems, sad to say, I always wanted to listen to your shits too, but I guess u're as strong as a bull and you can handle shitty stuffs by your own. There you go, the thoughts just wonder into my mind as of now, a life of a pilot, your friends will start to leave one by one, as u fly across the world. Where will I call home then? and there I was, disembarking JETSTAR, ready for my new journey in life.
The experience.
I got to Clearways, where all the pilots from various Airlines and pilots who are self funding and not attached to any airlines lived. We lived just beside Hamilton Airport, and right outside our driveway, is a huge VOR ( put it simply, a device that guides plane to the runway ) , and a 5minute drive to CTC training school. I got into my room, it was 3 times bigger than my accommodations in Vinecourt, with my own little kitchen (no fire related, just a microwave) and toilet. the kitchen was shared. I cant wait to meet my batch mates. The ops team brought me to the supermarket to get some groceries. and Wala! a new start from ground zero all over again.
The next day, I collected my uniform. everyone was in a tie, walking around, looking smart and neat. looking professional. I was admiring everyone that it slipped my mind that I am becoming one of them. my course mates were pretty young, 18ish, strength of 6. I walked into class and realised, our ground school is combined with the Hong Kong people under DragonAir. A group of 7, fully sponsored cadets, ( cars included), such lucky people. But who cares, we will all end up in the same place, the skies. just that, I will be 200k SGD poorer than those people. looking at the school, you would see people who bring lunchboxes, pretty evident that these people, are self funded, like me, who, ate sandwich almost everyday, from a purple lunchbox I called "budget".
currently, I am in the ground phase of flying. where we learn all our theories, calculations and formulas. Something that I felt is not practical as we do not possess any flying experience, I would think half flying and studying would be much better, so we can put those theories into good use and have a clearer picture of what's going on. our dateline is 6 months, to pass 14 subjects. each as thick as a dictionary, with definitions,formulas, theories to be memorized. never would I thought I would study this hard and this long. Life as a trainee isnt as easy as i thought. From the outsider's point of view, it would always be, "wow, you're gonna be a pilot, thats awesome! etc etc" but before all those awesome views from the cockpit and the excitement behind the control stick, i must first, clear this stage of life. a standard life for a ground school trainee would be,waking up at 730am, making breakfast (self funded loners) , preparing for school. class from 9 to 4, sometimes 5. and head home, take a shower, tidy the room (for me its as usual, a huge mess) and study till late. and the cycle repeats till Thursday, where normal humans like me, being stressed, would drink beer and chat and laugh. play a few games and wake up the next day, thinking, did my rest day just ended in a flash? we didn't have much break after our first set of exams. it is split into 2 groups, 7 subjects each for 2 semesters (3 months at a time), i had my exams on Monday to Thursday, 2 1 1 3, 2 papers on Monday, 1 on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday, 3 on Thursday. and we had Friday, Saturday, sunday off, and that's it! we started the next semester on Monday. such is life. our results are due to be out tomorrow , i am not confident with 2 papers. CTC gave mock exams 2 weeks prior to our actual exams, I passed all with an average of 88%, don't be surprised, that isn't a high grade. passing mark is 75%, and there are brilliant minds that scored 98.5% in my course. We cant really spot questions as the papers were dependent on the setter, some may give an easy paper, whereas some douche could just write a paper which at one glance, you know u are *censored* badly. the good thing about CTC in Hamilton is, our classrooms are right next to the airport, and looking at the planes take off and land through the window gives me motivation to complete this phase of training. well, this is as much as i can write for now, gotta get back to work.
Signing off.
Min
1:54 AM