Day 0, D-Day, the day it all begins...!

So, today I started at the CAE Oxford Aviation Academy on the British Airways Future Pilot Programme. This is the start of a dream which has developed over the course of many a year to the point where I'm now able to make it a reality...

Rewind almost 11 months to the start of November 2012. This is where the programme really began when the 'Apply Now' link on the FPP website appeared after weeks of daily checking, opening the door to the long process which would hopefully lead to a seat at the pointy end of an Airbus. There followed essay questions, computer based aptitude tests, interviews, group tasks and much more besides, first at one's flying school (to use the parlance, Flight Training Organisation or FTO, of which BA uses three) and then at BA's somewhat imposing recruitment centre at Waterside, near Heathrow.

Having received the good news I then embarked on the second phase of preparation; that of organising finance, medicals and insurance. Predictably the numbers are eye-watering but therein lies the advantage of the BA scheme; you have to stump up the money for the training but they'll pay you it back afterwards. The first requirement was a Class 1 medical courtesy of the CAA at Gatwick - the medical allowed me to get the insurance that allowed me to finalise the loan that's now allowing me to do the course...

Fast forward to Wednesday September 11th 2013. So that our families and supporters would find out first hand what we're going to be doing over the next weeks, months and years (and indeed what we've already done) BA invited us to an FPP Families Day at the Flight Training Centre at Cranebank. There were the six of us starting at Oxford Aviation this month and six more who start next month at CTC in Southampton. The hours flew by (sorry, had to get that pun in somewhere) as the families got a go on the 747-400 sim and we all got a taste of evacuation training, including a couple of goes down the slides. Throughout the day there were, of course, many opportunities to ask questions and almost every conceivable member of staff was there to answer them, including almost an hour of access to the head of flight operations. To make sure the day ended on the highest possible note we got goody bags containing, among other things, many a free pen...

And so we come back to the start of this post. Day zero, Friday the 13th of September 2013, the day where we got our uniforms and filled in forms and got our books and had it hammered into us that we have a fair old job of work to do from Day 1 on Monday. So on that note, I'll end this very long post by saying that this is likely the longest post I'll ever write; from what we've been hearing from more advanced students time to breather soon becomes a luxury, let alone time to write a blog...!