Ask Captain Lim - Is there a quota imposed on the passing rate in a Flying Training School?

Thank you for your informative web site. I went for an interview with SQ for the cadet pilot position earlier this year but was unfortunate not to be short listed after the initial interview. Stumbling upon your site subsequently and reading through the posts, I must say that I am indeed unlucky not to have known of this site earlier! I agree on hindsight that I was not as well-prepared. Nevertheless, I will try again in the next couple of months, this time hopefully successful..

I have a question to ask though. I do hear from time to time about the high attrition rate during the flying training phase. Could you give me some insight as to what to expect in a flying training school and how a cadet should conduct himself during the training. While I am certainly aware of the amount of hard work and aptitude demanded from the students, is there anything else that they may be looking for in weeding out a weak trainee pilot? It is highly rumored that a quota is imposed on every batch so as to trim the numbers down to a selected few. Is this a myth or close to a fact?

I will be thankful if you or some of your fellow contributors who have gone through the training school to share some of their life experience there with us.

Thank you once again. Good day.

Nurman

Hi Nurman,

It is not true to say that there is a quota on every batch of the student intake in a Flying Training School. Yes, the passing rate is neither 100 percent in most cases. For students that lack the flying aptitude, they may have difficulty passing the course even though they may be academically qualified. The stress is mainly on the manipulative skills and flying airmanship.

Life in a training school is just like any institution of higher learning. You have to work very hard in all aspects of the course. In Australia, I was told that the award of a CPL is equivalent to a College Degree and an ATPL, to that of a Bachelor's Degree. So you can imagine the standard that is required in passing the ground examination subjects.

I do not have the time at the moment to write about the flight experience of a training school, perhaps in the future, unless we can get a kind soul or someone that I have assisted in the past to write about their experiences.