My name is Harry Pinder. I am 24 years old and from the UK. I recently completed the Ryanair Mentored Gateway 1 modular course with AFTA in November 2020.
Prior to joining the AFTA team I did my research and saw they had a terrific modern fleet of aircraft, experienced instructors and a very high graduate success rate with airlines, in particular Ryanair. I was truly excited at the prospect of joining AFTA and I was not disappointed. I commenced my training with AFTA in July 2020 and, during my time at AFTA, I had frequent lesson bookings and was able to complete the CPL, MEIR and MCC in less than 5 months. The instructors were very professional and they put lots of time aside to put you in to the best shape possible for the flight tests. They gave informative briefings, a good input to what could be improved on the lessons and taught us Ryanair briefings. My final part of training was the APS MCC. AFTA’s Ryanair mentored APS MCC uses a high quality B737 simulator and teaches many Ryanair SOPs and ultimately gives you the best possible preparation to be ready for the airlines.
Shortly after I had finished training, I was called for an assessment at the Ryanair HQ in Dublin.To prepare me for the assessment, I made sure that I availed on AFTAs Graduate Development Program. This program provides simulator and interview preparation conducted by experienced instructors at AFTA, who know the ins and outs of how to prepare students best for this assessment. AFTA worked with me to make sure I was 100% ready before going to the assessment.
The Ryanair mentored APS MCC, along with AFTAs Graduate Development Program allowed me to be full of confidence when I attended my type rating assessment. I was able to display many of the skills and SOPs I developed through training with AFTA during the interview and simulator assessment, and subsequently, I was accepted on to the Ryanair type rating program. I am due to start my type rating with Ryanair in April 2021 and I am very thankful to AFTA for their dedication and hard work which has helped immensely in me being able to achieve this. I would highly recommend AFTA to anyone serious about becoming a commercial pilot
