Come fly away with us! (From Warrington Guardian)

Come fly away with us!

A TRIO of students at Priestley College are reaching for the sky as they train to become pilots.

Samantha Smythe, Amy Worsley and Ann Ibbertson are all learning to fly with the Shropshire Aero Club.

Following a visit to the Commercial Pilot Recruitment Day, at Heathrow, in November, they were invited to take part in a week of aptitude tests and interviews at the Flight Training Europe Academy at Jerez, Spain.

The flight academy is used by British Airways to train its pilots and the three students experienced what life is like as a trainee commercial pilot.

Samantha, aged 18, from Stockton Heath, said: Even though I made my first solo flight a number of months earlier I never imagined that I would be invited to Spain and it has inspired me to realise my ambition."

Amy, aged 17, of Padgate, said: "The academy trains you to be employable in the airline industry and not just as a means of passing exams.

"It was a total experience of the whole aviation business and it made me realise that with determination and hard work you can accomplish anything."

And 18-year-old Ann, from Halton, also received an offer from Loughborough University to study aeronautical engineering while she was in Spain.