Some of the other gouges on here were correct in the sense that my interview content was in them, but they seemed to contain a bit more than what I went through.
Company positive-spaced me to MSP and put me up in the Country Inn and Suites (it was a nice little hotel, like a Holiday Inn type... to the kid who was complaining in the previous post about the hotel being "JUST OK...", geez, at least THEY PAID for it!, for which I was GRATEFUL!). However, even though the hotel and room were nice and spotless, I woke up with 4 bedbug bites, to which I'm very allergic. I'll have the bite for at least 2 week! So beware if that frightens you... I had my ride meet me back at my home airport with trash bags to put all my things into quarantine! Moving on...
-Interview Class Size: 8 People. I was the youngest at 29 (actually ran into a guy I'd worked with in Phoenix). 1200TT guy all the way to a 5,000hr 737 type-holder, and every amount in between.
-During the beginning overview presentation, the explained how the interview is broken down into three phases: (Phase 1-Written evaluations-Wonderlic Test and ATP Sample Test. Phase 2: HR and Technical Interview Session- and Phase 3: Simulator Evaluation).
Starts out like all the others...
-Company Powerpoint Presentation
-Phase 1: Wonderlic Test (I suggest Googling this to find a practice test you can take to get a good idea of how to do it. I completed 40 of 50)
-ATP Sample Written-25 questions.
*They did not tell us any required minimum scores for either of these tests. After we finished individually we were called to do our fingerprints and collected a Flight Time Supplement sheet that they'd given us to fill out when we arrived.
-All 8 of us proceeded from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the interview.
-Phase 2: The Phase 2 interview split us up into 2 groups of 4 each going individually to a pair of interviewers. The interviewing pair was one HR rep and one CRJ training Captain. I was second to go from my group and it took about 1 hour per person for the phase 2.
During the Phase 2 interview, they go through all of your PRIA paperwork, required documents, etc. They ask you about your experience, what got you into flying, about your training, about some students you've had, and about any bad things you've done in your past that they might come across during a background check. DISCLOSE EVERYTHING THEY MIGHT FIND. People get pulled out of training all the time for omitting a misdemeanor arrest! Anyhow, then they get into the "Tell Me About A Time..." questions. "TMAAT when you were scared in an airplane that taught you a lesson... TMAAT that you regretted doing something in a plane that you wish you could take back." They also asked me what my parents and family and significant other would thing about me going away, out on the road, making low wages for a few years, and sitting on airport reserve. Lastly the training captain asked me a scenario-based question about flying a trip with the top-seniority captain, and all through the trip he is constantly not following SOPs. What would I do as a brand new FO? Basically they are wanting to hear that you WOULD challenge his actions, and in what manner would you do it? After you get him in trouble with the chief pilot, two weeks later you have another 4 day trip with him... how do you handle it? Professionally, that's how.
After the HR portion of Phase 2, they begin asking you technical questions. They Captain pulls out a pre-selected Jepp Approach plate and begins asking me questions about the symbology, the MSA and its radius and what it is centered around. Asks to briefly explain the procedure, asks what minimums are with the G/S functioning, and without the G/S. Know about the "Conditional" provision in the Decision Height block in the briefing strip.
After the Jepp Plate, Captain pulls out a dispatch WX packet that the pilots get during preflight. He already had things highlighted, and asked me to read him the TAF. Asked me some speciffic q's about the TAF about the stuff in the REMARKS section (you know, after the "AO2" that we never read!) SO make sure to know how to read beyond the "AO2" portion. The rest of the remarks section was the exact temp/pressure with decimals rather than just the whole numbers in the main body of the TAF(REMARKS AO2 SLP113 240022814. THen he asks me to read the NOTAM at the bottom. I studied it for a moment(it was NOT interpreted format, but indeed in the Klingon-speak Sanscrit language abbreviations). I calmly told him that I always get the DUATS translated NOTAMS and that the FAA is in the process of doing away with all of the abbreviations due to the fact that a majority of NOTAM abbreviations are not standardized but are the discretion of the person writing them. I never did figure out what those number were, but it was like KMEM 080009 BLAHBLABLA, and he wouldn't tell me because he didn't want me telling those who were coming in after me.
The next portion of the Phase 2 interview was the easiest, but started with a scare! He said "Ok, Tell me about the Duchess, how does the landing gear work?" I told him that I could give a vague overview of it because it's been 5 years since I've flwon one, but I'd gladly give a detailed description about any system in the Seminole if he would allow that since I'd recently flown that plane. He said that would be fine and I proceeded to tell him about the gear system.
Once I'd finished the explanation, they gave me the opportunity to ask any 1 on 1 questions, and when I'd finished with those they asked me to step out of the room. 5 minutes later they called me back in and told me that I was moving on to the next Phase to do the simulator eval. Phase 2 lasted approximately 1 hour 15 minutes.
***I want to say here that throughout the whole day, everyone was doing their best to keep us relaxed. They don't try to underplay the importance of why you're there, but they Do help you relaz by being casual in their interactions with you. They were all honest and straightforward. During my Phase 2, I wasn't telling jokes by any means, but I was a touch witty and used some humorous expressions when answering the TMAAT questions, while remaining professional and respectful. I used the small bits of humour to show that I was comfortable and relaxed, and it made them more relaxed as well.I must stress though that I wasn't telling jokes, nor should you!
-When Phase 2 was complete, before I went back to the cafeteria(where they have the entire group wait together to be called to the different Phases), the captain gave me an info packet on the simulator with airspeeds, power setting, and a description of the avionics and instruments. He stressed that the simulator eval was extremely important because it is the method with which they determine if you have adequate Instrument Flying Skills to get into a $5,000/hour Level-D Q400 sim once in training. Again, the captain stressed the importance to me. Took my packet and went to the cafeteria to wait for Shane, the sim evaluator.
After about 30 minutes, Shane came to get me for my Sim Eval. The sim is just like a Frasca in nearly every regard, I think it was an AST3000. It is setup inside like a 1985 twin-engine Piper Seneca. Shane tells you that he will set and change all of the radios following your commands. He explains that it is my responsibility to make all of the radio calls(he plays ATC), to raise/lower landing gear, and to obey all airspeeds although he will provide me with rough power-settings. The visual display was a black tv screen.
Flight profile: We took off, I flew runway heading up to 2,500ft and leveled off. After level off shane had me do a 45deg steep turn in either direction, rolling back out on the assigned heading of about 260deg. Concerning assigned headings: When he would give me one, I would immediately set the Bug on the HSI and when he saw me doing it he commented on how much he liked me doing that. So, after steep turn he told me to fly a heading and intercept the 0980 radial from XYZ-VOR. I intercepted it and tracked it inbound. Then he asked me where I was in relationship to the VOR(northeast), and what radial I was on by using the RMI(I'll explain that a bit later). After I answer that he gave me another vector and after a couple minutes asked me what heading I would take to fly directly to the VOR, again using only the RMI. Lastly, he had me use the HSI to determine what radial I was now on, although now I can't remember what that radial was. next he started vectoring me for the approach. It was an easterly approach and he had me on a high downwind to the north of the approach and going west. Started giving me vectors to intercept the localizer. Upon giving me the final vector, he cleared me or the approach and told me to contact tower(which I forgot to do, but he reminded me with a fake radio call from approach telling me that the tower was looking for me!). So while on localizer he asks me how far I am from the outer marker. I had to extrapolate that info from the plate, because it does not give that DME info to the Outer marker, only DME to the Missed Approach Fix. He asked that question to distract me because I was on the approach hand flying this thing, but I got the answer correct. Intercepted the glideslope, threw the gear down when I was a quarter-dot above and slowed it down to 110kias, flew the approach to minimums and went missed. Flew the published missed the 6 miles out to the published holding fix. Make certain to bring the gear back up before you hit the max gear-retract speed! I was on top of this, but I suspect it is easy to omit. About 2 minutes before arrival at the holding fix, he asked me what type of entry I would do into the hold and why. I said parallel or teardrop and he asked which one. Teardrop. Why he asked? Cuz it involves less turning, puts me further away from the fix once I'm established inbound leg. He liked hearing that, and told me that he never does parallel, only direct and teardrop(good bit of advice for my own flying!). After that he paused it and had me help him set it back up for the next person.
**A few bits about the simulator: It is TOUCHY TOUCHY! Seriously, fly with your FINGERTIPS! He saw me doing that with my fingertips and commented about it(I'm not tooting my own horn in this write-up, I'm just trying to illustrate the type of feedback you can expect when you're doing things right!). Use the manual trim wheel making Small adjustments.
Any time you have to make a control input, make certain it is SMALL, especially pitch. The sim seems to want to roll to the left I think, so I was constantly applying a small roll input. Keep your feet off the rudder pedals unless doing a turn of more than 30degrees of heading. The gear coming down combined with a power reduction in order to slow to approach speed will cause you to sink below the glideslope. Winds were calm. The avionics consisted of an HSI slaved to Nav1, a DME tuned to the appropriate approach facility, and an RMI also indicating from Nav1. For those who don't know how to use an RMI, it's simple, the arrow hear points directly TO the station, and the arrows Tail is your FROM radial. He WILL expepect you to use that knowledge to answer his situational awareness questions. There are also two traditional OBS's, seperate from the HSI. The only time you will use these is on the missed approach, but if you tell him to tune the missed approach fix to the HSI he will.
-That's it for the Phase 3 simulator evaluation. Just make sure to fly it with your fingertips and to make small corrections. If you find yourself straying from your altitude or heading, just make sure to tell them that you are aware of it and that you are correcting. Letting things like that go unnoticed will hurt you, so if it happens just show him that you are aware of it. After the sim ride is done, he will send you back to the cafeteria and confer with the Phase 2 interviewers. One of them will come and get you and tell you to bring all of your things with you. At that point the interview is over. They will give you two different vouchers. One for the taxi to the drug testing place, and then one for the taxi ride from the testing place back to the airport for your flight. Speaking of flight, they order the interviews in regards to everyone's flight time hom. If you have an early flight, you will be at the front of the line and visa-versa.
-If I had any parting last words of advice, it would be to show them that you are prepared and that you've studied appropriately and everything will go fine. It's just like a checkride back home, if you obviously know your stuff the examiner will take it easy on you, but if you are struggling and need to be led to all the answers, they will dig deeper and it will get more difficult.
-Out of the 8 of us that started, I'm not certain how many got job offers. I did, and a guy I met at the hotel did, but the guy I knew from another job got sent hom because he had a DUI in the past 10 years. They wasted his and their's time by allowing him to go all the way through the sim ride before breaking the news to him. So if you have a DUI in the past 10 years, I'd save yourself the trouble! |
