Continental Sim experience: I interviewed mid nov, called 6 days latter flew sim end Nov. Now waiting..... They will give you a sheet of instructions for the sim. With pitch and power settings, calls, speeds, check lists they want you to call for, ect.... You have 30 minutes to read it and then go fly the sim. MD-80 sim. old panel, standard layout, ADI with HSI, and single cue flight director. They sugest you should use it. Flight director controls are on glare shiled. Tell Fo to set it up for you. they start you out in posstion on runway 26 houston IAH. take off, climb to 4000 feet. A few turns, goto VOR hold, get vectors for ILS runway 26 IAH... Airspeed indicator will be preset with 5 airspeed bugs, 4 outer bugs and 1 internal: V1, V2, Flap retracton, Slat Retracton, and clean maneuvering. You can sit in left or right seat, they don't care. You will take off flaps 15. You set power using EPR gauge. It will have a bug preset at takeoff power. EPR is the upper most gauge on panel. At call of rotate pitch up to 20 degrees. At 1000 feet, lower the nose accerate to 3rd airspeed bug call for "flaps up" continue to climb and accerate at the 4th speed bug call for "Slats retract, climb checks" continue to accelerate upto 250 kts. Level off at 4000. thrust levers are VERY sensitive and LAG. Set 1.25 EPR for cruise flt and 250 kts clean. Now go hold. Must slow to 200 kts for holding below 6000. As airspeed slows below 5th speed bug, min clean speed, call for slats extend. to hold alt at 200 kts slats out, again use 1.25 EPR. Now vectors for approach. power back, slow down. When below 4th speed bug call for flaps 15. Continue slowing to 3rd speed bug, I think is was about 160kts. hold alt, 160kts, flaps 15 use approx 1.2 EPR. Call for approach checks. Ask FO to arm flight director for the ILS. Intercept loc. As glide slope starts coming down call for "gear down befor landing checks" then call for "flaps 28". FO will set internal speed bug for proper speed with this configuration. At glide slope intercept and capture call for "flaps 40" And follow internal speed bug the FO is seting up for you. Set power at approx 1.3 EPR and follow flight director down. You will brake out early, but stay inside on the gauges. FO will call out radar alt dont do anything untill you hear 100 feet then SLOWLY start pulling off power and starting flare. I slamed it down. Started flare too late, not used to sitting up that high...

Got a call from Continental Pilot Recruiting. They told me that they would like to invite me for an interview and gave me an option of dates (the first being about a week away) I opted for a slightly later date. Interview scheduled, they fix you up with a space avail. pass from the closest city they serve. Any accommodations or meals are your own responsibility. My interview was scheduled for 2:00 in the afternoon. Made my way to concourse C, gate 45. This is where Houston flight ops. is located. Sat down in the chairs and waited for someone to come and get me. At my scheduled time a Captain came out of the ops. door and called my name (even though I was the only person there at the time) He led me downstairs to their Operations area ( very impressive ) and asked how my trip was. I told him I had a great trip and actually came in the night before. I was taken to a small conference room in the Chief Pilots office where I was introduced to the two Captains that were to interview me ( one of whom was the Captain that escorted me to the ops area). Normally, there are 3-4 interviewers but on the day I went there were only two available. That was a relief for me as now I only had to impress 2 people instead of 4, and they were both Pilot types. They shook my hand and asked me to have a seat, offered me a soda or coffee or a glass of water----I accepted the water and offered to serve myself from the tray that was behind me. They were very friendly and told me to relax, take off my coat if I wished ( I declined ). I positioned the chair directly in front of the two of them and up close to the table, and then sat down. They asked me for my paperwork and application, plus the 50.00 check for processing. Also asked for my logs. One Captain looked through my logs while the other began asking the Questions. Questions: 1) Since you have applied to Continental Tell us what you know about the Airline? I found that their website @ flycontinental.com is and was a great source of information and probably all the info you would need to answer this question. 2) Tell us about your flying career from when you first started flying? 3) How would you feel about being based overseas? 4) How do you think the Pilot affects customer satisfaction, if at all? 5) What makes a good Captain? 6) If the flight attendant comes to you and tells you that the Captain is making unsolicited and unwanted sexual advances to her, what would you do? 7) Pulled out an approach plate and gave me a: you are here scenario, wx goes to 1200rvr what would you do? 8) Where do you see yourself in ten years? 9) Tell me about your good qualities. 10) Have you ever experienced a technical or procedural problem with someone you worked with and what did you do about it? 11) What can you do for Continental? 12) In two minutes tell us why we should hire you. There may have been a couple more questions along the same lines that I cant remember but the overall process was very friendly and as relaxed as an interview can be. They finished by asking if I had any questions and then explained that if I was successful at this phase, I would be invited back for the sim check which was just a 30 minute quick and dirty to see if you can keep the blue side upright. I understand that its an easy ride consisting of a normal T.O., climb to 4000 feet, 2 30 degree bank turns, a vector to a VOR for a hold and then RV to and ILS. Raw data to a full stop landing with the WX at 400 and 1. Then, if you are successful at the sim, they make you a conditional offer of employment, contingent on your background check and medical, which I understand is a very light medical. That's it-----good luck to all of you!

Remembered a couple more questions. Rank the following Safety, reliability, customer and employee. What is important during an emergency and what is the worst thing a crew can do during an emergency. Tell us about an emergency that you had.