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Astar Air Cargo Pilot Interview Profiles

Date Interviewed: December 2004
Summary of Qualifications: atp 7k +hrd, FE,part 121,7yr major airline
Were you offered the job? No
Pilot Interview Profile:

Phone interview with HR basic questions from resume. Ask who you know at the company. Talk about night cargo ops,being a FE and schedule. being based in CVG and moving the ops to Wilmington,OH. Write down the questions because if you are invited to CVG the questions may be the same. If that goes well they will set you up for a interview in CVG. They mailed me a application and a bunch of forms to be completed for the interview. Travel and accomadations are your responsibilities. I flew in the night before and stayed at the Hampton Inn. My interview was at 0900 and you can walk to the interview it is right out the back door of hotel. I waited in a area for 45 min before I was greated by anyone. I was wondering if I was in the right place. Once the first canidate was done I was greated by Sandy Gilton,she was the person I dealt w/on the phone,she is very nice and outgoing. She will take log books, application and forms and all certificates.In the phone interview they asked for a 1st class medical and college transcipts, but never looked at them or asked for them. I jumped through hoops to get them on short noticed but it did not matter.(just a fyi) You are interviewed by two line pilots and HR(sandy). They go over log books ask some questions from that. They they take turns asking questions mostly the same ones answered on the phone. Nothing off the wall. Mostly experience,jobs and situations. They want to know if you will be able to handle nights and the schedule. All real world questions, not the old commuter questions like going below mins, or someone showing up w/alcohol on breath. They know you are qualified and have experience,they want to know if they want to work with you. they thank you for coming and you wait about 15 mins in waiting area. Then one of the line pilots comes out asks if you would like to fly the sim. The sim brief takes place after the last interview. They interview 3 pilots per day. I went back to the hotel since I had two hours to kill. Sim brief is done by 2 pilots and 1 FE. They go over pitch, power settings and altitudes to fly at. Everything is done at MIA. they staff a full crew for the evaluation and 1 pilot runs the sim. Take off 9L mia intercept a radial off dhp, hold on radial, vectors for an ILS 9L. You pick the seat you want to fly from left or right it does not matter. After the sim ride they ask how you felt you did and thank you for coming. No one told me how the process will progess after you leave,time frames, notification,etc so I would probably ask. You don't want to be sitting around at home waiting for the phone to ring, it will give you peace of mind if you set expectations. All in all it is your basic interview, alot of the planning is on your shoulders so be pro-active. The people are nice and they make you feel welcome,but if you are coming from a large commuter (RJ) or a other airline you may be a little surprised, this is not UPS or Fed EX. They are a contract operator for DHL, they do not carry their on frieght, so things can change year to year. The pay is good and they are ALPA for what it is worth.

Date Interviewed: October 1999
Summary of Qualifications: NA
Were you offered the job? Don't Know
Pilot Interview Profile:

Your DHL info board is very accurate with one exception there is no ongoing contract negotiations.... DHL (ALPA) Pilots signed a contract last NOV 98...

Planning on Hiring 100-125 in 99
Planning on Hiring 100-125 in 00

DHL is going to be getting a 7 A300s by the end of the year. They are
going to hire 100-125 by the end of 1998. Company minimums are 2500TT
1000ME but more competative numbers would be 5000TT with 1000PIC Turbine
(they like commuter pilots because of a lot of IFR experience).

The interview starts with a phone interview (approx 20 min) basically
going over your resume and verifying information. They will ask a few
specific questions relating to your current job, career goals, why you
would want to fly freight at night, etc. and you will be asked the same
questions later in a personal interview, so be consistent.

They call selected applicants in for a personal interview in
Cincinnati. This consists of two parts, sim check and board interview.
Half of the interviewees start in the sim, half with the board.

The sim check is very straight foreward. It is in a 727 Advanced sim at
Flight Safety in Cincinnati. There is a sim prep available, but I'm not
sure who offers it. They have 4 applicants in a classroom and explain
the basics of flying the sim (about an hour). They give powers settings
and pitch attitudes for several (everything in the evaluation) phases of
flight. They even simplify the 5 normal flap positions to 2 (flaps
approach, and flaps landing) for the checkride. The actual sim ride
comes next--it lasts about 20 minutes. You are asked to do a normal
takeoff, fly a departure heading, intercept an airway (many turn the
wrong way!) and track inbound to a VOR. About 5 miles out they give
holding instructons and look for the correct entry. The sim ride ends
with an ILS to a full stop. There are no emergencies.

The interview is with a board consisting from someone from HR, a Chief
Pilot, and a line pilot. There are many of the usual 'how would you
handle this situation' type questions, several 'why do you want to fly
freight at night' questions, and a detailed dissection of a jepp
approach plate (which altitude when, some definitions, some FAR
questions, cleared for the approach means what alt/routing). There are
no trick questions. There is also a drug test at this time.

It can take a LONG time to find out the status of your interview since
they do not make an offer until your background check is complete and
not until about one month before the next class. If you are turned
down, you find out in about 10 days by mail. They interview about 4 for
each slot in class. Currently upgrade from SO (FE) to FO is about 1.5
years and to CPT is about 6 years. Contract negotiations are ongoing.

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