Interview experience:
It had been a long time since the last update, so I thought I'd share my experience. The previous gouges are still very accurate. I sent in my resume and about a week later I got a call telling me they would look over my stuff and call me at the end of April and let me know if they wanted to do an interview. They did, and the interview was scheduled for May 6th. They fly you up the night before and the interview begins at 9am.
It starts with a 40 question test taken directly from the ATP Gleim. The only difference is they add a 4th possible answer, but the test is still pretty easy. Study Units 1-3, 5-7, and weather is what you should be studying. No charts, no figures, no pallet weights. Everything on the test is all stuff that you probably know, it's just a matter of making sure it's fresh in mind, I guess. I think the only ones I missed dealt with a headwind shearing to a tailwind and what is contained in a Sigmet (Don't laugh, I just misread the question). Other questions on the test that I can remember: What's the max airspeed in class D and Class B airspace, a few question about holding procedures and holding speeds, what effect does and increased approach speed have on hydroplaning, how does alcohol affect your body, there are a few read the METAR/TAF questions that could get tricky if you don't pay attention to what it's asking, but nothing you can't handle if you've made it this far.
Then we went in for the HR/Tech. The day I went in everybody was apparently out of town for a meeting, so it was a 1on1 interview. I'm sure normally it's still a 2 on 1 interview. HR was pretty standard. They're looking for people with good instrument skills, and they're gonna ask you about your instrument skills. They're also looking for good people, people that they can "stand to be trapped in a cockpit for 4 hours" with. If you have a sense of humor, don't hide it.
The technical interview started with him telling me we're making a trip from Montreal to Burlington, Vermont. He told me we were landing at 9:30pm, I translated that to Zulu and he handed me a paper with a METAR on it. The METAR looks normal at first, it has 5sm of visibility and ceilings that are plenty high (4,000 maybe? I forget.). The trouble starts when you look at the Temp/Dew Point. M7/M7 (M7 = minus 7, for those of you lucky enough to never have to deal with negative temperatures.)
The remarks portion has PRESFR. He asked me what I thought of the METAR, and I said, "Well, the temperature and dew-point being the same is likely going to lead to bad vis in the near future, and with the PRESFR I doubt the weather is going to hold out." He then showed me the TAF and it pretty much confirmed what I said, it has -FZDZ, PL, crappy vis, etc. He asked me if I would make this flight in a Seminole, the answer should be pretty obvious. .He then said he would give me a super Seminole that would make me legal to fly, and we took off on a route from Montreal to Burlington. First thing he asked was do I need an alternate, how do I know? What are the standard alternate minimums? Are those the alternate minimums you always use?What's the MEA on this route, what's the MOCA on this route, define both MEA and MOCA.
You get about half way there and ATC says they've lost you on radar, but you're cleared to the Airport, cleared for the ILS 15 approach, etc. They want to know the altitudes and routing you'd fly. I kept on the route until the Plattsburg VOR, then took the feeder route to the approach. They're gonna ask you what the final approach fix is, what the missed approach point is, what you need to descend below DH, etc.
Then you're gonna have to go missed, read through the missed approach procedure. You're gonna make a climbing turn to hold at BTV, it's a teardrop entry. They're gonna ask you the max holding speed for the altitude. ATC then sees that you've gone missed and clears you for the approach again, how would you get back? There's a feeder route to take you back. You need to do a procedure turn and stay within 10 miles of HERRO. It's really easy to look at the wrong DME distance and you'll end up .3 miles off of what the right answer is. Then we talked about the approach categories and what they're based on. Why do the minimums go up for each higher approach category?
It's all pretty basic. Really they just want to make sure that you have a pretty good understanding, and that you're a likable person. My class date is June 2nd, it's a 3 week class followed by a week of sim training in Atlanta or Seattle.
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