Originally Posted by
fly2002
It was most certainly not the NWA interview. The real one was 20 mins to prep and then hand fly the 747-200 sim from the captains seat. No autopilot, no flight director, night IFR, all hold types...fully flown and graded and a hand flown ILS. You had to have been invited to THAT interview and they were VERY specific in what they were looking for. We were all literally carbon copies of each other. There was no diversity in that regard. Proud to have made it with the other 160 guys. I had the needles pegged so hard my past instructors would have cried.
The Compass interview was not the NWA interview though I believe it was patterned after the NWA interview which makes sense because NWA owned Compass, needed pilots, and already had a process in place.
It would be a stretch to imply that Compass and NWA applicants were interchangeable. The experience level of Compass applicants has ebbed and flowed during the company's history. At times they hired regional FOs and other times they hired furloughed big plane pilots, both captains and FOs.
I was fortunate enough to get hired at Compass fairly early on and found myself flying with FOs who started flying before I was born. My standard brief at the time was "the only reason I'm sitting hear and you're sitting there is because my last company sucked before your last company sucked, I'm sure you have a lot to teach me and I'm interested in learning."
The reality of the situation is that many former Compass pilots were at the right place at the right time. As is often the case in this industry, timing is everything and good fortune helps.
As an aside, the original Compass interview involved a flight in a 727 sim. I don't recall the profile but it was interesting to say the least. I was pretty intimidated by round dials since I had only used them flying pistons so I downloaded a 727 on MS Flight Simulator and flew the profile over and over again. It probably helped my confidence more than my stick and rudder skills. Either way I managed to get through the profile and when it was over I thought it was pretty fun.