Originally Posted by
kalyx522
I know this may sound silly, but MS Flight Sim is the best helpful yet cheap way to prepare for the instrument stuff. I dunno about ASA like someone mentioned above, but the regionals that I have interviewed with were looking more for instrument skills and scanning than how to fly a Dash 8, etc. (Because they know you've never flown one and that's what sim training is for... but they're not there to teach you how to fly instrument, that's stuff you should already know but some people are actually very shaky on it.)
What I did was read the gouges and go over generally what the sim ride for that specific regional would be like, then review all the different possible approaches and holds, etc. and shoot them on the Flight Sim using an aircraft that is most similar to the sim that will be used in the interview.
Yes, MS FS can be very helpful as far as fine-tuning your scan and procedures. Select an airplane that is similar to the sim you will be using.
For many airlines that do sim evals there are outside trainers who offer sim prep for that specific airline...it will be done in the same type of sim using the same profiles the airline will use. These operations can normally be found in the city where the interviews are conducted. If you REALLY want to work at a specific airline this kind of training would be a good idea. Applicants usually fly in a day early to get the sim prep.