Originally Posted by
galaxy flyer
Sim assessments were once standard in the US.
Rickair777: were sim “rides” banned at some point? Or thought too expensive for the value?
GF
Rare these days. Costly in terms of time and money. But there's another reason too...
The regionals probably decided to give applicants a more thorough look-see via new-hire sim training. I think the interview sim was useful but it was not consistent across all applicants... applicants who had experience in type, experience in sims, or were maybe current instrument instructors had a marked advantage over those who were not. Also it was common for applicants to get sim prep at significant personal expense. I would say there were probably good pilots who got passed over because they didn't have experience in that particular sim.
I passed both of my regional interview sims, but the one which I had CFI instructor time in went a lot better than the 707 at AA!
That said, the end of the interview sim eval appeared to mark an inflection point in new-hire quality at my regional.