Air Wisconsin Airman Trainee Interview
 

Hi guys and gals.
New to here but thought I might share my experience with my recent interview with Air Wisconsin. I’m a new CFI with ~ 260 hours.

I applied for the Airman Trainee Position and I was greeted with a quick response, then sent an email with instructions for the interview.
The email was a bit confusing as it looks as it was sent to the FO candidates as well as the airman trainee applicants. I was set up with their pass bureau to standby travel to Chicago for 2 days to complete the interview. They suggested some hotels to lodge in but the closest one was booked full but there was another a few minutes away. I had to pay for my hotel. As for the interview:


In total it lasted about five hours. We all met downstairs at around 7:30 before going up to the office, there were about 16 of us. The interview started at 8 AM. They collected all of the paperwork we were required to show, (they are pretty lenient about the paperwork and they will help you out if you mess something up) and while they checked it over we did some introductions. We had some employees then chat about the company, benefits, structure of the process for both the airman trainee and first officers, company values etc. It was pretty informative.

After that, we took the written test. The Airman trainee test consisted of 10 questions while the FO test was 25. The questions consisted of reading TDZE from an approach chart, CG questions on how it affected performance, TAF questions, hold short lines, and max speed in a bravo. It was pretty easy and nothing to sweat about.

We then broke off and ate some pizza, while they pulled people in for the HR and Technical Interview.
Both sections were pretty easy. For the technical interview just know all of the numbers from the study guide they give you. See a number, memorize it. I did it in 20 minutes of studying. Also, don’t worry about the profile as I think that is for the FO applicants.

The HR portion of the interview was pretty standard and not hard at all. Phrased like a conversation and asked questions like "what are some qualities of a professional pilot you would have". There isn’t a right or wrong answer to these.

After that was all done, we got called in again individually to say we got the job, then we got fingerprinted and waited awhile for the drug test. After that we were able to part ways and I hopped on a flight home.

They do their background checks through Accurate, and it takes about 2 months to complete (apparently they have a backlog of applicants, and I expect it to be done late july-ish). After the drug test and background test come back okay they will fly me out and put me in a hotel to sign more paperwork and give more details on the benefits / duties of the job. (orientation)

Overall it was a really positive experience and I’m looking forward to continuing and I will update this as more happens!

Let me know if you have any questions and hopefully this helps

Welcome aboard


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thanks for the detail info. Air Wisconsin has been in the back of my mind... when you applied you were already a CFI or did you apply while getting your CFI, anyone you were with working on their CFI? By any chance did anyone ask about which are their current junior bases? And how long reserve looks like? IAD or CAE?

New hires have held all 4 bases out of training on the last couple vacancies. Will depends more on seniority within your specific training class. (Seniority at ZW in class goes by age, not SSN.)

What Rabid Said. Chicago looks to be the most senior and I believe that its only a couple months on reserve out of training. Not a terrible outlook. I applied while I was getting my CFI. Like I said there was a diverse group, I think I was the only one without my CFI. (Some didnt but had turbine experience)

Chicago is the most senior for now followed by IAD, MKE, then CAE. CAE and MKE go back and forth. Only reason the last bid had some go to ord and IAD was due to the huge size of “new hires” the last bid had new hires from 3 months worth’s of classes.

If a new F/O doesn't get IAD out of training, how long might it take to get it? Are we talking a couple months or a year or more?

Reserve can be had with in 2-3 months at current rate. Not that long of a wait. Line holder will be a while, maybe a year.

Is there any contract that says once you take the Airman Trainee Position that you have to work for Air Wisconsin for "x" number of years?

No, however if you use the flight benefits, you’ll have imputed tax to pay, but I’ve already seen folks withdraw from the AT program.

Time to hold line as captain at CAE
 

How many years of seniority does a pilot need to hold a captain line at CAE?
Also what percentage of captains have been at Air Wis more than 6 years?

The question is how quickly can you amass a thousand hours. I think the average has been about a year and a half. Captains over 6 years? No idea how many.

About 2.5 years to a captain line in CAE.

*note: this could and probably will change tomorrow

We are now hiring direct entry CAs


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And for new FOs at IAD, can anyone share insights into how many hours/month they can expect to fly?

Are you a new hire on reserve? If so and you want to fly, you’ll fly. If you don’t want to fly, you will be disappointed. Our RSVs fly a lot. Especially CAs as we are severely short in the left seat.


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I have a CJO and 1 Sep training start date and hope to be domiciled at IAD...I'm a mil aviator who's not current and looking to fly as much as possible...glad to hear that it sounds like I won't be disappointed! :D

New hires have get getting all bases. If you don’t get IAD right off the bat, don’t sweat it. Just wait a month and you’ll probably get it.


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That sounds great. I have a class date of 8/4 and looking to get CAE.

I'd highly recommend getting current before showing up to training. At least do an IPC or something.

Ita amazing how much the interviews have changed. Back in the early 2000s, interviews were real with tough questions asked and people frequently not hired. Now, it’s baby questions and everyone gets the job. Scary actually.

Darn, new hire pilots don’t know the difference between advection fog and radiation fog, or class E VFR minimums at night over 10,000ft. Planes will fall out of the sky.

Unless the interview has vastly changed recently they’re still asking the important stuff (read notams, explain when you need an alternate, when can you descend below minimums, etc).

CAE is our junior base. You’ll get it.


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If you want to fly your posterior off? You’ll get your wish.
Welcome aboard


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It wouldn't matter. Only about 20% of every class will make it through IOE (even with additional OE trips and additional sim training).

People do get weeded out through training but 20% is a bit low I think. My class had 18 to begin and 13 made it through everything. Only 4 made it through without any retraining (ie. extra tests, sims, IOE trips)

I’d like to see quantifiable numbers there. Of my class of 11, 6 of us are still here, 4 left in sims for personal reasons, and 1 person failed in sims (said person was also up to like 17/18 sims at that point too). In ground, we only had 1 person who had to retake a test (same person who failed out in sims). I got through CPT / Sims in the footprint allotted, and was signed off of IOE after 2 trips. This job isn’t rocking science, but this company also won’t hand you an ATP and a line. It takes hard work to get through training. It really feels like those of you complaining need to take a hard look in the mirror.

How many people hired this year have made it to the line so far? I went through the last bid packet along with vacancy’s for this year and I can count on one hand the amount of people that have a number next to their name eligible to bid. Right now there are over 70 people in initial training that have completed systems yet not done with training. That’s tons of people stuck in the pipeline for an airline with a seniority list of only 570ish pilots. Just shows the pure incompetence of the training department.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been there but are the only folks making it through the ones who get a certain check airman that talks about motor cycles the entire time and takes hour long phone calls after showing up 15 late? When i went though everyone who was failing were folks who didn’t cover to cover have the iac memorized. I feel lucky I had the mentioned check airman above.

It’s a different atmosphere today. Plus the pilots being hired are a different type. AWAC has hired pilots who haven’t flown in a while and sometimes it takes time to knock the rust off. When I got on in 2001, we had experienced and seasoned pilots in my class. We got done with IOE in either 25 hours or two trips as new hires. I can’t recall if anyone needing or getting an extra trip besides one who got sick during their second trip. And the company just merely scheduled him for a third trip and he was done.
Also our class worked our asses off studying and preparing. Sure I came over prepared. But it was better than being under prepared. The LCAs were all pretty cool people and we willing to go out of their way to help and do everything they can to sign off pilots.
But it’s a different time now and either those LCAs are no longer at AWAC and the one or two are no longer LCAs.

Just curious, what do you think were some of the contributing factors of why people didn't pass? Were the ones that did not pass non-CFI's? Lack of IP? Lack of glass cockpit?

Inconsistency, there is no syllabus and you have no idea what you are doing from day to day in the sim. Makes it impossible to study or prepare for the day ahead. Some instructors start day one with gotchas and stump the chump moves which zero explanation while other instructors have a completely different expectation. Combine this with months between sim sessions and it’s a recipe for disaster. People wash out and/or fail from all backgrounds. Heck people that have thousands of hours of pic in the 200 don’t make it through training without extra sim sessions. I also have first had knowledge of several people being told on day one of sim training they won’t make it because “x number of sessions isn’t enough and i recommend every one for extra training” this is true for both new hire and upgrades. Then after that person gets recommended for more training they go sit at home for at least a month and lose whatever motor skills they had.

My class had a wide variety of backgrounds, the common theme from the ones struggling was that they came back to aviation after a long time in a different job. Along with that, the ones that struggled were loners, they didn't participate with the class outside of the classroom. No one in my class that made it to sims washed out.

The expectations are very clear, the tests come directly from the homework and quizzes, get in a group and study those. It's not unmanageable, the group of guys I hung out with would get together immediately after class and study for 1-2 more hours every day and then go out for dinner and drinks.

It's a free-for-all, at best.

The tests were easy, everyone made it through the test first time, very few get through the sim first time. Those lucky enough to get free Germany sims have a better chance. The familiarization helps since ctp is outsourced now.