What to study before interview.
 

Helicopter Pilot for a long time, have an interview with a regional. I'll admit, my knowledge has been lazy over the past years. Time to hit the books. What should I study for the interview. I'll read through the gouge, study what they say, but.. what else. Sheppard Air Airline Prep, ATP Test Prep, Read the entire Far/Aim, Instrument Flying Handbook, Instrument Commercial Manual by Jep, Everything Explained by the Professional Pilot, How to Land a Top Paying Airline Job? Ill have a little over a month I want to make it count.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Which regional? They vary from a 30 question written test to "when can you start".

Republic..

It's a timed written exam on an iPad, Sheppard Air sells a prep kit for it.
Then a HR+technical. The technical is "what is V1" level stuff. Brief an approach. Brief a METAR/TAF, do you need an alternate. When can you descend below DH, what color are runway lights. That's pretty much it.

HR is basic "where do you see yourself in 5 years" material.

The written exam score doesn't matter much. It's mostly if they like you or not.

3-4 hours in Indianapolis, they cater food (usually BBQ), all in all a very nice experience and left a good impression of the company.
You'll get a phone call 1-3 days after if you got the job. If you didn't, chances are you'll never hear back.

Thanks! I will start with the Sheppard Air Prep and go from there.

I would also make sure your approach brief is solid, I don't think the written exam really matters much. I made a horrible mess of it, and still got the CJO.

I like this site: https://www.aviationinterviews.com/
good gouge on how interview will go. You can read others experiences. Good luck!

The Turbine Pilots Flight Manual was useful to me and so was Everything Explained for the Professional Pilot. If you are a mil helicopter pilot, spend some time reviewing the Jeppesen plates and how to brief one. I would be careful with the "study everything" concept as you might bite off too much and miss the basics like weather planning. My impulse is weather planning items are non negotiable.

Don't discount the HR stuff as less important. E.g. the infamous "what's one word that describes you". Answer it with your one word like "professionalism" or whatever but also have a scenario where you earned it. If you just say "professionalism" and move on, you missed an opportunity to show the interviewer your personality and to sell yourself as a professional.

Not sure if you are going for RTP, cadet or a first officer gig but I dramatically overprepared (studied for a RTP 30 question written tech as if it were a full on oral exam like a 1500 hr ATP candidate). Knowing I would catch the curve balls made me more comfortable and able to come off as "the kind of guy we want to fly a 4 day with" which seems to be the most crucial metric. That and weather planning.

Going for first officer, Not a mil helicopter pilot. Right now, I'm going with the study everything concept and trying to widdle that down. Good to know on the weather, I will point in that direction. So.. do you recommend studying for the whole atp then? How much did they weigh the written? Per this thread, it doesn't sound that important. (not saying I'll pass over the studying) Jepp chart's don't worry me, I'm good with that sort of thing. The weather questions concern me. Never one of my strong points.

Thanks for the input!

Honestly, I don't know about studying for the ATP at Republic. Envoy's written for Rotor Transition Program was like an Army instrument evaluation not so much a ATP prep type test. The instructor pilot/check airman type dude [or in the case of Envoy RTP it was a written test] gives you a METAR and TAF from hell, flight plan/departure clearance, NOTAMs, radar images. Then you go through everything with questions like "Can you take off?" "What are the minimums required for this approach?" "Approach talks to you before the FAF and says weather is below minimums, can you continue?" "So your last clearance was "Hold at ABC VOR as published, EFC XXXX" and you lose comms, what do you do?"

Some other things we helicopter pilots probably don't know: holding speeds, airspeed limits and associated altitudes, oxygen requirements. If you're EMS and doing lots of NVG flying consider that runway lights aren't all green and you might want to know the colors and arrangements of approach lighting. Maybe holding entries if you are rusty on IFR.

If you want perspectives of helicopter pilots applying at regionals, you can check out Rotary to Airline Group. There isn't much in the Republic section but SkyWest has some detailed interview gouges and their interview seems rather in depth. https://rotarytoairlinegroup.org/forum/