Tricky interview questions...
 

I was looking at some of XJT questions and came across a couple of tricky interview questions.
The ones about the "captain going below mins" are fairly straightforward since you always want to be on the safe and legal side.

But what if its christmas eve at an outstation and a single nav light is out....and the captain wants to go anyway. What do you do? Lets be honest, a single burnt nav is not exactly a big safety issue, is it?:rolleyes:

Are they looking for someone totally by the book who will oppose the captain's decision? Or someone who is honest about it and says that a navlight is probably not a safety issue?

Honestly, I see it hard to believe they would want to hear anything BUT "I would remind the captain that it's illegal to T/O w/out all 3 navs". But what if the captain insisted in wanting to go? How far should you go defending a position which you know is not critical to flight safety?


The "best" answer I can think of is that you would refuse to go because you don't want to risk losing your license in case there's an FAA inspector. Pretty lame excuse, I know. Especially if in the scenario they say you're somewhere like in La Paz, Mexico. Or you could simply say it's illegal and you don't want to knowingly do anything that's illegal.


Any input? Anyone had this or a similar type of question asked before? (eg. something that's illegal but doesn't pose a significant safety hazard)

Single nav light is out? No problem. The aircraft is equipped with two nav lights on each wing. We call maintenance, write up an MEL entry, and off we go.

I agree with that, however, for an interview question I would answer that we would not leave until the aircraft is in compliance with all FAA regs and the Aircraft MEL.

Of course, but if you "amend" the question to fit your needs it shows that you're thinking beyond the interview.

99% of transport category aircraft have two nav lights for a reason.

Every time that I've heard of this question, the interviewer has never specified the type of aircraft... They leave the question "open-ended" for a reason to see your line of thought. (All of these types questions are like that...)

Question: It's christmas eve, your at an outstation with no maintenance and notice that a nav light is burnt out. What do you do?

Before you answer the question think things through: Is it dark? (Christmas eve is all day long!) Is there more than one bulb for each nav light position? (No problem! Defer if with MX over the phone and lets go!). Is it already MELed? (No problem, lets go!).

See my point?

Personally, I say find some speed tape, duct tape your maglight to the wing and get the heck outta there!

Here's my favorite gotcha from a few years back:

You and your crew have checked into the hotel and decide to change then meet in the lobby for dinner. Upon coming back down, you see that the captain is wearing a pink dress and high heels. What do you do?

try and score some dessert ????

I was given the scenario, this is the honest truth... "You are a new captain here at XYZ, on taxi out someone on company frequency transmits "another empty kitchen" in response to your female F/O's radio call. She is visibly upset. What do you do/say?" I was so shocked by the question that I think she (the interviewer) took that I was personally offended by the scenario. I just wanted to get out of the interview without laughing.

The priorities when it comes to any issue is as follows

Safety - By exercising good sound judgement, you. your crew, and your passengers will be safe.

Company Procedures - By following the company's procedures and policies will keep you within the guidelines of all of their operations manual.

FARs - By following company procedures and and being safe, you will always be in compliance with the FARs

The bonus??? You get to keep your job.

Good luck.

You never know when big brother is watching, and guess what... The airline is grounded immediately with due dispatch, you are out of a job to which you have the option of resigning from, and you will never get a job with an airline that is in compliance with the PRIA.

On some aircraft where only one light is standard from the manufcturer required an engineering order inorder to be issued in order to have the second nav light installed in their aircraft.

Happy flying, and keep it legal.

Be thankful that you're flying with a female Captain that actually pull-off wearing a pink dress and high heels. ;)