AJ=Emerald Coast recommended=non-FedEx guy

Call Albie at Emerald Coast and he'll set you straight. The last thing you want to do is listen to a bunch of yahoos on a forum when a million dollar job is on the line!!

 

Good advice. Certainly going to get myself as ready as I can! as I'm sure many others as well.
You do your sim ride in the DC-10?

 

http://i43.tower.com/images/mm115345...-cover-art.jpg

FAR AIM = never was as good as my near aim, but that's why they make missiles I guess. Kentucky windage might help.

SBI:
facilitator - here's a problem with no perfect solution, but probably a legal one.
2nd officer - after we run the checklist for the malfunction, ask me what I think first, before I'm influenced by others. I have one, or two good pieces of information that will help you form your final decision, but then I like to busy myself (task me) contacting GOC (Global Operations Center, aka Dispatch) and getting fresh weather/Notams and giving mnx a heads up.
1st officer - "Mr. window heat, pitot heat, what's to eat", sometimes offers good information. Solicit his input. Good at flying the plane where you tell him to, while you run checklists, coordinate with SO, GOC, etc.
YOU/Captain - big picture, handle emergency first, if you have one, give jet to FO while you and 2nd officer run checklist if situation allows, point jet towards a "reasonable solution" and start gathering information. What's our gas, How's the jet (review MEL's and malfunctions), How're my 2-3 best alternates (wx, Notams). Task FO/SO as appropriate. Ask SO, then FO for their solution and reasons why (gently cut them off after 20 seconds, or so). Save 30 seconds, to a minute to brief crew on the plan.

Not all inclusive, but some stuff to chew on. Spend the $75 and get professional help (Emerald, Air Inc, whatever is available). I could only find 727 sim time , so I took it. I flew "the profile" for 4 hours. It won't be exactly the same as the profile, so change up your training some. I flew the interview sim in the Airbus. It was much easier than the 727. You will improve as you go. If you are 30 feet, or 300 feet off altitude, strive for perfection (small corrections, don't "roll inverted and pull" to fix minor things, but don't ignore them either). Good Luck!

 

I would have to agree with JJ, although it hurts to do it. My sim was in the DC10, and I had never even been in one. Standard crosscheck, pitch picture airspeed stuff that you have been doing your entire career. No problems. They give you pitch and power setting gouge prior to sim, and consisted vertical s maneuvers, with airspeed and heading changes, and ended with a turn in the proper direction entering a holding pattern with the required radio call.

 

I guess the issue is not whether you can look yourself in the mirror after the event, but if you are certain of your abilities and self-confident enough to realize that if you're as good a pilot as you think you are, others will see that as well. If you think you need some sim time, by all means go for it. I'm not saying no one needs some help, just that if you're a good, steady instrument pilot, you won't have any major problems with the FedEx simulator portion of your interview. Again, for guys like Magic Rat, if you think you need some help, you probably do. Nothing wrong with that because it is a very important ride, one that you really don't want to screw up. And on that note, at least when I had my sim ride, there were seven graded portions of that ride (or so I was told by my evaluator, after the ride, after he told me that I had done fine), so the idea is to not let one problem effect you to the point where you screw other things up along the way. Perform each task at hand, then move on. Concentrate on what you're doing now, not what you did a few moments ago.

The problem I have with buying sim time is that you're never sure what sim you will actually get, and as an example, if you bought Airbus time and then had your sim in the 727, not only would you have totally wasted that money, but you probably hurt yourself more than you helped yourself. Just stay loose and fly the jet in the way you're capable of.

Just one persons opinion, after successfully getting hired at Pan American World Airways, UPS, and FedEx.

JJ

 

You guys seem to forget, Pizza was actually a Captain on the 747 before he got hired at FedEx. Evidently that makes him more qualified than the other 4700 pilots at FedEx, who were never Captains of 747s, let alone any other aircraft, before they were hired at FedEx.

The sooner you understand that the sooner you will appreciate the wisdom of Fresh Hot Pizza.

We are lucky to have a pilot of his experience and FAR knowledge on the property.

FJ

 

Spend the money for a sim prep. I did mine in a 747 after 10 years in the Navy flying glass and airplanes with 720 degree per second roll rates. Money well spent. I was calm cool and collected. Nailed it. We should know more in the next few days about what sim will be used. Get it a couple of days before the interview and you won't be like the F-16,18,ect that you never see again.

Oh ya that first 20 minutes in my sim prep were terrible

 

I tend to agree with JJ's on the sim prep, but I never tell people not to do it if they wish too. Personally, I didn't do one for several reasons. I wasn't excited about the price (sorry Albie!), but mainly because I'd flown a a variety of transport aircraft and always kept myself proficient at hand-flying (with and without A/T's). It's not 'cool' to say around here, but I do enjoy flying these 'big, fat, and slow' behemoths so I tend to do it as much as I realistically can. Additionally, I had done sim evals for other airlines and have a lot of jet sim time, so basically I was comfortable going in there-although a few 'quality' people tried to make me feel nervous because I hadn't done the prep. I don't want to make it sound like I blew it off though as that's not true at all. There are pretty good approximations of the sim profiles available in multiple places that I printed and memorized the pitch and power settings for. I went over those multiple times a day, and got a peek at a DC-10 sim and got some cockpit photos (pretty easy to get these days via Airliners.net, or places like Sporty's sell them too). I practiced as much as I could at work and reminded myself of the basics like going slow/being deliberate with the instructions, finger tip control of the yoke, no wild movements on throttle, and that the pitch/power settings are just a neighborhood so adjust as needed to your targets. Simple stuff, but good to remind yourself of going in.

I was comfortable, some would say falsely so, going in and had no problems other than a clock in the sim that broke forcing me to use my watch. The guy gave me a pretty good hint about how it went going out the door, and I was sound asleep when they gave me the thumbs up call. If people aren't comfortable without the prep, do it and do it as often as you needed with Emerald or anywhere else you can get your hands on sim. One guy mentioned Microsoft flight sim, many have friends across the industry that can sneak them some time, and another option is going down to a local FBO and flying one of those junky old Frasca type sims. They're slow, annoying, and usual beatdown with crummy computers. But that, along with the likelihood that it's nothing like what you are used to flying currently, really makes you pay attention to your scan and what you're doing which is the most important thing. Prep or no prep, be flexible and not just with the type of sim you do it in. FedEx does some 'stuff' to the sim to make it a little less stable than normal. It's not a huge secret, but in my group the 'stuff' that they did was different than the 'stuff' many guys prepped for and it threw several of them off according to them. Blue side up and you'll be onto the next phase before you know it!

 

I did my prep with AJ in the DC-10. It was well worth the money I spent. It simply calmed my nerves and had me dialed in for the actual interview sim. I was current in the plane I was flying but I had never flown a DC-10. It was a small price for getting this job.

 

All you former military guys should obviously skip the sim/interview prep and spend the money on some FAR prep!

Seriously though, my opinion on the sim prep is to do what will make you the most comfortable and confident going in that you are as prepared as you can be. In past years I have had two buds fail the sim. One had done the prep, one hadn't.

The one who didn't do the prep had a bad day and wasn't as proficient probably as he should have been leading up to that particular day. Hadn't been flying a lot and hadn't done the prep. Not reflective at all of his normal, outstanding, stick and rudder skills.

The other did a commercial prep, but it was in a different aircraft and for some reason had several evaluators in the sim and could never get comfortable. Again, a very experienced, very competent pilot with outstanding stick and rudder skills, just had a bad day.

I personally spent many hours in a sim trying to memorize what I thought the profile might entail, with the ambient temp and weight as high as I could program them to make the jet as sluggish as possible. I felt that I had prepared as much as I could (other than hand flying as much as possible when I was actually in the jet) for the sim and felt pretty confident (although incredibly nervous) for the sim eval. As a previous poster mentioned, they did their level best to make sure we were as loose as we could be during the process, but the pressure is still on.

I also flew almost entirely in the right seat the year leading up to my interview, so I would be more accustomed to the FO seat in case I got hired. A lot of good that did, as the sim eval is from the left seat and I spent 5 years on the panel before I got to touch the yoke again.

Without revealing too much of the profile back then, the difference I found and related to guys I was sponsoring was that there was an unusual focus on the rate of climb or descent. The super small corrections is another great piece of advice that I'm sure the sim prep guys would give you.

In short (too late) I would recommend the prep if you had no other means to get into a sim and practice your scan, because it is possibly a once in a lifetime chance to get in the door at FedEx. Even hand flying the jet can't focus your scan as much as a few hours in a sim can.

Best of luck to all.

FJ