Lessons Learned During App/Interview Process
 

Folks,

Wanted to pass along something I just learned that has been causing some serious stress, and thought maybe we could use this thread to keep the gouge flowing.

Please, no personal attacks, whining, pontificating, or any other b.s. that won't help military dudes get hired by the airline of their choice.

My LL:
I've been frustrated trying to figure out why my flight times do not match up between what I've been calculating them as and what the AirlineApps total is. I've borrowed every bro's Excel spreadsheet-o-justice I can find and they still do not match.

Here's what I learned today: the AirlineApps program automatically adds on the airline-specific military-to-civilian conversion factor. Some airlines use 0.3 per military sortie, some use 0.2, etc.

So when you target your app to a specific company, the program makes those additions (it uses the type aircraft that you specify, everything that is "military" gets the conversion added on based upon the number of sorties you put).

I may be the only one who didn't get that figured out, but wanted to pass it along in case anyone else is confused.

Also, the specifics of how airlines count different types of flying times, including the FAR definitions, is on the page that has the "Instructions" and red stop sign symbol in the upper right corner of the "My Flight Time, By Aircraft" page.

I thought pilot credentials (SWA and AA) was even more confusing than airline apps because PIC doesn't automatically include IP time and it's not super clear how to include student/dual time.

When interviewing I just took my AF flying summary and unconverted numbers/resume and provided my spreadsheet and 1 page explanation of how I calculated it. No questions on anything.

Not trying to be an a-hole, but it spells that out pretty clearly in the instructions. There are a lot of little details in the instructions and I hear Delta is a big stickler for that stuff.

Be careful of spreadsheets offered by others. Some of those are airline specific especially if it's from a SWA guy. SWA has you calculate a lot of spurious stuff for your interview, from what I hear. The only thing I really used a spreadsheet for was converting my primary time to PIC and I built that myself.


Edit:

I just re-read your second paragraph, hopefully this didn't come across as in those categories...

Actually, it kinda does come across like that. I wouldn't have posted if I didn't think others would benefit. YOU might have gotten the clue the first time and been all over it, but many of us are working 12+hour days, deployed, etc., and haven't been through this process before.

I know that it spells things out pretty clearly in the instructions, but I, and several others, weren't aware that the Instruction page was there.

^^^^

Fair point,

that's why I added the comment at the end, I debated deleting but figured the rest of my post was somewhat helpful.

Thanks for that PRS Guitars, that's good gouge

Some other tips:
Emerald Coast Interviewing Prep, they are amazingly good at prepping military dudes for airline interviews. Check them out, trust me.

I saw the following books on MANY posts in many different threads, got them, have used them extensively, they pretty much teach everything I'm seeing in all the interview gouges, they might help you as well:
"Everything explained for the professional pilot" by Richie Lengel
"The turbine pilot's flight manual (third edition)" by Gregory Brown & Mark Holt
Jeppesen Instrument Procedures Guide
"Airline Transport Pilot Oral Exam Guide" by Michael Hayes
"Airline Pilot Interviews" by Irv Jasinski

Thanks for the point out.

If you haven't heard, Southwest just opened up a hiring window for pilots. Go to swa.pilotcredentials.com, establish an account, and get your apps in!!

Ladies,
Just got back from an interview at SkyWest. If you're a military dude and want some gouge PM me.