I have an interview next week with ASA and I am a little concerned about the sim ride. The only glass time I have is Microsoft Flightsim. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Any tips or rules of thumb that could make the sim go a little smoother?

 

haahahhaha

 

My guess is it would be a PCAD type sim, not a glass cockpit bit since I haven't been to an ASA interview this is pure speculation based on past interviews at other outfits.

 

Actually the sim eval is done at FlightSafety International, who has their building right next to ASA's GO building. The sim is done in a CRJ-700 full motion simulator, so you do it in the real deal.

The actual sim evaluation is pretty straight forward. Constant speed climb to 5000, a turn, and then a climbing turn up to 8000, and then make a 180 degree turn and then turn back to the original heading. Then fly direct to the VOR and then on the way you get the holding instructions, do the entry to the hold, and halfway through the entry you will get the vector for the ILS, fly to DH and the evaluation ends there, you can land it but your landing is not graded because most people dont even stop it on the runway.

If you have no glass experience time, some advice I can give you is so try and stick to the EXACT pitch and power settings. The sim evaluator will give you a real good briefing on these, and he will help out if you and your partner can't remember some of the numbers, he's there really just to see your instrument flying. Also on the ILS, the CRJ-700 has slats so you fly down the glideslope in a pitch up attitude so dont be alarmed when you need 2 degrees nose pitch up to maintain the glideslope. The guy in the left seat is there to assist you, so if you need him, have to set the exact power setting you want, and tell him to adjust heading/speed bugs. Otherwise just fly it like any other plane, just remember you need to stay ahead of it because it is a really quick plane.

Hope this helps

 

Man they use Level D sim for interviews? Wow thats pretty impressive but its got to be expensive as heck????

 

AE does as well I believe.

 

Well since they don't have that many classes in the 700, its not like FlightSafety is losing any money on it, plus FS probably just includes it with all the money ASA is paying them to train their FOs and CAs anyways.

 

Yeah it's in the full motion simulator, lots of fun. They grade everything individually (altitude control, heading control, hold entry (you probably won't fly the actual entry, just talk through it), ILS Approach, etc.). I did well on everything except the hold entry. They gave me a radial that was 10* away from being a direct entry (which I chose), when it should have been a Teardrop. I was very surprised that I was "one of those people" who messed up the hold entry. I taught this stuff for gods sake! But, I made up for it with everything else and scored above an 80% and got the job.

If you can't remember what power setting to use, etc, they will remind you what it was. They walk you through it, they just want to see you can fly.

Don't take your eyes off the instruments. Your pilot monitoring will twist in your radials, turn your heading bug, change your altitude bug, basically do EVERYTHING except control the plane. But ONLY if you ask him/her to do it for you, otherwise they are not allowed to do it (keep that in mind while you are the pilot monitoring, they will bust you if you help your partner too much).

 

USE MICROSAFT FLIGHT SIM X. Fly the hell out of it. Don't be too concerned with the glass but rather the instability of the aircraft. Read the profiles on the gouges and practice them on flight sim till you are comfortable......And find someone to tilt your house for you while you are practicing!

 

ROTFFL...!