I have a June 15th interview. Anyone know if they are just interviewing into a pool? I have 170 mins and 121 experience as well. I hear the written has changed???

 

I was just there a week ago to interview. Hiring into pool, in fact I got the "pool" letter three days later. HR says the "pool is very shallow." Do to recent hiring the pool was pretty much depleted. Some classes are on the horizon, but she did not give any specifics about when, certificate, or equipment.

Written was the same as you find on the gouge sites. Still looks like 3 versions. Very straight forward. With 121 prop experience you will find it easy...with jet experience (we get dumbed down by the automation!) you may have to think a bit about some of the questions that we are used to the automation in the airplane doing for us. Some people say you need a calculator. ALL of the questions can be answered by using rules of thumb. Mental Math for Pilots by Ronald D. McElroy (Cage Consulting) is a perfect "prep" for the formulae you will find extremely useful. What I am getting at is you don't need to pull out 2*pi*r to find the distance along an arc between radials. Use the mental formulas you would use in the cockpit. Even for the descent. 3 to 1 is all you need. Forget about converting groundspeed to miles per minute and multiplying etc. Just use the 3 to 1 plan that we are all familiar with, and the answer is there.

In my group, everyone was previous 121. 1 guy that hadn't flown in quite a while had to do the sim and that was it.

Upgrade as of last week was reported to be 19-22 months. 15k/2-yr training contract pro-rated. $125/wk for meals in training, no pay during training, hotel is double occupancy. 75-hr guarantee, $22.06 year one, $29.68 year two, $1.55 per diem.

 

I did the interview in the middle of May, got the pool letter a couple of days after that and heard from friends in the company that 1-2 months sounds like a reasonable waiting period (I still can't find out how accurate this is though.) I went in with 1700 and 335 as an active CFI. I hear the guys that are prior 121 with 170 mins. start almost immediately - I'm still 100 hours short on Cross Country time. I did have to do the Sim - it's a PCATD but if you can dig up a Frasca 142 it'll be close enough to practice on. Prior 121 and most 135 guys did not have to touch it. Written test is easy with some common sense and using the rules of thumb a previous poster talked about (3 to 1 descent, MDA/300 for DME or 10% MDA for time for VDP's). I just grilled a prior 121 friend of mine to learn all that and it worked out beautifully. Sim profile is very straight forward - talk your way through and make call outs. If you mess up, admit it and tell them how you would correct it. I almost fouled up the hold but caught it before I entered, rebriefed, then flew it and they seemed happy with that. Nerves definately came into play on that one. Hr/Tech interview was just an HR interview; no technical questions whatsoever (very surprising since I have no prior 121). All in all, enjoyable interview experience, seems like a great company with good people at it. Stuff you won't get on the gouges though - be prepared (use the study guide off of aviationinterviews.com and read the last 10 posts), wear a conservative suit with a white shirt and red tie, be nice to everyone you meet and be up front about everything. Good luck!

 

I was there mid-end May, got pool letter 3 days later. I am 121 (furloughed) with well beyond 170 mins and still treading water with everyone else. I am not sure if 170 deliveries have slowed/stopped but it appears that the 170 hiring boom is now just a trickle if at all.

 

are you by any chance with mesaba? I am guessing just be reading your name.

edik

 

Well I guess we're in the same boat. Aviationinterviews.com was posting people that interviewed on May 15 with a May 30th class date for the 170 but who knows how true that is. I do know a 170 class just started but I heard they were only running one class a month and it seems like they're hiring more than that (there were 11 people on my day). It's all rumor untill you get a phone call I guess....

 

there was a 170 Shuttle class that started on May 30 in STL, so that rumor is true.
Now I don't know if the plan on having more classes or not, good luck though!

 

At least there's classes going on, so that's a big plus. I've never been a big fan of the waiting game

 

Unfortunately, yes.

 

Sorry about that man, sure it sucks a big one. Mesaba is one of my fav regionals, i would have liked to work there, (especially when they had ton of Avros).


edik