Joking maybe??

More like 560 (as of 12/01). The sim ride is definitely passable, I managed, and I'm definitely not that special. They are looking for sound knowledge and basic instrument skills. Putting you outside of your element is a fairly good metric for this. I thought it was a fairly difficult sim though, you certainly had to be on top of it.

For anyone going to interview: keep it slow, use your Non Flying Pilot and study hold entries so you can see them immediately. Other than that, it's just like a slightly faster duchess, don't be intimidated. Good luck

 

WRONG... The only way you don't pass the sim is by not being up to snuff on your IFR skills and procedures. They're getting ready to send you to Memphis and train you to fly a Q-400 in 6-8 weeks. If you can't fly a SID, brief/enter a hold and shoot an ILS then in MHO you don't need to take up a seat in class.

I interviewed and passed successfully. However; while waiting for the sim I had guys asking how to hold using an RMI or by certain vectors. If you don't understand an RMI, don't use it... If you're in an interview asking fellow guys how to hold when given a certain vector, you're wasting your time there.

Bottom line, all it takes is a little interview prep (sheppard Air) is great for the written portion. Study Vmc, IFR Regs, airpsace and airspeed limitations and your most recent aircraft flown. After that be yourself. you have plenty of time to go over the SID/Apprch along with power settings. (I had 10mins probably because I was a former 121 guy) its a VERY basic Departure and Apprch.

Show up with Pants on and you'll do fine! See you on the line.

 

The sim is passable, but it is hard. The speed, turbine stuff, and full motion aspect are not hard alone, but put together with the stress of an interview, an unfamiliar crew partner, no time to become familiar with the aircraft, and a sim instructor acting like the meanest controller ever, then it is hard.

For me the hardest part was leveling off at 2,000. 2,000 feet goes by very quick after you get over the shock of the sim moving and the feeling of a new aircraft. From that point on, just focus on what you need to do. Keep the sim slow (I cruised at about 170) and make sure you understand where you are in relation to the VOR so that when they give you the hold you don't have to waste time finding out where you are. You have about 2.5 to 3 miles to figure out the hold entry while you are turning towards the VOR, so prepare yourself for it. After that, you get put on a base for an ILS. They had me intercept the GS at 3,000, so I had plenty of time to get the aircraft established.

Biggest errors were not entering the hold correctly and flying the approach too fast. Once they set you up for a base, get the airspeed below 160 right away. The flap speed is around 154, and many people put the flaps in too fast (my sim partner was one, but his ILS was great, so they let it pass). Use the time before GS intercept to get your wind correction and try to get the power set correctly before you start going down. They hold you to ATP standards, but they do give you a bit of a learning curve. I busted my initial altitude by 150 feet and got blasted by the instructor right away, but after I got a feel for how the aircraft responded to power, I just focused on those instruments and hung on. They want people they can train easily, and they can afford to do so in this market. I am surprised most places don’t do such a hard sim. If I was going to hire a pilot I didn’t know personally to fly a large aircraft like the Q400, I would want to make sure they could adapt to a new aircraft quickly before I invested thousands in their training.

Also, they defiantly do not make up their mind before you get in the sim. The interview, logbook review, written test, and sim are all done by separate people in a random order. The person in charge of each section does not have time to ask their coworkers what they think of you or have time to read previous comments. The sim instructor just made sure the folder had my name on it and cleared me to takeoff. After, he put a check mark in his area and passed it along to the next person.

 

You have about 2.5 to 3 miles to figure out the hold entry while you are turning towards the VOR

Or about one FULL minute.

Biggest errors were not entering the hold correctly

Ummm.... isn't that private pilot IFR stuff?

The sim is challenging, but you are not flying the SR-71 or the U-2. It is a turboprop flying at TP speeds... or roughly 1.5 times the speed of a Seminole on final (about the same speed a 400 series Cessna flies the approach). If 180 knots is too much for you, well..... you finish the sentence.

It all goes back to the PTS standards: control of the aircraft is never in doubt. Yeah, you might bust an altitude, but if you catch it within a couple hundred feet and make a positive correction, it should not be an issue. The same is true for busting a flap speed. Assuming the rest of the ride is good.

Entering a hold, procedure turn, or compliance with approach altitudes is basic IFR. It doesn't matter if one is flying at 100 knots or 500, a fix is a fix, the entry is the entry. Most CFIs who have done a fair amount of instrument instruction can fly a hold in their sleep (I know, because I spent about 10 percent of my instructor time dozing off).

I am not calling out anyone, but I can honestly say when I have flown a sim in an interview and botched it, it was because I flew BADLY that day.

(For the record, the toughest interview sim I ever flew was a personal computer sim used by a FedEX feeder: no motion, no "feel" of a real aircraft, and didn't represent any real airplane, but it did test one's procedures)

 

Well if I was going to get my ATP, I would do it in an aircraft that I am familiar with, and my performance would be much better... I know how to read a SID/DP, enter a hold, and fly an approach. That wasn't my problem. Just a half hour in the sim prior to the evaluation to get a feel for it, and I probably would have done a lot better. I'm not losing sleep over it.

I've also heard of a lot of airline guys coming back to fly a C172 after a few years and being in sort of the same situation... and I don't think it's because they are a bad pilot, they just aren't used to the aircraft...

 

I agree that it would be better to gt your ATP in an aircraft that you are used to flying, but unfortunately that isn't always an option and you are still expected to perfrom.
I got mine in a light twin, the likes of which I hadn't flown in nearly 20 years.
Many of my peers get their ATPs in the 737 sim (going through Higher Power usually) when they have never flown a large aircraft or worked with a co-pilot.
Sometimes we just have to adapt and overcome and hopefully it works out for us - sometimes it doesn't and we press on. It sounds like you are definitely pushing forward and that is good news.
I agree with the time to get use to the 'feel' of a sim. They can certainly be tricky to fly. I remember quite a few peers of mine failing the 'computer graded sim' is the DC-10 (I think it was - I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong) that United used in the mid 90's. I know they were good pilots and would excell in training, but the computer didn't think they did well enough so they moved on to different carriers and most have had successful careers.

USMCFLYR

 

I was joking tough guy, and no I'm not.......yet I suppose.

 

I apologize then. You and I both know there are way too many regional pilots who say things like that, and mean it, on a daily basis.

I'm just embarrassed by it all.

 

Absolutely, no problamo

 

Just to chime in about interviews in general, what about the next interview? My last interview was done in a 767 sim. I came from flying the SF340 for over 7 years. I had flown 727s for 3 years prior to that, but tail mounted engines are a lot different than wing mounted. Try climbing at 250 knots, 1000 ft/min for only 1000 feet, 30 degree bank, reversing it at 500 feet of climb then immediately descending doing the same.

Just an insight of things ahead.

BTW, 250 to the market in the Saab is not hard. Tq is probably over the limit unless it's cold.