Thomas Cook reserve F/O recruitment

[DALTA]

Hello everyone,

Thomas Cook (Brussels) is currently recruiting F/O and starts to invite pilots to their selection process.

It begins with a theoritical knowledge test followed by an interview then a simulator and finally the Psychotechnics.

Does anyone have more informations about this test, the selection process, experience with this company or anything else ?

I got the e-mail today and had to confirm my presence to the assessment who will take place at Brussels the 29th August.

Any info will be very appreciated ! :ok:

[May88]

Thank you A320Operator; PM sent.

[jflyerm]

I am interested as well, all info is welcome please :)

[renren]

Hi DALTA,

Any news regarding the recruitment process ? How was your assessment ?
I applied on the 11th August but haven't heard anything from them so far.
Thanks :)

[luc753]

Hello,

i have been called for the written part next week. i know that it's a written test with open questions.. do you have idea of typic questions?

[SeventhHeaven]

Expect to fail.

They invite ~200+ people and will only continue with the top ~20 scores. After that they'll keep widdling it with the interview/sim/psychometrics, losing about half of the candidates every time, down to the final 4 or something who get a reserve position.

Pretty much all questions are open. Draw this diagram, explain the 4 stages of blabla, what is 'insert obscure acronym here', what is an ashtam, etc. They'll also ask you to draw diagrams about things you probably will never have seen in your books, let alone remember.

They're pretty heavy handed when grading. You'll either get close to full marks, or none at all. Really very little point in guessing. If they ask for a diagram, and you don't remember it but write out the answer instead, they'll mark it as wrong.

[Mlambin]

I am unlucky. I have been invited but it is on my wedding day !

Good luck everyone !

[pilot hans]

The Theoretical part is indeed not so easy, If you passed your ATPL "studying" data base questions then there is no point going there... There seem to be nice people working there but the TC Belgium is not doing so well. Pilots are send out to Germany to fly for TC Germany because there is simply not enough flights even in the summer. They also work with peak captains (captain in the summer, FO in the winter) and they used to put FO's on 50/60/70% contracts during winter months so you end up with almost no salary... Best thing would be that it's a Belgian based airline and so you will get to fly the plane instead of guiding the autopilot :-)

[renren]

Hi guys,

I have also been invited for the test next week.

SeventhHeaven, how do you know about the grading ? Did you get your results already ?

Thanks

[luc753]

thanks for your answer.
it looks like what i heard too. Really hard and really be clear on the explanation. Not answering a,b,..
Will study the courses and train to explain.. will see

[bournethepilot]

unlucky.. on wedding..:_)) seems like you must make a choice:)

guys do they have any aptitude test during this process..? any info? thx

[Toerist]

The theory test isn't that hard if you actually know your stuff. I even managed to pass is 3 years after finishing training. I got as far as the sim ride and got chopped there.

For those of you going to the interview: the interview is with 2 captains and is quite laid back.
Besides the regular HR questions, they will give you a number of situations they want you to elaborate on.
-Imagine you are a captain flying for us. Chios is one of our destinations and has a very limited runway. The local fueller makes a mistake and puts in 400kg too much. What do you do? What will you tell the passengers (in french)?
-You are once again captain, after landing in Rhodos you notice one of your cabin crew members is terrible ill and it looks like she has the flue. What are your options?
-They show you a CRM video of a developing situation resulting in a altitude bust, you have to discuss the actions of the captain, FO and cabin crew member.

The simulator ride should be on the type you did your MCC on, in my case B737NG and will be full motion. The entire detail is raw data without any use of automatics. Your FO will be one of the assessors and will not do anything if you don't ask him. You will be briefed about the detail and be given the weights and jepp plates.
Profile as follows: departure BRU 25R Denut departure, climb 6000'. Then you will do general handling, steep turns.
Return to BUN, enter standard hold, then fly ILS 25L, go around, engine failure land ILS 25L. Takes about 30 minutes.

Hope I was able to help some of you out, best of luck ;)

[DALTA]

Hello Guys,

sorry for the late answer ! I was invited last year, open questions confirmed, be prepared to this test but if you know your stuff and did review your theory it should be ok !

After the test I had a good feeling, I received the results the week after, I had 59.5/100 (which is for me a non sense). You must have 60/100 to pass and guess what ? my 4 other friends received the same results ! 59.5/100 ! No logic but i guess they took the high scores and just made the other one fail .

Good luck to all

[renren]

That's crazy ...
From what I have heard they are looking to hire 6-8 FO.
I am wondering how many people are invited to the test on Saterday.
Will give you some feedback after it.

[Mlambin]

@renren: Would be great to have a feedback !
I would really like to know what kind of questions you're gonna have.

I have a question that do not have anything in common with this thread but as many of you are probably from Belgium, it seem logic for me. "Do you know where to buy a Jeppesen Airway Manual ?" Mine is from 2005 and I have the feeling that it is getting really out of date ! I found one file .PDF but I really like paper support and I am ready to pay for it. Indeed I don't have tones of hundreds to give.

Thanks for the help.

[renren]

Hi guys,

As promised, some feedback about the written exam.

As previously described in this thread, open questions only.
Nothing so tricky as long as you really know your stuff into details !

We were 30-40 people.
Draw the drag curve, draw it with flaps extended... Draw the different kinds of winds, explain compressibility error, etc etc. In total, around 20 questions. You have 3 hours to complete the exam.

Still haven't heard anything from them