COPA Airlines interviews
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info COPA
Hi Lee, i'm applying for COPA since may. I'm from Spain and i'm still waiting for a call.
I have read your post and become worried for that.
I wonder if you have received that information from HR by email or in your application website.
I have read your post and become worried for that.
I wonder if you have received that information from HR by email or in your application website.
Join Date: Jul 2007
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I wonder if you have received that information from HR by email or in your application website.
There will be a change on the maximum flight time on Panamian law, thats why they have stop hiring DEC.
Join Date: May 2010
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Hi to all,
Just came back from the assessment,
COMPASS test: no surprises.
Interview: weird to say the less, an arrogant,almost disrespectful Captain and a no existent HR consultant. Absurd questions. He probably will talk more than you showing off about his experience and knowledge.
English Interview: Fair but be careful maybe some questions related to your COMPASS Psychological Test, if you have already completed it.
SIM: Frasca 142 single Pilot ride. Watch out if you are used to EFIS and multi-crew (rear thing these days), sensitive in Pitch. As per the examiner words: "This will be a simulation of an IFR check ride"...No further comments.
Poligraph: Just to fill in the paperwork, someone is making money out of it.
At the end, not a pleasant experience, disorganized, with long waiting times and without any kind of info about what to expect next. You feel that you are about to join the Army.
Not a clue of what they are looking for, of the group of eight people that met over there, only one made it to the next level. Different backgrounds but most of them +1000 Piston. Other with over 6000 and two type ratings didn't pass either.
My view, if you are jobless, low experienced and live in America close to one of the Airports where they operate, noting to lose...in other cases think twice, could be a waste of time and money, with no even a thank you in return.
I hope this help someone.
Just came back from the assessment,
COMPASS test: no surprises.
Interview: weird to say the less, an arrogant,almost disrespectful Captain and a no existent HR consultant. Absurd questions. He probably will talk more than you showing off about his experience and knowledge.
English Interview: Fair but be careful maybe some questions related to your COMPASS Psychological Test, if you have already completed it.
SIM: Frasca 142 single Pilot ride. Watch out if you are used to EFIS and multi-crew (rear thing these days), sensitive in Pitch. As per the examiner words: "This will be a simulation of an IFR check ride"...No further comments.
Poligraph: Just to fill in the paperwork, someone is making money out of it.
At the end, not a pleasant experience, disorganized, with long waiting times and without any kind of info about what to expect next. You feel that you are about to join the Army.
Not a clue of what they are looking for, of the group of eight people that met over there, only one made it to the next level. Different backgrounds but most of them +1000 Piston. Other with over 6000 and two type ratings didn't pass either.
My view, if you are jobless, low experienced and live in America close to one of the Airports where they operate, noting to lose...in other cases think twice, could be a waste of time and money, with no even a thank you in return.
I hope this help someone.
Last edited by Alatair; 21st Jan 2015 at 21:27.
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Thank you Alatair for your contribution!!
So what is the next level? getting the job? or another interview?
What about the sim check? can you elaborate a bit on that?
thank you again!!
So what is the next level? getting the job? or another interview?
What about the sim check? can you elaborate a bit on that?
thank you again!!
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Thank God you did not get a job at Copa!
You are the luckiest man on Earth, I was at Copa for 4 years and belive me when I say so. They are getting sued left and right for breach of contract, the only pilots they can attract are low time inexperienced pilots who cannot get a job anywhere else, Copa is a timing bomb. I am sure you have better chance in a well organized company, Copa is a circus full of clowns. A latino captain just got fired for calling in fatigued, he was there for almost 2 years without vacation, another one for refusing to fly to Havana after telling the company several times the hotel was extremely dirty, he actually got a respiratory infection a few months back before he finally couldn't take it anymore. To them it's a game, if you raise an issue it becomes their mission this captain was sent to Havana constantly after he wrote several reports about the unsanitary condition of the hotel. Their Union has just being subpoenaed, the police has confiscated their accounting books and they are talking about jail time for some of their MEC. I am sure they re still getting a bunch of applications every day, after all pilots are pilots worst enemies.
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Why copa and why 4 years
I went there because I wanted to fly in South America and learn spanish which I did, I stayed 4 years because it took me 4 years to get a job back to the States, I work for a US major airline now.
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Truth about Copa
If you don't belive me try to find the article on la Prensa of Panama which was published a couple weeks back regarding safety, I really don't care about them I just don't want other pilots to make my mistake, that's all.
Join Date: Aug 2013
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I´m not talking about an article writen by someone who never been seated in a cockpit, i´m talking because my friends that fly there. BTW I didn´t find that article. And you said that you flew there for 4 years, so you need 4000hrs of 737 to get in a mayor airline, how can you say that someone have to pass away the COPA chance for a better job? With no rating, no airline experence, etc etc. Come on man, you sound like that people that say to young people "forget the planes" and in the part that the only people they can attract dont forget that LAN Chile some few years ago was taking pilot with 200hrs, i guess that maybe the know something more than us
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About the fatigued Captain
This is a communique or memo sent by UNPAC (the pilots union) on January 6 of 2015, on which it addresses the case of the Colombian captain that Saraceno mentioned, I will post the original in Spanish, followed by a translation into English:
"Los hechos guardan relación con la fatiga de vuelo y en concreto a hechos ocurridos con el compañero ALEXANDER GÓMEZ, Capitán de la Flota Boeing, el cual lleva más de quince (15) meses sin que se le asignarán vacaciones por lo que desde el mes de diciembre del 2014 hizo advertencia sobre la fatiga acumulada y solicitó en reiterados correos la asignación de sus vacaciones; obteniendo como respuesta una asignación de vacaciones para la segunda quincena de febrero de 2015, es decir luego de 16 meses de iniciar la relación laboral.
Frente al eminente estado de cansancio acumulado el Capitán Gómez declara fatiga lo cual queda documentado e incluso con constancia médica de dicha situación. Posterior a este hecho el Capitán es citado a las oficinas de Jefatura de Piloto para proceder a ser despedido.
Esta situación es sumamente preocupante, toda vez que el estado de fatiga es eminente en los pilotos de línea crea una situación en que se ve vinculada directamente la seguridad de vuelo; sin embargo frente a este cansancio acumulado no existe respuesta para el descanso legal y necesario del Capitán y por el contrario la opción para el Capitán fatigado queda siendo el despido.
La UNPAC se encuentra en estado de alerta y se tomarán todas las medidas sindicales y legales para defender los derechos del Piloto."
English translation:
“The situation is related to pilot fatigue, and to be precise this is something that happened with our coworker ALEXANDER GOMEZ, Captain with the Boeing fleet. After 15 months straight without being assigned vacations he made a warning about fatigue and he requested through numerous emails to be assigned vacations; the answer to his request was that vacations were assigned to him for the 2nd half of the month of February of 2015, which would have represented a vacations assignment after 16 months of starting his duties with the company.”
"The captain then proceeded to call in fatigued, this was documented/recorded and also certified by a doctor. Afterwards the captain was summoned to the offices of the Chief Pilot to be fired."
"This situation is extremely worrisome, since fatigue is such a sensitive issue, and also since it creates a situation that directly relates/impacts flight safety. Nevertheless and given the fatigue, there was/is no answer for the legal and necessary rest of the captain and on the contrary the option for the fatigued captain was to be fired. [SIC]"
"UNPAC is on a state of high alert and will take all necessary legal actions to defend the rights of pilots"
"Los hechos guardan relación con la fatiga de vuelo y en concreto a hechos ocurridos con el compañero ALEXANDER GÓMEZ, Capitán de la Flota Boeing, el cual lleva más de quince (15) meses sin que se le asignarán vacaciones por lo que desde el mes de diciembre del 2014 hizo advertencia sobre la fatiga acumulada y solicitó en reiterados correos la asignación de sus vacaciones; obteniendo como respuesta una asignación de vacaciones para la segunda quincena de febrero de 2015, es decir luego de 16 meses de iniciar la relación laboral.
Frente al eminente estado de cansancio acumulado el Capitán Gómez declara fatiga lo cual queda documentado e incluso con constancia médica de dicha situación. Posterior a este hecho el Capitán es citado a las oficinas de Jefatura de Piloto para proceder a ser despedido.
Esta situación es sumamente preocupante, toda vez que el estado de fatiga es eminente en los pilotos de línea crea una situación en que se ve vinculada directamente la seguridad de vuelo; sin embargo frente a este cansancio acumulado no existe respuesta para el descanso legal y necesario del Capitán y por el contrario la opción para el Capitán fatigado queda siendo el despido.
La UNPAC se encuentra en estado de alerta y se tomarán todas las medidas sindicales y legales para defender los derechos del Piloto."
English translation:
“The situation is related to pilot fatigue, and to be precise this is something that happened with our coworker ALEXANDER GOMEZ, Captain with the Boeing fleet. After 15 months straight without being assigned vacations he made a warning about fatigue and he requested through numerous emails to be assigned vacations; the answer to his request was that vacations were assigned to him for the 2nd half of the month of February of 2015, which would have represented a vacations assignment after 16 months of starting his duties with the company.”
"The captain then proceeded to call in fatigued, this was documented/recorded and also certified by a doctor. Afterwards the captain was summoned to the offices of the Chief Pilot to be fired."
"This situation is extremely worrisome, since fatigue is such a sensitive issue, and also since it creates a situation that directly relates/impacts flight safety. Nevertheless and given the fatigue, there was/is no answer for the legal and necessary rest of the captain and on the contrary the option for the fatigued captain was to be fired. [SIC]"
"UNPAC is on a state of high alert and will take all necessary legal actions to defend the rights of pilots"
Last edited by factor-x; 28th Jan 2015 at 16:24. Reason: Format corrections
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This is the list of the pilots on Panama associated to UNPAC, there isn´t an ALEXANDER GOMEZ, you can cheek it
Unpac Panama
Unpac Panama
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Or maybe you are talking about this guy
Gomez Ramirez Alexander CP-73G,738 12-Nov-13 876
but it´s strange that they didn´t metion the second surname
Gomez Ramirez Alexander CP-73G,738 12-Nov-13 876
but it´s strange that they didn´t metion the second surname
Last edited by fabricio79; 13th Feb 2015 at 10:17.
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My personal opinion on the case
I personally think that there was something else going on in this case. I mean this guy is/was a new captain with the company, so he's at the bottom of the roster.
According to the memo sent by UNPAC, by Dec. 2014 this guy had accumulated 15 months work and 0 vacations. Now my thing is that training with Copa takes a long time, this guy started system groundschool on Dec. 2013, then he had to go trough VPT, Simulator and IOE for captains, this takes a long time with Copa, and in that particular point in time they were having issues with simulator training since there were not enough simulator instructors and also issues during IOE since they did not have enough IDR instructors.
Additional, this individual must have been between the ages of 40-50, and with plenty of jet experience, therefore training must have been a piece of cake for him. And given the situation that I mentioned earlier with the training, in between sessions he most likely had plenty of time off to relax.
I'll give you 2 scenarios, with an extremely positive estimate, let's say this guy was fully operational and on the flight line on May 2014, from May to December that's 8 months of flying.
With a negative training estimate, this individual was probably sent to the flight line let's say in August, that would make 5 months of flying.
What breaks my chops is that it had to be December? Given the importance and pressure put on by Western, and latin American families to the month of December, I am inclined to think that this captain wanted to bypass seniority and get the month of December off to be with family.
Nothing wrong with that, but to be realistic, the Codigo de Trabajo on Section 3, article 54, page 20 states that Employers are supposed to give you 1 month for every 11 straight months of work, however also on the Codigo de Trabajo, Section 3, article 59, page 21, also says that vacations can accumulate for up to 2 terms if there is an agreement between the employer and the employee.
He asked for vacation, they gave him vacations, seems to me he wanted vacations when he wanted them, and he wanted to bypass seniority.
According to the memo sent by UNPAC, by Dec. 2014 this guy had accumulated 15 months work and 0 vacations. Now my thing is that training with Copa takes a long time, this guy started system groundschool on Dec. 2013, then he had to go trough VPT, Simulator and IOE for captains, this takes a long time with Copa, and in that particular point in time they were having issues with simulator training since there were not enough simulator instructors and also issues during IOE since they did not have enough IDR instructors.
Additional, this individual must have been between the ages of 40-50, and with plenty of jet experience, therefore training must have been a piece of cake for him. And given the situation that I mentioned earlier with the training, in between sessions he most likely had plenty of time off to relax.
I'll give you 2 scenarios, with an extremely positive estimate, let's say this guy was fully operational and on the flight line on May 2014, from May to December that's 8 months of flying.
With a negative training estimate, this individual was probably sent to the flight line let's say in August, that would make 5 months of flying.
What breaks my chops is that it had to be December? Given the importance and pressure put on by Western, and latin American families to the month of December, I am inclined to think that this captain wanted to bypass seniority and get the month of December off to be with family.
Nothing wrong with that, but to be realistic, the Codigo de Trabajo on Section 3, article 54, page 20 states that Employers are supposed to give you 1 month for every 11 straight months of work, however also on the Codigo de Trabajo, Section 3, article 59, page 21, also says that vacations can accumulate for up to 2 terms if there is an agreement between the employer and the employee.
He asked for vacation, they gave him vacations, seems to me he wanted vacations when he wanted them, and he wanted to bypass seniority.
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So Sara~
You came to COPA without the experience to get into the Major airlines, and with what I assume was no type rating?
They hired you, trained you, and gave you plenty of hours on the 737 which then lead you onto the next step in your career which was a major airline in the states.
You also got to fulfill your dream of learning spanish and getting to work in South America.
A huge percentage of the people going there are in the same boat as what you are in.
Simple. Head down and work. Stay safe. Then leave.
You have probably never had the experiences that I have had in GA around the world that will mean that this company will be a dream to work for.
You came to COPA without the experience to get into the Major airlines, and with what I assume was no type rating?
They hired you, trained you, and gave you plenty of hours on the 737 which then lead you onto the next step in your career which was a major airline in the states.
You also got to fulfill your dream of learning spanish and getting to work in South America.
A huge percentage of the people going there are in the same boat as what you are in.
Simple. Head down and work. Stay safe. Then leave.
You have probably never had the experiences that I have had in GA around the world that will mean that this company will be a dream to work for.
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About the UNPAC list
fabricio79, the UNPAC list has several issues, it's incomplete, and it's not sorted properly.
Some FO's are in the same category as captains, and some new FO's are missing altogether.
Some FO's are in the same category as captains, and some new FO's are missing altogether.
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About the other Captain and the Havana flight
That captain could have handled the issue differently. There are ways to swap flights amongst crew members well in advance.