Hi guys,
Thought I'd give you some feedback from my process with RYR. Have a series 2 in groundschool, partialled the IR and first time pass on the CPL. I applied on the 17/10, got the email saying they'd phone me on the 20/11 and had the phone call two weeks later. Nothing tricky, just asked about hours and resits, then had to wait for them to phone the airline to discuss my application, but they phoned back within half an hour and offered me as assessment on the 3rd Jan.
Everyone was out of BXH on the Trent 4D SID, and the assessor goes through the plates in the morning to make sure everyone is happy with them and how to fly it. We were also briefed for the hold as the other assessor liked making candidates do them. Anyway, we weren't assessed until the afternoon so we had a fair while to go through the plates with our partners, and to go through the take off and saftey brief as they don't want you to do this in the sim.
I was PF first. Set up and briefed for the SID. We took off and I accidentally asked for 090 to be bugged instead of 009. PM didn't pick up on it so we ended up flying 090 until I realised it was wrong and turning back onto 009. Didn't take us long to reintercept that radial, so I don't think we'd flown in the wrong direction for long. We then were given a couple of turns and climbs to do before the assessor asked my partner where we were on the plate. I then passed over control for me to point out our location on the map. My emergency was an uncontrollable fire in the galley so I handed over control, did a DODAR and NITS after deciding to return. Did the set up and approach brief, took control, ended up 200ft low at the platform altitude, but I don't think PM was being very active as the assessor was telling me 'altitude'. Anyway, ended up getting a GPSW of 'too low gear' for some reason on the approach, so PM called go-around so we did. Was repositioned on a 3 mile final to land, ended up bouncing and veered off to the right (slightly off the runway.) That was the end of my sim. Me and the PM started debriefing straight after the landing of what went wrong during the SID which I think the assessor liked, and he joined in on the debrief too.
We swapped seats, the PF didn't rebrief SID, but I mentioned that as we'd already messed up the first one that it could be a threat to happen again. We took off, did some more climbing a descending before the being told by ATC that Dublin was closed due to a security threat. PF did a DODAR whilst flying the plane, decided back to land at BHX. Called ATC who told us to turn direct to the beacon and to let them know when we had. Started turning and for some reason, PF asked me to do the NITS brief for him. Called ATC after to let them know we were inbound to the beacon, they gave me a really long clearance to fly outbound of the beacon on 180 and to report radial established. Turned to the PF to tell him this, he was going to give me control to do the approach brief but by this point we were 1.5D from the beacon so I suggested it wasn't really a sensible time to hand over control. He asked me to set up for the ILS which I did, but I also mentioned that as we were outbound we really needed to start getting flaps in and try stable (at this time he was still trying to intercept 180). By the time we had flap 5 in, we were vectored onto our final intercept heading for the ILS so he didn't have time to brief for the ILS, to which he said was I happy with the brief from before. Anyway, came down the ILS, I thought I saw a truck on the threshold as we passed over it and called go around (according to the assessor there wasn't anything there so that was my bad) anyway, was repositioned on a 3 mile final and he landed fine and that was the end of the sim. The assessor was very friendly and gave us advice and tips during the sim (like when going visual how often to look in and out).
Interview wise, I got a right grilling. The sim assessor is the interviewer. Most interviews were done within 10-15 minutes with 4/5 questions on tech. Mine lasted nearly half an hour and I was asked the following questions: what needs to be kept ice free on a 737, where does the warm air come from to melt the ice (I said the compressor then he started asking how hot the engine gets. I said around 1000 degrees and he said so how do we cool that down so it doesn't melt the wing? He was getting at the hot air is taken from the front of the compressor but he basically guided me to the answer) pressurisation on the 737 and when you need extra oxygen on an unpressurised aircraft, what the crews first actions during a depressurisation should be, time of useful consciousness, DA42 cruise speed and how long it would take to fly a distance, the freezing level for the day, calculating a cross wind, he also asked if the SEP I had flown recently was fuel injected or not. I said no and that the issue was carburettor icing which I said was caused by the Venturi and needed carb heat to melt it. Got asked a fair few questions on the training side, my series 2 for ground school. Asked what I thought of Simtech, whether I had heard any bad reviews and if there was anything I would warn future students about. Asked if I had an extra sim session and who my instructor was, there was a load more HR questions but they were really easy and straight forward so I can't remember them. The interview was really laid back and was more of a chat than an actual interview.
Received the good news today with the TR starting on the 2nd April
