Originally Posted by
montema
Just came back from TYO. I’d like to thank every AJX pilot actively participating here as what It’s been said in this thread is very important from the very beginning to the very end. Lots of different scenarios and tips have been mentioned here and everything counts. The interview and the sim ain’t easy although it’s pretty straight forward. You know what you’re going to be asked so they want to see a lot of preparation prior to go. It makes sense.
About the process in Japan, arrived late evening and had 2 days of sim. Really important here is to have the profiles very clear prior to arrival. Most of us arrive from other aircraft and its indeed different to fly. My advices here would be:
- Don’t follow the FD, just point at were you want to turn and at the rate you want to turn and let the flight director catch you. If you don’t do it like this you will end up making violent moves as the flight director moves (in the sim) aren’t smooth.
- Always use the descend to drag the aircraft. Ask for flaps any time you push V/S.
- Arm yourself the Autobrake and order the Parking Brake.
- Train your speech. Japanese like it straight to the point and loud. Even if they are hiring you as an FO (my case), they are looking for future captains. Weak or soft voice is considered insecurity or weakness.
- I would strongly recommend to have a look at how the sim and the facilities are left after the Japanese had their go. They always take care of the seatbelts, pedal and seat position, doors or even chairs and tables. Play their game, learn how they behave in their culture. They want to see that you can adapt, if you really want the job, you must show them.
Try to learn all the pitch and power settings in the sim, although in the end, you’ll always have to fly the aircraft. These settings are just a reference.
After the 2 days sim I had a day OFF. Spent it reviewing the ATP and the sim profile. There’s a lot of stuff to remember so give yourself a good amount of days or weeks.
About the interview day, you’re escorted from the hotel to the training center. Now the interviews are held at the new TC of ANA. Massive facilities and beautiful to see and visit. So you can imagine how big it is, there’s 20 sims there and cabin crew are trained (and that’s only in the first floor).
You will start greeting the HR people (in my case I was told that captains and every person involved that they in the assessment had been checked the day before and were free of the virus for my safety). Your will fill some papers and give consent to the process. Make sure you bring all the paperwork with you. They will check everything. It’s a good idea to bring the logbook too. I was asked If I had it with me to take some pictures.
You have 25 minutes to do 20 questions of ATP. Straight forward and it looks they are completely random. Some are easy some are crazy.
About 15 minutes later you go to the interview room and are told about the profile. 3 captains, 2 HR and one person in charge of the computer and projector. Everyone is very nice, warm welcome, shaked hands and bowed. Alll of them are smiling the hole time, I suggest you do the same. They explain exactly how they want the profile. What you have to ask for and repeat 1000 times that even if you’re a FO they want you to be the captain. They wont do anything unless you ask for it. It takes about an hour and one of the captains will be going through the hole profile until you agree that you understood everything. Any questions you have, ask them. They will lovely answer any weird question you have, but they will be clear. Ask your PM to do anything you want. Use common sense with this, you cant order your PM to report something in the next leg or something like that. Just give him the orders.
Then you have free time (about an hour) and you start with your personality test. 567 questions exactly.
An hour later you go to the interview. Exactly the same place as before with the same people. HR will start asking about the company and how do you feel there, if your travel was pleasant and if you trained in the SIM. If so, they’ll ask you your thoughts about it. Then captains will ask one by one their stuff. If you come from the 737 (my case) you will probably have one captain that flies it or has flown it recently. You can tell because one captain will ask about performance, tech and ICAO procedures (memory items, flaps, landing gear); another one will ask about Air law (comm loss, light gun…) and the last one will ask about equipment in your aircraft and related procedures (EGPWS, WS, TCAS…).
Everything is pretty straight forward, although the performance and air law questions sometimes might surprise you a bit (tyre pressures, hydroplaning speeds, light guns…), be prepared for the ATP, I think they guide their questions regarding your answers in the prior exam, as it has been stated before.
Then back to HR and last questions about conmuting, distance from the airport to your place, etc.
You’ll have about one hour to keep going with the personality test and you go to the sim. So far they’ve been so nice that I was not nervous at all. It kinda looked you were barbecuing with them. They were very nice, prepared the aircraft for me and invited me to sit down and relax. You’ll start with a Autoland, they will tell you to check the N1, pitch settings and how you go down to 3 reds on the PAPI in the last 100ft.
Then a visual approach. I wasn’t practically corrected anything. Just was told to check more the instruments and when I told them I was doing it, the PM told me to exaggerate the movement. They were very clear with that.
You then start the official assessment. VISUAL, VOR and SE ILS. Nothing new here, just make sure you work hard prior to arrival in TYO so you take advantage of the sim sessions as much as possible. Very short briefings but make them correctly and checking everything. They want speeds, minimas, AB, and you to read the top part of the plate. Missed app? “Standard missed approach” and you brief the first 5 steps of the go around. That’s it. They don’t want anything else. Now, with the motion everything is much easier than in the FBS, so don’t worry if altitude or speed or trimming is difficult, you’ll feel more comfortable with the motion ON.
Once you finish, remember to leave everything OFF (as much as you know or can) and stow your headset, seats and harnesses. You’ll be told to go back to do your test and that everything has finished.
Once you finish your test you’ll be escorted back to your hotel. I was the only one being assessed and I started at 1500LT and finished at 2300LT. So it’s a long day. If there’s more candidates it might take until 3 or 4 in the morning I was told.
In my case I was successful at the screening and interview so at about midnight I was contacted by email to be told to go the next afternoon to the ANA medical center. It took 4 hours. Then go to the town, have a nice dinner to celebrate it and go back home the next day.
It’s a very demanding week, I took me 7 days to go though everything. Overall, again, everyone very very polite, super nice people and an unforgettable assessment. To be honest we had some laughs at the interview. They are very smiley and have a good sense of humor (something I didn’t know they had).
Thanks to everyone here again that has been for years maintaining this thread alive and active and helping us without having anything in exchange. I should be starting in July or September if the medical goes well.
Lots of luck for the guys going now to TYO!!!