M.85 w.r.t. 'How does Parc or Bond find out if the interviewees are able to go directly to a jet?a part from the sim ride?' - the very fact that you've written this shows that you seemingly have a bit to learn about the classic full-on airline assessment process.
Typically this is in three parts:
1). Psychometric testing - It is known that good / safe pilots exhibit certain personality traits and so tests are given to analyse these traits.
2) The simulator test – When Bond & GAS do these tests they are conduct by airline TRE's ( type rated examiners ), and highly experienced ones at that.
Nb. The level of knowledge / ability to both teach and conduct tests required to become a TRE are, putting it mildly, very high. That said, don't mistake the lofty heights of being a TRE with also of being a complete bastard. You can rest assured that the TRE's who conduct the assessments at Bond & GAS are superb blokes, veritably total aviation people who've been there, done it, and got the T-Shirt - the kind of blokes you'd like to go out with for a good curry and beer - but wherein they are also true aviation professionals.
When it comes to measuring somebody’s ability, the simulator component of the assessment ( in our case being run by a TRE ) has two intents:
A) To determine a persons present ability, i.e. do they at least have the basics ? E.g. how good is their instrument scan, are they able to keep ahead of the aircraft, do they posses situational awareness, how is their CRM, do they exhibit good judgement, etc ?
B) To determine their ability to learn, i.e. how adept are they at being able to quickly absorb, and then put into practise, new information ?! This is especially important when people are being considered for the transition to a jet type-rating. Nb. If you were to ask any of the ‘first-time on a jet’ students attending the TRTO type-rating course they will all tell you that the learning curve required is phenomenal !
Aside – did any of you see the program called ‘Spitfire Ace’ ( it was on UK Channel 4 on Monday at 21:00 ) where four low hour PPL’s were given a chance to compete to learn to fly a Spitfire ? If you did, it should not have escaped your notice that one of the foremost criteria in the minds of those making the assessment was the ‘learning curve’ of the candidates – and that this was in preference stick & rudder skills. QED.
3) The interview – Most airlines conduct interviews to determine, in a face-to-face manner, how well the applicants come across as people ( the point being that the last thing you’d want is to be sitting for hours-upon end in a tiny flight deck opposite some complete tosser – even if he can fly the aeroplane ! ).
Now given that the assessment is the same for one and all, the outcome is very much down to the individual, his / her flying skills, learning curve and personality.
W.r.t. 'Can such people have the certainty over someone s fate/ability?' – see my response above and, err, what’s fate got to do with it ?
W.r.t. ‘the price i believe is steep’ – well, if you can do it for less then please do go ahead.
Nb. To compete on a level playing field you will need to hire a jet simulator, a TRE ( or two - and they don’t come cheap ), provide psychometric tests ( remembering that you, or your staff, will need training on how to administer and mark these ), advertise your service / product, administer & coordinate the whole thing, plus manage various other sundry tasks and requirements, wherein to help you cope with the demand it's likely that you will probably need some permanent office staff ( at least two, or three, people ) and they will need an office to sit in, phones, computers, email, etc...... Oh, and as you’re in business, you’ll need to make a profit too; So, over to you !
Last edited by Puritan; 16th Jan 2004 at 22:07.