Passed!
Gillespie
I was a little surprised that only two of us made it through, but you just never know with interviews do you? I do think that you need a lot of experience to get through the interview stage though, both in terms of previous interviews and definitely in terms of work experience, where you have learned about teamwork and leadership. If I had gone in there a couple of years ago I wouldn't have stood a chance.
The simulator was absolutely fantastic. It's not something I've ever done and I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought I would have been more nervous, but I am quite confident in my flying ability and the two assessors (no names for obvious reasons!) did everything possible to relax us beforehand. We were in the 737-300 sim and received about a one and a half hour briefing beforehand and had a look around the new Nursling centre (very impressive). I was in the sim for about an hour and a quarter and had the opportunity to take-off, do a circuit and land at the land - brilliant! They kept us hanging on for an hour though before telling us if we had made it through! Unfortunately I was the only one to make it. I really thought we would both be heading off to New Zealand together, but it wasn't to be.
I had a medical today and that was no problem, so I'm just getting ready to go now - looks like I could be heading off as early as December.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do next and I'll let you know how it all goes when I get out there.