Ladies and Gents
Here's a little summary of what happened on my Assessment and some tips for anyone who's got an assessment coming up.
There were seven of us there on the day and i was last for the interview and the sim assessment so be prepared to wait around for a long time but the plus point in that is you get an idea of what everyone else is being asked in interview and the sim assessment.
technical interview lasted about 15 mins for me, whereas some were grilled for over 40 mins. I suppose if you tell them what they're asking, it should be straightforward. Try not to waffle on too much because they ask leading questions. the more you talk, the more they take you deeper into conversation.
HR Guy went first. First thing i was asked is what i know about Ryanair i.e Fleet size type of airplane, bases, rosters and how they work, number of sectors etc keep your answers short, simple but to the point. Then things about how i got into flying etc. this part was very straightforward.
Then the tech guy started and the first thing he asked was to explain what an airspeed indicator (ASI) was and how it worked. He tried to make it harder by wanting me to explain to him in layman terms, so anytime i said something like dynamic pressure he would interrupt and ask me to explain that as well. In a way i was leading him to the next questions. Then he asked what the Altimeter was and how it worked. same kind of thing. In both of these questions he was looking for specific terms for me to mention ie. expanding and contracting capsule, calibrated pointer, density decrease with height etc. He then asked me about the kind of engine on 737. CFM56 with a high bypass engine, and i had to explain to him how a high bypass engine works, where and how much thrust is generated, how much is bypassed etc.
In summary, know all you can about the 737-800 and Ryanair. HR guy seems to ask straightforward questions about Ryanair to see if you've done your homework. Tech guys can ask anything at all and its a stroke of luck. Everything they ask has been studied by us in our groundschool so we do know it. It sometimes seems hard to explain when asked directly.
one of the other guys for the interview was asked about what kind of elevator system the 737 has. another was asked about stability and another was asked about general spin recoveries and stall characteristics(maybe because he was an instructor). Every interview is different.
Sim assessment - in the morning we were given a basic brief about the 737 display and were handed plates for E Mids. we were told we would be doing a Trent 1N departure (BUT nobody on the day actually did it) along with NDB and ILS plates for E Mids.
When we got into the sim we were given a new clearance - '' Climb 2000ft on RW Heading, Upon reaching right turn Hdg 090 climbing to 5000ft''
everybody was given this clearance. Levelled off at 5k and we were given left and right turns onto hdgs followed by speed increases and decreases. Try to maintain all the speed, altitude and hdg clearances.
This was followd by an emergency. I had a left engine failure. My partner had a fire in the rear toliets. Most others were told of passengers having heart attacks. In all cases we requested a return to E Mids. I called for the checklist, he immediately said complete and gave me back both engines after i made a radio call to request Vectors for an approach. he paused the sim so we could brief the plates and then carried out an NDB approach. my first approac was good and about 100ft from the threshold he instructed me to go around. when i cleaned up the aircaft, the sim was frozen and he put us back on to a 4 mile final which we landed and stopped on the runway centreline. Thats the end of the Sim assessment.
Apologies for going on abit too long but hope this helps. Best of luck wth your assessment. Let me know how it goes.
Any other questions, just ask.
Captain Asad