I am going for stage 2/3 at Sep 7th and 8th.
That's funny. I am going for Stage 2 and 3 on these days as well, so why haven't I received my itinerary yet? Anyway, nice to meet you and see you on the day. I'm going to send you a PM with some contact details, check it out.
As for the ground exercise, how may candidates were grouped in one group in your case? Did the interviewer stay in the room to observe the group discussion, or did they leave the room and come back later for the answer?
When I last did it around 2 years ago, I had 4 candidates in my group. This year, I'm expecting 6 candidates in our group, judging from the number of people I've made contact with and who said they would do Stage 2/3 on our days. There are two staff who sit silently in the room during the exercise, they only observe and take notes. After 45 minutes is up, they will take turns asking questions and each group member is encouraged to answer.
For the flying planning, if you happen to still remember your questions, could you elaborate the details a bit more.
Hmmm. In the scenario given, we were playing an employee of a gliding school. We had to produce the most suitable flight plan for a glider race or something. There were several waypoints to choose from, but each came with their own constraints (i.e. not every waypoint is open 24 hours, some pass through mountains that the glider cannot outclimb etc.) So given these constraints I had to work with another candidate to find the best route. Co-operation was necessary as we had different sets of information and needed to use each others material every now and then.
These days it is different though, I heard it's about planning a flight for a B737 flying around Asia. The gist of the exercise should be similar though. Hope you get the picture.