Several years ago I approached CHC with a view to transferring to them as an "instant captain", having survived a few decades in command on North Sea operations and having fooled our training establishment countless times that I'm just barely up to the required standard.
My only reason for wanting to jump ship then was because it seemed as though my employer might be looking to give a few of us the chop, due to our advanced senility and dribbling incontinence ( not to mention that we were all on top-scale salaries). Fortunately the law of the land changed and my employer is still saddled with us.
The very nice man at CHC was looking for pilots with experience on the "right" type of helicopter at that time and suggested that I might have been given command a few months after joining. He also implied that it might not be necessary to go through the interview and tests with their resident trickcyclist.
Fortunately none of this came to pass, because I'm certain that I would have been assessed as hopelessly unsuitable to be employed in their workforce of psychologically well-balanced and well-accomplished pilots. My decades of professional flying, including a decade in the military, would have counted for little and if I was very lucky he might have recommended that I consider a career in HR.
If this pschological hocus pocus is so necessary to weed out those hopelessly unbalanced candidates like me, why does my employer not see fit also to employ one of these psycho-magicians and why does my employer still rely on the tried and trusted interview panel of senior trainers/manager pilots who depend only on their gut-feelings and experience?
Phrases like "bull!!!! baffles brains" and "if you believe that, you'll believe anything" come to mind. No amount of attempted persuasion is going to convince me that exposing a pilot candidate's sexual peccadilloes is going to indicate his/her suitability for the job.
Last edited by Colibri49; 23rd February 2012 at 12:36.