Hey there everybody.
So I've been to the interview/simulator assessment in HKG. Have not received a result yet and thought it might be an idea to post my thoughts here before 'result-bias' ends up clouding my judgement.
Interview; I found this part to be particularly demanding. Here are some questions.
Some A320's have sharklets, explain why and what they do? The 777 doesn't have sharklets, can you explain why? The RR Trent engine has 3 spools, can you explain why? Memory Actions for unreliable airspeed? Can you think of any accident in recent history where this happened and what do you think of it? Describe the airconditioning system of the A320? If flying from HKG towards indonesia with the sun in front of you, how fast do you need to fly to never see the sun set? What is CRM? Do you have good CRM? Can you explain this TAF? The WX system you see on the SIG chart, does it rotate clockwise or anticlockwise? Why? Low temperature corrections for approaches? Can you fly a managed non precision approach in really cold weather? What is a ceiling? Can you dispatch to this airport with this weather? And General questions about the history of the company and it's current fleet and destinations, why you want to leave your current outfit if you are flying somewhere, etc. What will you bring to KA? The questions in themselves were not rocket science, but truth be told I had a lot of difficulty as I felt under a lot of pressure. They were very good at making me doubt myself even if I was making sense on some rare occasion. They caught me off guard with the personal questions or company related questions, as I thought that was what the HR interview was for in LGW. Otherwise they were very friendly people in what seems to be quite a respectable company indeed.
The simulator I found to be quite straightforward. It was conducted on an A330 (which flies beautifully) and the requirement was the ROSE/VOR displayed on the ND. The AP/FD/AT were off. Fly around and do airwork, including some radial intercepts. Come back and fly a two engine ILS approach, missed approach on minima, vectors, engine fire with ECAM actions until engine secure and a MAYDAY call. Single engine ILS and landing. All in all my perception was that I did reasonably well in the simulator, but generally felt like I did bad on the interview. If you are flying from Europe to do this, make sure to plan your rest. I was on the back side of the clock and it badly affected me. All in all it's very difficult to say what the result will be, although I am expecting a no at the moment because as I said: they took me for a ride during the interview. The other candidates found the interview to be demanding also, although I did have the impression that it was me that struggled with it most.
After all of this they took us all for a company sponsored post-war beer in a very relaxed atmosphere in the Headland hotel at CX city.
Best of luck to all applying and make sure to read ACE or Pilots Reference guide or something. I spent most of my time preparing Airbus systems, but really had the feeling that every time I knew something they were keen to move on to talk about something else.
