B737
Goose thank you for this valuable info. If you have any bank of questions that they ask in the interview besides what you listed I would appreciate that greatly
I have been at ET on the B737 for about 8 month now and can give you some feedback, hope it is of some use.
Keep in mind Im an Ex FR Driver !
Interview
The interview process takes 2 days, day one is the medical, nothing special here, besides a blood test for AIDS and other tropical diseases.
Day 2 is the simulator and the interview.
Simulator is a mini LPC, hand flown SID with flight directors. Followed by steep turns and stalls.
Then a procedural ILS with landing, also with FD.
V1 cut with an ILS approach and go around, all with FD, he ended the session half way through the GA.
The interview was OK, asked lost of ATPL stuff, what is balanced field length, how is it calculated, what is1st, 2nd and 3rd segment climb. How do you do a take off calculation without OPT or performance tables. The answers is use the FPPM (Flight planning and performance manual), never heard of it, but its a Boeing manual with all the relevant graphs etc.
They provide business class tickets, accommodation, all meals and transport. The hotel is OK, kind of like a Hilton that is in need of an upgrade. Same hotel is provided free of charge during the training, but only breakfast, no lunch and dinner.
Training
Ground School:
Before you start the training they send you a link for the CBT, this is pretty much all the theory for a type rating plus ETOPS, RVSM etc.They want you to finish it before your arrival to ADD. Needless to say I did not do it, as I was goofing off at home and did not fancy doing a CBT when I could be drinking beer in front of a BBQ or goofing off at the beach.
Upon arrival in ADD they asked why I had not done it and I said I had no time, they were not too bothered. I did the CBT at the hotel, took about 4 days solid.
After this you get your uniform and all your ID’s then you do 2 observation flights (sit in jump seat and observe operation) First day was an ETOPS flight to Libreville and next day a 4 sector day, Mombassa, Kilimanjaro, Mombassa and back to Addis.
Sim:
This is followed by the SIM, 2 days fixed base and 5 days FFS followed by check. The sim is not too bad, the sessions are only 2 hours long and it is mostly to teach you about the emergency turns and depressurisation escape routes around the ADD area, lots of high terrain. ADD is 7500ft.
The check was OK, no surprises, except he asked me to do a SE visual. Otherwise standard stuff, depressurisation with escape route, due terrain around ADD, NPA with circle to land. V1 cut, visual circuit to land.
Line Training:
I had 7 days of line training with 3 different instructors. The instructors are pretty nice, but 2 of them were quite anal on the verge of being annoying, no yelling, just each guy had his own idea of what the SOP was, which is all different from what the SOP manual says. I was warned of the above before the training began and advised just to nod and agree otherwise they could get otherwise, they have quite a high opinion of themselves.
The check was over 2 days to Maputo (Overnight in Maputo), so pretty relaxed, he passed me half way through the second day, and asked if he could do the approach and landing, to show me how its done !
On Line
They are very short of captains, especially on the B737 fleet, so Ive been flying my ass off since I was released. FTLs are not adhered to, so you must decide yourself if you are up to it and if you are comfortable busting the FTL limits. The limits are 1000 hours a year, 110 hours in 30 days and 32 hours in 7 days. Some guys are doing 140 hours in 20 days, as after 80 hours you get 87.50 USD per block hour extra. The advice that most give is fly until you are not happy with your fatigue levels, then turn you phone off.
The aircraft are all pretty new, they have 5 -700 and 15 -800, with another 10 MAX’s coming starting 2017. They are all very well equipped 27K engines, sun blinds, galley camera automatic WX radar and 180min ETOPS, and some extra stuff on the Vnav side.
The flying is varied and pretty relaxed, not much traffic, interesting destinations and ETOPS sectors over the Congo and the Indian ocean when we do New Delhi.
The crappy sectors are to the middle east, which are all done during the night, so pretty exhausting. Some destinations don't even have approach plates, in Somaliland etc.
The fuel policy is pretty relaxed, no need to give a reason of why, on the day, you took extra, must just remember why you did it, as they can ask you to give a reason if asked later. During the rainy season the company wants you to carry at least a half hour coming into ADD, even if nothing on the TAF. So I regularly land with 4.5-5 ton, with a diversion requirement of 3.5.
The engineering is generally good, all the -800 are pretty new with new ones arriving at about 1 a months. The -700 are leased and have some MEL items, but nothing major. You always have access to an engineer, if the destination does not have an ET engineer stationed, you take one with you, he does the fueling, tech log and opens MEL items and performs maintenance actions. All the aircraft carry a Boeing „fly away kit“ which includes a main wheel, nose wheel and a big box of assorted spares and tools, so the most common tech problems can be dealt with on the spot. But do check the tech log as they do sometimes get creative when they do not have time or spares to do the job !
The first officers are all very nice, you are the king, sitting in the left seat, so none of this crappy rich kid attitude that was sometimes present in FR. Some are very inexperienced and not the best handling pilots and lack SA at times. I was jolted awake after a night sector from Kuwait with a 2.2G landing thanks to 300 hour space cadet.
Addis is a pretty dismal place, lots of poverty but the people are very friendly and it is very safe, no problems walking around town, even after dark. Beer and food is cheap too, about 0.50 euro for a beer and 5 for a meal.
The cabin crew cant do enough for you, great crew food and all positioning, commuting and staff travel in business class. And all the water and coffee you can drink !
Overall Im glad I have made the move, after leaving FR you come to realise just what a bunch of greedy gits FR management really are.
The roster is 10 days off 20 days on, plus 14 days annual leave.
The pay is 7000 USD basic (just had a 500 USD pay increase as of Jan 1st), 1200 per diems and 1250 housing allowance. 4200 USD every 6 month and 7000 USD after 3 years for contract completion. Plus 87.50 USD for overtime, as mentioned above. All amounts are NET (ie after tax).
You are paid the basic pay plus 60USD per diem during training. But the basic is paid in arrears over 6 months once training is finished, a bit of a pain, don't really know why they do this.
I live in a large house with 7 other expat pilots, good company. We pay approx 500 USD each for rent, 2 cleaners and a full time guard and driver and a permanently stocked beer fridge. So I take home about 700 USD every month in cash of unspent housing allowance.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
PS
JTrain
Had a few beers with an expat Q400 skipper who was going to work in Malawi for ET. They own 50% of Air Malawi.[/QUOTE]