Since this thread helped me so much and other pilots as well, I will give my feedback on the assessment I went, on 15th August.
I arrived at 2pm the day before and came back to Portugal the day after in the early morning - Coming early is very good because it allows us to get to know the place.
I chose Travelodge Dublin North which is 3 minutes walking from the hotel door to the door of Ryanair HQ and it was good, cheap and did the job (the wifi was a bit messy to be as there was some strange registration process, maybe I didn't quite understand it)
That morning I arrived about 10 minutes before and met my colleagues for that day who were all very friendly.
We waited for our assessor to come (Capt. Frank) and after he guided us through the building.
The building is very modern, colourful and the people who work at Ryanair are all very friendly, the atmosphere is very relaxed - there were some jokes as well to get us a little more relaxed/less tense.
We (we were 7 that day) then went to a briefing room where Frank ran through the briefing pack and showed us the charts for that day - Dublin airport. We were told about the meteo and departure clearance as well, straight away.
This day was an APC assessment day, so me and a colleague got paired for the sim since we were the only ones having already an MCC course.
There is enough time to discuss with your parter what you will do in the sim, special callouts you might want to do, briefing the task sharing and emergency procedures.
We went first to the sim and I volunteered to be PF first.
So we already had the clearance and the meteo information (wind 310/10, visibility 8000, cloud base at 800' broken, BR) but again in the sim we ask for the departure clearance (it was the same as before - after departure on Rwy 28, straight ahed Rwy heading until 2 DME, after that right turn heading 360º climbing 5000')
The sim was already prepared with all the frequencies properly set, but of course it should be confirmed.
The departure briefing is performed as we were indicated in the briefing pack - Brief the departure (including vertical and horizontal profiles), nav aids and respective selections (including the RMI needles), throttle handling procedure (who holds the throttles, when, how will it be managed) and I also included a brief emergency briefing (as I think it's good airmanship and it is also done in a real flight, which is what we are trying to simulate here). My emergency briefing included emergencies up to 80kt, between 80kt and V1, after V1.
Request all the checklists (the assessor will facilitate them, calling "complete" after the checklist is asked).
One note: the departure is performed with the autothrottle engaged up to the thrust reduction altitude and flight directors on - in speed and heading mode, so when we need to turn, you might want to antecipate and it has to be done via the heading knob, the flight directors are not in VNAV/LNAV!
After the departure was performed, we were given diferent headings, speed increment up to 250kt and decrement back to 220kt, I don't recall if we had to climb too and descend and then we were told to proceed to the NDB. Our QDM was asked and then we were instructed to intercept another QDM about 20 to 30º to the side of the one we were before.
When we were asked about the QDM make sure you read the ident of the station in your ND, you don't want to look for the QDM of the wrong station!
We were asked to enter a hold after passing the station and when this happened the assessor acting as the purser informed that there was smoke in the cabin (eventually it turned into flames).
Now in theory the emergency shouldn't be too hard to deal with following a basic task management sequence - Readback the problem to the purser and tell him to standby for a NITS briefing, handing over the controls to the F/O and performing a briefing, like a DODAR. After deciding what to do together, accordingly declare a PAN/MAYDAY and briefing the purser after.
The issue is that you might have to find the proper timing to hand over the controls to your F/O (not in the middle of trimming the aircraft for example) and then the ATC will be calling for us to climb or descend or proceed to a heading which is not desirable.
Good task management is very important so try to properly brief this with your partner before.
After dealing with the emergency I didn't have time to brief the purser - the assessor freezed the sim and positioned us in the ILS, at 6 DME more or less, fully configured and briefings and checklists considered done - ILS is raw data.
We proceeded, after having the field insight there was an ILS failure so we continued visually. I was able to land and then we changed roles.
I will again tell what I was told and read here in the forum.
In the sim you are not expected to fly it perfectly. If you are not the best with the handling you might be taught during the type rating but you cannot be told how to decide, and that is a huge part of what they want to see.
They want to see if we are trainable, they want to see if the react positively to the disturbances in the flight path (ex., lowering the nose to descend if we are too high and not the opposite!), how we handle stress, how we decide and prioritize tasks, how we communicate with our partner and how we help each other (CRM, basically, again, a huge part in the sim).
Try to help your parter the best you can, calling for distances to go, altitudes, important deviations in the parameters (callout when needed, speed, course, altitude, with the PF acknowledging "correcting"), call the altitudes for thrust reduction and acceleration - there are not specific procedures regarding these calls, so use common sense and try to help your partner the best you can, it's the PF responsability to call for climb thrust, but the thrust reduction altitude can easily pass unnoticed when we are focused flying.
In my case I didn't remember to call for the after take-off checklist in time and my parter helped me, recalling me - if this happens, which is normal and it only shows good CRM, remind the PF to call for the checklist in a friendly tone like you really want to help and maintain a good CRM. It couldn't be worse than to blame the other crew member if he/she forgot something!
Another note: When you are instructed to to something (proceed to a holding, climb, descend), check if there are any restrictions: Speed restrictions for the holding, MHA, MSA, because you might be instructed to descend below the MS, for example and of course that is not what it is supposed.
Also, when instructed to perform a speed reduction below 210kt do not forget the flaps!
The sim session goes by pretty quick, and the assessor is very very friendly and wants to help us - everything is explained and in case we are missing a thrust setting or an attitude reference, we are reminded of those so that we can get back on track
Being in the simulator is also very nice, it looks pretty much like the real cockpit so it is very exciting!
After this I went to the room we were until I got called for the interview. Again, they were very very friendly and they try to get us relaxed.
First I had some questions about my favourite ATPL subjects and my questions were related to those actually - Forces acting on an aircraft, what causes lift, what cause drag, what are the different types of drag, how does a lenticular cloud look like, seats in a Ryanair 737-800.
For the HR questions I was asked to tell a little about myself, why Ryanair, how would I feel having to do another MCC course (again, this is due to the APC assessment), how to deal with a difficult captain.
After the friendly interview I proceeded back to the room and stood there until everyone finished with the interviews.
(The day started at 8am and finished at aound 4pm)
Don't forget to bring all the paperwork as it is very important and everything is needed - also bring a smile, a positive atittude and confidence. Being nervous is very normal, but it will eventually go away as we get comfortable
Also, I went to a local sort of homemade 737 simulador to be familiar with the handling and cockpit layout - Did 5h in it (Half of that PM, half PF).
Even though, the way I think I practised the most was actually flying the PMDG 737 in FSX - it really really helped me to get proficient with the instrument scanning, specially during an ILS, as well as all the configuration changes and their sequence, power settings and atittudes to fly.
If you want to practice it in your FSX i think the gross weight of the aircraft is in the order of 62/65000Kg.
I do apologize for the long post, but I hope it helps.
Now I'm placed in course APC 1602.
Good luck to you all!
André Franco