HEY!! Just back from interview and sim NOV 15-17.. Friendly and relaxed atmosphere... Tech exam EXACTLY as per latestpilotjob website... spent a couple of hours making notes based on the website's sample questions; needed 10 minutes to complete the exam, got (maybe) one wrong.
Interview is along same lines as outlined on the website... I'm NTR so the tech questions on the interview were very general in nature wrt my current aircraft (E190). The other fellow in for the interview with me that week was A320 rated and they grilled him fairly hard on tech questions about the 320. They asked me some general questions about aerodynamics such as difference between AOA and angle of incidence, concept of L/D Max and how it relates to max endurance vs max range... no brainer.
The sim was not as I expected. They put both candidates in the sim at the same time; the 320 qualified candidate was in the left seat first and I was in the right seat even though I've never been in an Airbus... so it was a bit of a challenge for the left seat guy as I could provide very limited support... and the instructor asked me to NOT verbalize deviations from desired flight path/speeds... so without A/P, A/T and FD (bird allowed), the emphasis was clearly on manual handling skills.
The profile is simple and straightforward. Startup on runway, quick FMGC load with 60T TOW FLEX 64, short T/O brief, wind 45 off the left at 15kts, climb out to 5000' then right into 45 degree bank turns, 180 then reverse without pause, vectors/reposition/flight freeze as required for the ILS 07R, no contact, GO AROUND, engine fail as pwr comes up, quick ECAM actions with the help of the instructor, climb out to 3000, flight freeze/reposition for S/E ILS 07R, all the while flying manually (but they let you use the FD for the S/E approach), land.
I'm current on the E-190, initially started flying in the military (fast jets)... and I've ALWAYS hand flown all the approaches that my company's SOPs have allowed me to, which is most of the time vis was 3/4 mile or better; consequently, I'm pretty good at hand flying. As mentioned above, I've never flown Airbus so I was feeling a bit of anxiety about the sim eval... which the instructors quickly dispelled. They gave a really good brief on how to interpret the PFD and emphasized that I need not worry about ANY 'Bus specific procedure... all they wanted me to do was fly the airplane and act as the captain in every other aspect.
It isn't modest to say so ... but I nailed the T/O, climb out and steep turns (+/- 30 feet, +/- 3kts). It was a little more challenging to fly the approach raw data, initially overcontroling both pitch and roll but progressively settling down as we got to 1000 AGL, but never exceeded half a dot either way. Much the same for the S/E app which I chose to attempt with FD.
There was one event during my eval which had caused me concern. The E-190's flap speeds are Flap 1-230kts, Flap 2-215kts, Flap 3-200kts. After turning to intercept the LOC for the S/E ILS, we were at 200kts, Flap 1+F and I called for 'Check Speed, Select Flap 2', the other (Airbus qualified) candidate selected it without checking the speed, the Airbus pilots reading this will immediately realize that this is an overspeed, horn blaring 'OVERSPEED, OVERSPEED...'
In the end, it didn't seem to have an impact on the results for myself as I've already been informed by HKA that I was successful and that a Letter of Offer is forthcoming within a month, along with a course date which can't be earlier than 8 weeks after the contract is signed ('cuz that's how long it takes for the Hong Kong work visa to come thru). They said training foot print is 4 months, sim on the 320 might be in Hong Kong, might be in Malaysia but if I get the 330, the sim is definitely in Malaysia.
The other candidate was not successful... based on what I saw during the sim eval, I'm guessing that his hand flying skills, while not bad at all, were not up to the level HKA is looking for... but I'm certain that selecting the flaps in overspeed condition, (which, as a A320 qual'ed pilot he most certainly should have picked up) probably didn't help...
Hope this helps.... Good luck!!
Last edited by LukeinChina; 20th Nov 2016 at 16:43.