London Interview
 

Hi there,
Anyone do the London Interview Nov 27-Dec 01?Any thoughts on reflection?

Sure,

Interviewed by two really nice people. They seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.

Thought the tech quiz was pretty standard stuff.

Duffed at least two tech questions which were absolute gimmees. There was nothing asked out of the ordinary.

I should have done more HR question practice.

Personally I could have done a lot better.

I will do PM's if you need more info.

MAX:cool:

Will you find out 2 weeks from Friday? Couldn't remember how long you wait till you call HK.

One week from today.

MAX:cool:

Thanks MAX and good luck!

Hi guys.

I felt much the same. Put in way too much prep into the tech stuff. Maybe even aced a geeky 100% in test and gave good account of tech stuff in the interview. I was however weak on cx trivia and should have spent more time on this.

Oh well lets see what happens on friday.
Good luck!

Any of you prepared to share your questions with the rest of us, it would be much appreciated...:ok:

A lot of standard personal q's, far more than tech q's.
Tech q's: couple on my current type, and couple of basic aero questions.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Do a thorough personal prep as well.

Which job is it for ?

HKG - S/O,

AMS - F/O or

EUR - F/O (freighter) - less pay than AMS - F/O

What sort of HR/personal Q's were being asked?

Nothing difficult.Nice, relaxed, professional and casual, all at ease.

Personal along the lines of:tell us more about you,why us,why should we employ you, what will your boss say, (your wife) if we phoned them, why did you became pilot, how did you do it,why long haul,so duties, how long before command at own outfit,how did you pay for training,why HKG, what do you know about HKG,your first flying job, why leave now,etc etc etc ,its all about why why why about you.
Know yourself better than anything else.

Tech:Describe swept wing, advantages, disadvantages,high lift devices,dutch roll,which fleet would you like to join, why, Autothrottle off, aircraft reaches min speed what happens?Indications?

At the end of the day being yourself is the best advice that I can give you.It makes you relax as you don't have anything to hide.
Recognise weaknesses and admitt them don't try to fool them as your experince is a drop in the ocean compared to theirs and they will recognise it.I feel that they want to see the real you, so allow them.

I was talking from my heart and found it easy even when I was scrutinised closely on some answers that I gave.

Good luck to all of you,go there and enjoy it and show why you are there.

AA

Got the good news today-try again later.

Good luck to the rest of you.

Just demoralises me to have done all the hard work,(experince)

AA

Tech quiz pretty much as advertised, 2 very friendly interviewers. All quite relaxed as we sat round the end of the table. Pleasant suprise as I was expecting a good grilling.

HR guy asked about my career to date, why I made the decisions i did, why I wanted to leave a perfectly good job and take a pay cut to be an FO, how would I deal being back in the RHS again, talked about possibilities for the future at CX career-wise. Did I know they had ordered new aeroplanes and what? Discussed the low-cost business model for a bit.

Mr Tech Captain started by asking when I had a negative experience in the past that had changed me for the better. Lots of limitation questions on my current type, why do we have a zero fuel limitation? Swept wings/mach crit/mach tuck etc. (747-400 model on table). Why is V1 lower on bigger aeroplanes?

If I had to either stop 8kt before V1 or rotate 8kt after V1 which would I choose? Said I'd continue as at least I had a fighting chance of getting away with it and that if I had stopped I'd definitely have gone off the end of the runway. He was quite happy to give me time to think it thro and seemed as much interested in my thought process as the answer itself. This lead to question on reduced screen heights.

You're on finals and you have a descent rate of 1200fpm. Why? (tailwind). You land long, how do you know you're reaching the end of the runway?
Is your TAS higher @ F390 M0.8 or F300 M0.8? Flying into a warmer air mass will TAS increase or decrease?

Standard drunk/non SOP Captain questions (gee do they still ask this stuff to experienced aircrew?!) Nothing on met, only general discussion on HK.

Anyway, I got through !!!!!!

***********BTW If you want to hone your HR skills, I found 'Great answers to tough interview questions' by Martin John Yate invaluable.*************

V1
 

Please tell me if I am wrong? I always thought V1 was a decision speed so if you have a failure below V1 you STOP and after V1 you GO.... Theoretically choosing to stop (8 knots) below V1 will stop you before the end of the runway and choosing to rotate at Vr (regardless being 8kts above V1 - especially on th 747!) should get you to the screen height. Historically stopping on the runway after an aborted TO has led to many accidents..:ooh: remember we aint no test pilots!! However TO with 1Eng inop in bad weather, over your landing weight and a high MSA can be quite challenging. Like many company SOPs there are criteria when aborting a TO below and above 80kts.. eg. don't abort if you have a tire failure above 80kts and V1! Fire is always a tricky one... think about stopping even above V1 if there is an extented stopway. aka Concorde!
Anyways... something to think :bored: about. Happy flying and interviewing!!

Round 2 will be in Feb!!!
Anyone else?

right Woof, no brainer - the scenario they put to me was that I had a hijacker with a gun in the cockpit who would only let me rotate 8kt before or 8kt after V1. Creative way of putting it I suppose....

I got through too, anyone interested in sharing sim time for the second round? Or where one is for that matter!

Yep, made it through. Just got to sort the time off. ;)

MAX:cool:

Sounds like the interviews were all pretty friendly and straight forward. Just wondering if there's a different approach than in the US. Have had several reports from acquaintences that the CX interviews in the US of late were absolute grillings. Have heard that US pilots have a rep at CX as being technically weak, just wondering if that may be coming into play.

Not trying to start an "us vs. them" discussion here, just curious if my perceptions are off the mark or not...

I don't think that is necessarily true.
My 1st interview in the US was the most pleasant interview experience I have ever had.
I believe what makes a difference is how prepared a candidate is or not. The CX interviewers have absolutely no tolerance for someone showing up unprepared.
The problem in the US is that the theoretical knowledge threshold required to get your ATP is very low, and some people just never move beyond that point.