British Airways DEP Selection - THE lowdown Part 1
Join Date: Feb 2010
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A quick company synoptic.
Next years Priam (dreamsheet) bid has now been concluded for internal transfers between fleets.
What has this to do with the swimmers I hear you ponder? Quite simply it allows manpower planning to dovetail DEP courses in with the course allocations for fleet transfers. This basically means that the new DEP courses can now start to be programmed in and swimmers pulled from the pool starting from, hopefully, January.
As I'm sure you are all aware, if you've been following this thread, the stagnation in BA has lasted about 4-5 years thus the amount of unfrozen internal bidders was huge. Add to this the two new aircraft types and their initial type requirements and the whole transfer plot has become large and hazy. It's getting to the end and much clearer now!!!! A380 is going to be, relatively, senior in both seats, 777 has become an even more senior fleet, 744 has, in the RHS, become very junior and the big surprise was that the 787 has gone quite junior in both seats.
Rumour on the streets is the recently purchased slots at LHR are feeding the new 773 aircraft with extra long haul and this could, repeat, could lead to DEP 777 starting next year.
The decision on LGW has been put back to, I believe, about December with respect to the new aircraft type with three in the running, Embraer, B737 NG, A320NEO. Word on the streets is for cross fleet commonality thus, from the rumours and crew banter, the A320NEO is the slight fore runner. GE's dismission of future engine enhancement and the inability to hang a geared turbofan off the 73's low slung wing has caused some grumbling amongst the 'suits' and the addition of an Embraer would have associated engineering cost increases. Time will tell.
As always with BA when things start to move they move quickly in the manner of crisis managment and reactive ops not proactive.
Good luck.
Next years Priam (dreamsheet) bid has now been concluded for internal transfers between fleets.
What has this to do with the swimmers I hear you ponder? Quite simply it allows manpower planning to dovetail DEP courses in with the course allocations for fleet transfers. This basically means that the new DEP courses can now start to be programmed in and swimmers pulled from the pool starting from, hopefully, January.
As I'm sure you are all aware, if you've been following this thread, the stagnation in BA has lasted about 4-5 years thus the amount of unfrozen internal bidders was huge. Add to this the two new aircraft types and their initial type requirements and the whole transfer plot has become large and hazy. It's getting to the end and much clearer now!!!! A380 is going to be, relatively, senior in both seats, 777 has become an even more senior fleet, 744 has, in the RHS, become very junior and the big surprise was that the 787 has gone quite junior in both seats.
Rumour on the streets is the recently purchased slots at LHR are feeding the new 773 aircraft with extra long haul and this could, repeat, could lead to DEP 777 starting next year.
The decision on LGW has been put back to, I believe, about December with respect to the new aircraft type with three in the running, Embraer, B737 NG, A320NEO. Word on the streets is for cross fleet commonality thus, from the rumours and crew banter, the A320NEO is the slight fore runner. GE's dismission of future engine enhancement and the inability to hang a geared turbofan off the 73's low slung wing has caused some grumbling amongst the 'suits' and the addition of an Embraer would have associated engineering cost increases. Time will tell.
As always with BA when things start to move they move quickly in the manner of crisis managment and reactive ops not proactive.
Good luck.

Join Date: Oct 2010
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Just for the guys and gals trying to work out ish where they are in the pool... Applied last OCT, Day 1 interview in FEB, sim end of April and in the pool early May. 320 rated with 3000 hrs+. Heard nothing to date.
I plucked up the courage to send an e-mail last week to ask if an approximate time frame for a course date could be given, all I got back was unfortunately they could not give any info on course and that you can last up to 1 year in the pool. So guess I'll just have to keep waiting, hopefully it won't be too long! Good luck to all!
I plucked up the courage to send an e-mail last week to ask if an approximate time frame for a course date could be given, all I got back was unfortunately they could not give any info on course and that you can last up to 1 year in the pool. So guess I'll just have to keep waiting, hopefully it won't be too long! Good luck to all!

Join Date: Apr 2004
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To Help out with the guys that had sim checks earlier in the year, I had my interview around the 20th January and sim around the 20th February. Offer came a couple of weeks later and started in July. This was one of the last courses for a while, so hopefully you can see potentially how close you are to an offer.
Obviously dependant on how many people were going through stage two each week, how many of those were successful and most importantly, what fleet you're on.
And yes... it's worth the wait.
Obviously dependant on how many people were going through stage two each week, how many of those were successful and most importantly, what fleet you're on.
And yes... it's worth the wait.

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Thanks Wirbelsturm for the insider info!
Applied March, interview May, sim August. Also still waiting and seeing as many here have been waiting much longer than me, I may be in for a long'ish wait.
Good luck all.
Applied March, interview May, sim August. Also still waiting and seeing as many here have been waiting much longer than me, I may be in for a long'ish wait.
Good luck all.

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Hi all.
For those interested, I phoned them on Thursday regarding when we will hear back with regards to our recent application.
The answer was , they are still working through the applications.
For those of you guys who attended the selection in recent months, can you be so kind please to offer some advice on which books contain the relevant aptitude tests for the Ba process.
Thank you very much.
For those interested, I phoned them on Thursday regarding when we will hear back with regards to our recent application.
The answer was , they are still working through the applications.
For those of you guys who attended the selection in recent months, can you be so kind please to offer some advice on which books contain the relevant aptitude tests for the Ba process.
Thank you very much.

Pumps,
The sample stuff BA sends out is good for brushing up, also the Kent University website has all manner of verbal and numerical tests to practice. Be yourself at the interview, don't try to prepare exact answers because the bullshitometer alarm will sound, but do have lots of sensible ideas in your head of possible answers.
I passed the interview and am waiting for the sim check.
The sample stuff BA sends out is good for brushing up, also the Kent University website has all manner of verbal and numerical tests to practice. Be yourself at the interview, don't try to prepare exact answers because the bullshitometer alarm will sound, but do have lots of sensible ideas in your head of possible answers.
I passed the interview and am waiting for the sim check.

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Actually I think preparing your answers in advance is not necessarily a bad thing. I did just that and got through. After browsing through all (yes all) of the pages of this thread, I came up with a very comprehensive list of sample questions, wrote an answer to all of them, and rehearsed them relentlessly. Just keep in mind that not every question requires a description of a military mission as an answer. Short answers are more likely to do the job. The assessors know that not every day is a thrilling adventure and not every problem requires rocket science to solve it. They just want to get a general idea of your experience and exposure.
Don't rehearse the answers word for word. It will be noticed.
As for the bullshitometer alarm - very sound point indeed. As with every situation in life, never tell a lie - that way you don't have to remember what you said!
Don't rehearse the answers word for word. It will be noticed.
As for the bullshitometer alarm - very sound point indeed. As with every situation in life, never tell a lie - that way you don't have to remember what you said!


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There were 4 days of recruitment last week...anyone heard from them? Especially those that featured on Monday / Tuesday time? We were told we'd know by Friday or Monday morning.
Just as a tip for anybody else going...I found "How to Pass Advanced Verbal Reasoning Tests" (2nd Edition) ISBN: 978-0-7494-6079-2 extremely useful for the verbal reasoning test. There are 33 passages in there which are very similar to BA's version (since they're both SHL based) and they have 100 questions attached to those 33 passages. There's also a practice test containing another 42 questions. Some of the passages in the book are longer than you'll get in the test but the technique and wording is identical. Difficulty wise, I'd say it's very similar.
Just as a tip for anybody else going...I found "How to Pass Advanced Verbal Reasoning Tests" (2nd Edition) ISBN: 978-0-7494-6079-2 extremely useful for the verbal reasoning test. There are 33 passages in there which are very similar to BA's version (since they're both SHL based) and they have 100 questions attached to those 33 passages. There's also a practice test containing another 42 questions. Some of the passages in the book are longer than you'll get in the test but the technique and wording is identical. Difficulty wise, I'd say it's very similar.

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Oh Lord no. 
I've got that book (albeit the First Edition) and I thought some of the answers to those passages were utter nonsense. Now you're telling me BA are going to expect me to regurgitate nonsensical BS. I'm screwed.

I've got that book (albeit the First Edition) and I thought some of the answers to those passages were utter nonsense. Now you're telling me BA are going to expect me to regurgitate nonsensical BS. I'm screwed.


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BA contract
Hi All
Can anyone help me find a copy of the BA contract or a link where I can find it?
It would be interesting to look at it just to get more detailed information.
Thanks
Can anyone help me find a copy of the BA contract or a link where I can find it?
It would be interesting to look at it just to get more detailed information.
Thanks

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BA Medical questionnaire
Hello,
I received an interview confirmation today and I have a small medical issue that could cause some trouble (concerning color vision), since BA medical requirements are supposed to be more restrictive than JAR FCL 3.
Could someone please send me a PM if he/she is willing to send me the medical questionnaire, so that I can have a look if there's any reason for concerns before I go trough all the preparation work..
Thank you in advance and good luck to everybody!
I received an interview confirmation today and I have a small medical issue that could cause some trouble (concerning color vision), since BA medical requirements are supposed to be more restrictive than JAR FCL 3.
Could someone please send me a PM if he/she is willing to send me the medical questionnaire, so that I can have a look if there's any reason for concerns before I go trough all the preparation work..
Thank you in advance and good luck to everybody!

