British Airways DEP Selection - THE lowdown Part 1
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 62
Likes: 0
From: Hampshire/Surrey
Sim assessment practice partner
Hello all,
I was lucky enough to make it through day 1 of the assessment a few days ago. I have a sim assessment in the 3rd week of June and was wondering if anyone would be interested in splitting the cost of a practice prior to then?
It would be with a current Monarch Captain on a 737NG sim in Bournemouth. The NG sim has the same EHSI(ND) and EADI(PFD) as the 747 used for the assessment and the Captain has a very good record of getting people through the sim assessment.
Cost would be roughly £90 each per hour and the Captain recommends 3 hours over two sessions. Anyone interested PM me and we can see if we can match some dates. Cheers.
I was lucky enough to make it through day 1 of the assessment a few days ago. I have a sim assessment in the 3rd week of June and was wondering if anyone would be interested in splitting the cost of a practice prior to then?
It would be with a current Monarch Captain on a 737NG sim in Bournemouth. The NG sim has the same EHSI(ND) and EADI(PFD) as the 747 used for the assessment and the Captain has a very good record of getting people through the sim assessment.
Cost would be roughly £90 each per hour and the Captain recommends 3 hours over two sessions. Anyone interested PM me and we can see if we can match some dates. Cheers.
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: Gatwick Area
BA Simulator Practice
Low cost BA simulator assessment practice is available at Virtualflight (near Horsham, W.Sussex) on the 737NG, which is the best compromise for price and relevance. Contact with the quoted Monarch Captain (with good candidate success rate) can be achieved via Virtualflight. The reference to Bournemouth simulator usage is now out of date. The B727 Sim at EAL - Bournemouth used to be used, however, as BA now use the B747-400 (and no longer use the BAC 1-11) for DEP sim assessments the 737NG is more appropriate for preparation. Whilst clearly different to the 747-400 there is significant benefit, especially for current FBW-Airbus pilots, in using this low cost sim with tailored instruction.
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 62
Likes: 0
From: Hampshire/Surrey
Sorry all, the Virtualflight 737NG sim near Horsham, W.Sussex was what I meant, not Bournemouth. Thanks to all who replied regarding sharing the sim practice. I have found someone to share with so appologies to everyone else and good luck.
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 123
Likes: 0
From: uk
I have been fortunate to receive the golden phone call! I am now in the hold pool. Having spoken with the recruitment dept, it appears that all future airbus places (I am airbus current but just under 777/744 required jet hours) are at LGW. However I am not in a position to move my family down there and had always banked on LHR. So I have three questions. Firstly are the LGW crews on a different contract to LHR? Secondly, if I can't accept that location will I simply remain in the pool untill LHR is available? Lastly, would I be frozen on type for the standard five years even if airbus rated?
Thanks for any thoughts in advance, just need an idea of the situation before I get back to them.
Good luck to all.
Thanks for any thoughts in advance, just need an idea of the situation before I get back to them.
Good luck to all.
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Bournemouth
Hi. I went for the assesment last week and just have a couple of things to say:
i) With regard to the original post on this thread, the task with "growing lines" (on micropat) is no longer there. It is replaced by putting a small dot into a square using the joystick with the controls reversed. When this is done, you have to do it again but doing the subtraction exercise at the same time. You get your average time to put the dot into the sqaure on both tests.
ii) Apart from possibly the radar screen I would say that the cockpitweb sofware is not all that great (considering it is £80!) I found that the capacity test (on cockpitweb) with shapes and numbers was not at all difficult and was getting 100% without practice. At BA you have to do it with the "shaky" cross which is more difficult and not possible on cockpitweb. What makes this a capacity test is the mental and co-ordination ability at the same time. You cannot practice this on cockpitweb and so seems a slight waste. Suitcase man and subtractions not that challenging. Friend or Foe is OK but by the last stage (at BA) it is very difficult. Of course cockpitweb is a confidence builder.
iii) You get 25 questions in 12 minutes on maths, no calculator. I would say the key is to immediately recoignise the "lenghtly" questions and skip them. All questions same marks. There is no difficult maths. If you had 30 minutes, a 15 year old would get 100% - it's just time pressure
iv) Verbal Reasoning is VERY difficult and much harder than any examples BA sent or I could find on internet. Even the examples on the day are hard. My guess is the pass mark is low on this.
v) Interview questions all covered here.
vi) Group exercise about something completely different (from original post) but same idea. No time at beginning to read, just told you have 35 minutes and to start! At minus 10 minutes, urgent fax arrives. Don't be loud, don't be quiet. Listen, talk and agree or disagree politely. Sounds obvious but it would be easy to take charge or just to let everyone else talk! Quite a nice ice-breaker for you aswell, as you are not on your own and if it goes well (you get a feeling) sets you up for the rest of the day.
vii) All salary etc given at lunch, I do not believe you are assessed then! It's all professional and nothing "under-hand!" I would eat before they take you for this briefing as most people did and could be embarassing if you were the only one eating!
Hope this helps. As others have said, it's not such a bad day. Very professional and quite "entertaining!"
i) With regard to the original post on this thread, the task with "growing lines" (on micropat) is no longer there. It is replaced by putting a small dot into a square using the joystick with the controls reversed. When this is done, you have to do it again but doing the subtraction exercise at the same time. You get your average time to put the dot into the sqaure on both tests.
ii) Apart from possibly the radar screen I would say that the cockpitweb sofware is not all that great (considering it is £80!) I found that the capacity test (on cockpitweb) with shapes and numbers was not at all difficult and was getting 100% without practice. At BA you have to do it with the "shaky" cross which is more difficult and not possible on cockpitweb. What makes this a capacity test is the mental and co-ordination ability at the same time. You cannot practice this on cockpitweb and so seems a slight waste. Suitcase man and subtractions not that challenging. Friend or Foe is OK but by the last stage (at BA) it is very difficult. Of course cockpitweb is a confidence builder.
iii) You get 25 questions in 12 minutes on maths, no calculator. I would say the key is to immediately recoignise the "lenghtly" questions and skip them. All questions same marks. There is no difficult maths. If you had 30 minutes, a 15 year old would get 100% - it's just time pressure
iv) Verbal Reasoning is VERY difficult and much harder than any examples BA sent or I could find on internet. Even the examples on the day are hard. My guess is the pass mark is low on this.
v) Interview questions all covered here.
vi) Group exercise about something completely different (from original post) but same idea. No time at beginning to read, just told you have 35 minutes and to start! At minus 10 minutes, urgent fax arrives. Don't be loud, don't be quiet. Listen, talk and agree or disagree politely. Sounds obvious but it would be easy to take charge or just to let everyone else talk! Quite a nice ice-breaker for you aswell, as you are not on your own and if it goes well (you get a feeling) sets you up for the rest of the day.
vii) All salary etc given at lunch, I do not believe you are assessed then! It's all professional and nothing "under-hand!" I would eat before they take you for this briefing as most people did and could be embarassing if you were the only one eating!
Hope this helps. As others have said, it's not such a bad day. Very professional and quite "entertaining!"
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Bournemouth
Hi
Actually I thought that the interviewers were fine - professional and quite friendly. Seemed to be (although I know it wasn't) informal and relaxed. A few jokes. Felt like a "chat" and the time went quickly. A couple of the questions were a bit tricky as I did not prepare loads for this as I guessed that it would be more the impression they got from you than the actual answers! Who knows!! I just cannot belive that they are looking for you to list a whole load of "buzz" words as anyone can do this! With regard to your post about Penny Austin: I felt on the day that the session was quite long and tiring and some aspects were quite basic. There was also good, useful information, however. I would guess that some people benefit a lot more than others - quite normal. It is impossible to know how much it did or didn't help me with BA as I cannot live in 2 parallel worlds!
Actually I thought that the interviewers were fine - professional and quite friendly. Seemed to be (although I know it wasn't) informal and relaxed. A few jokes. Felt like a "chat" and the time went quickly. A couple of the questions were a bit tricky as I did not prepare loads for this as I guessed that it would be more the impression they got from you than the actual answers! Who knows!! I just cannot belive that they are looking for you to list a whole load of "buzz" words as anyone can do this! With regard to your post about Penny Austin: I felt on the day that the session was quite long and tiring and some aspects were quite basic. There was also good, useful information, however. I would guess that some people benefit a lot more than others - quite normal. It is impossible to know how much it did or didn't help me with BA as I cannot live in 2 parallel worlds!
Last edited by FlyingKnobbi; 27th June 2008 at 08:08.