BA Direct Entry Pilot.

[Buter]

Originally Posted by Basil

Oh, yes, my dear, I've a penthouse suite in London

My penthouse in Vauxhall Towers, combined with my southern drawl, kept me knee deep in clunge for ages, brother,

Sadly, the penthouse got towed away so I’ve got to rely solely on my looks, charm and wit now.

Buter

[SkilledBoot]

Any updates?

Have there been anymore calls made to the hold pool for 320 TR'd?

The last word I heard was from 'thetimesreader84' that they had an early Dec sim date and had been given a start in May.

Any other 320 TR'd people still treading the water?

Thanks

[Paddingtonbear]

Surely it's just a matter of time for everybody in the pool, on the basis that they're putting people through fresh assessments for A320 positions?

[Hot Wings]

Good news! Lindsay Craig is back at the helm.

[Fostex]

Andre as well? Decent guys who actually care about flying, good news.

[Hot Wings]

Not sure about Andre or Andy but hopefully good news for swimmers and future DEPs/cadets. Rumours of being many hundreds short on the pilot front.

[Mizar]

What about the 5 years fleet freeze engagement is it still there or has been removed? If so would you foresee any possible early movement out of the 747 fleet as they are due to retire?

[GS-Alpha]

Where do questions of removal of engagement freeze come from? The engagement freeze has been five years for at least two decades. I cannot see that reducing. If anything, I expect they would like to see it increase.

As for 747 retirements; yes hull numbers have been reducing, but we are years away from people being directed off or released from freezes. In fact at the moment, they cannot get people trained onto it quickly enough!

Are you saying you have been offered a 747 course but you do not really want it?

[wiggy]

The engagement freeze has been five years for at least two decades. I cannot see that reducing. If anything, I expect they would like to see it increase

+1...every course is a cost to the company.....

[ETOPS]

Looks like BA are going to be short of flight crew this summer. This was hinted at a while ago but looks like it’s going to result in extraordinary measures😗

Getting new recruits in is harder when your existing crews are being run ragged just keeping the show on the road....

[student88]

Although we clearly have a stressful summer ahead, I think this is great news for potential DEPs and existing BA pilots generally. Glass half full and all that

It's also very reassuring to have L.C back in control of Manpower Planning.

[Heathrow09L]

It is great news of potential DEP recruitment, but I really hope LC doesn’t let a whole lot of good potential pilots go for not holding a moving cross or not playing silly cruise ship games, still like in previous recruitment drive, I know its is their train set, but surely the large drive for DEP long haul recruitment and roadshows a few years back in a few Gulf States and Hong Kong for experienced long haul pilot but turning them down must have the cost the company so much money.

I really hope LC can respectfully modernise BA’s recruitment.

[Smooth Airperator]

Modernize indeed. The first step towards fixing any recruitment issue within a company is to get board approval to totally bypass HR and their involvement. HR are a burden and curse on a department's operational needs. I've seen it in multiple industries prior to aviation. Why does a granny from HR who is about to retire think she knows what makes a good BA employee in 2018? Cut out the bull**** and archaic paper based exercises that reveal nothing about experienced pilots that a proper 1 hr chat on a pilot to pilot basis covering background and future desires can't.

Limit the intolerable and most off-putting "describe a situation when..." questions to 2 or 3, not 10! That just pisses adults right off. Some of us are left thinking, what is this nonsense?

Most of us walk away from the BA process feeling deeply annoyed and as if we just interviewed for a high profile city banker's job. In my case bailed out at 2nd stage after an hours worth of pointless questions and during the interview not one operational or tech question was asked. I'm a pilot ffs, treat and test me like one!

Sour grapes? Well yes. When you keep seeing pilots well known to have inferior skills getting hired by BA, it does turn your world a bit sour. I'm sure a lot of people in this room will back me up on this last part.

[Love_joy]

Apparently some offers have been made this week, can anyone elaborate?

[wiggy]

I’n sure the likes of LC would happily cut to the chase....

...during the interview not one operational or tech question was asked. I'm a pilot ffs, treat and test me like one!

I’m with you on this, however above LC s pay grade I suspect we have people who think being able to keep the dot centred and use the three times table isn’t enough...BA also want a “package” that is capable and willing to drop everything in the middle of a foreign vacation to go to an local airport airport to operate back to U.K. in the stead of a sick colleague, and during the flight take an image of their crew meal which they will portray in an attractive manner on Social media...now convince at interview that you can tick those boxes and you will be BAs ideal modern pilot recruit....

[Love_joy]

I'm all for modern thinking Wiggy, but having seen some social media attempts blow up recently that's a path that needs to be walked very very carefully.

Also a sorry state of affairs if skill of the selfie is considered ahead of other ability.

[Time Traveller]

Amen to that smooth. Is a long while since I visited BA, but they always were a nauseating extreme of the HR psychobabble driven selection process, which some might argue, selectively recruits candidates with a rather inflated opinion of themselves!

[bex88]

Wiggy: I hope they are only taking pictures of their meal above 20,000ft

[wiggy]

Originally Posted by Love_joy

I'm all for modern thinking Wiggy, but having seen some social media attempts blow up recently that's a path that needs to be walked very very carefully.

Thanks for the heads up but it is really not necessary. Anyone who has been at BA for any length of time is well aware of that fact, cf. Mixed Fleet and Social Media.....

..a sorry state of affairs if skill of the selfie is considered ahead of other ability.

It's not...I'm not suggesting for one minute that BA think selfie skills /media skills etc have primacy over flying skills,..that comment was made slightly in jest in view of recent events, but it might be worth having a view on the subject if brought up at interview. The "real politik" here (and you are smart people, you must know this) is that most big companies with a large pool of applicants look beyond the hand eye stuff these days and rocking up for interview with a mature flight bag and approaching the process with the attitude of "I'm an ace pilot with X000 hours in the book, don't need to prove anything else, just employee me"...might not work out too well.

bex:

I hope they are only taking pictures of their meal above 20,000ft

[GS-Alpha]

I am pretty out of touch with the current BA application process, but they must be doing something right because I have been very impressed with the many DEPs I have flown with on the 747. Two ringers often seem to think they are viewed as inferior, but whenever I have one on my flight, I tend to think the exact opposite.