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BA Direct Entry Pilot.

Old 16th Feb 2020, 15:43
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Originally Posted by Phantom4
I respect your comments 2Whites 2Reds.
Do you have any idea of the Fail rate in the sim up to the time that this decision to waive the sim ride was made.
I understand it only relates to 320 applicants.
My Take is the Group Exercise is the most important element up to the sim.

no idea on the figures I’m afraid. Sorry, didn’t mean to snap. Wrong side of bed this morning.

Like many, I view the sim as a vital part of the recruitment process and I’m appalled they’ve decided to ditch it regardless of background or intended destination fleet. The sim has never really been about ability to fly. But more about navigating your way through a sector to a safe outcome alongside someone you’ve probably never met regardless of what’s thrown at you.

I think we could all do without the computer games and maths tests. But the sim.....bad idea.

Guess which part of the recruitment process costs the most.

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Old 16th Feb 2020, 15:56
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2Whites 2Reds
Absolutely correct with what you say and £6k pails into insignificance against some potential long term problem and HR should step in because it will be their headache to terminate.
Hopefully they will see sense
Someone very close to me was320 rated ,Did sim assessment and then only 4 sim details before Line Trg
If they eliminate the sim assessment they BA are taking considerable risk.
Best Wishes
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Old 19th Feb 2020, 10:38
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Is there anyone who's been offered a 320 job recently who can give me an idea of how long they were in the hold pool? Ta
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Old 19th Feb 2020, 15:46
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Please forgive me here but if you can fly a 320 for ezy (majority of 320 rated will be ezy) why can't you fly one for BA?
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Old 19th Feb 2020, 16:20
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Originally Posted by MikeAlpha320
Please forgive me here but if you can fly a 320 for ezy (majority of 320 rated will be ezy) why can't you fly one for BA?
suppose they want to see a level of CRM which may not be present (lot of easy are ex cadets that don’t do a sim there)

Also the ability to learn/adapt as you go (looking to a future long haul TR)
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Old 19th Feb 2020, 17:03
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Originally Posted by MikeAlpha320
Please forgive me here but if you can fly a 320 for ezy (majority of 320 rated will be ezy) why can't you fly one for BA?
Why bother interviewing either? If you can pass the interview for EZY then why can’t you pass one for BA?
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Old 19th Feb 2020, 17:08
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Coal face Captains getting on the issue and they will have to fly with this elite group without a sim ride and before that sim trainers to satisfy..
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Old 20th Feb 2020, 04:14
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Lindsay would never have endorsed the no sim ride idea and Knight will fall on his sword when it comes back to bite him.
The BA sim assessment is different from many carriers flight test in which there are usually four candidates to process in four hours so just fifty minutes each and a blur of faces for the assessor.Fine that’s what Ryan do,Emirates ,CX and works for them.
The BA is two candidates over Five and a half hours including brief,PowerPoint and four hours in the box.
This allows the assessor ,who are chosen for their interpersonal skills to get to know their charges and say to himself a number of questions before making recommendation to accept or reject.
Perhaps the only sim ride which exceeds BA’s scrutiny is Lufty.
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Old 20th Feb 2020, 08:06
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Originally Posted by Phantom4
Lindsay would never have endorsed the no sim ride idea and Knight will fall on his sword when it comes back to bite him.
The BA sim assessment is different from many carriers flight test in which there are usually four candidates to process in four hours so just fifty minutes each and a blur of faces for the assessor.Fine that’s what Ryan do,Emirates ,CX and works for them.
The BA is two candidates over Five and a half hours including brief,PowerPoint and four hours in the box.
This allows the assessor ,who are chosen for their interpersonal skills to get to know their charges and say to himself a number of questions before making recommendation to accept or reject.
Perhaps the only sim ride which exceeds BA’s scrutiny is Lufty.
My BA sim ride was nowhere near 4 hours in the box. It was about 45 mins pre-sim briefing, 2.5 hrs in the box and a chit chat over a coffee afterwards. Job offer the next day. Pretty much the same as at Ryanair.

Still, a good workout, a good challenge and utterly essential in any recruitment process I’d say.
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Old 20th Feb 2020, 08:08
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Originally Posted by Float15
Is there anyone who's been offered a 320 job recently who can give me an idea of how long they were in the hold pool? Ta
two weeks to the day from hold pool email to phone call with offer
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Old 20th Feb 2020, 08:23
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Originally Posted by Phantom4
The BA is two candidates over Five and a half hours including brief,PowerPoint and four hours in the box.
On paper, maybe. In reality, no it isn’t that.
I certainly didn’t do anything like four hours in the box; as the above post says, a chat over coffee then good news a few days later.

Passing the sim certainly doesn’t make you some elite breed... they let me in 🤷🏼‍♂️
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Old 20th Feb 2020, 08:34
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TBH I don’t think it’s the timing that’s bothering people on the line, whether they are trainers or not.

It’s the loss of the ability of a pilot to observe/screen another pilot operating in his/her natural environment that is bugging people....we must now all bow down to the wisdom of HR folks who in all probability will never have to interact with the candidates once they join the airline..

and BTW...it appears to be another example of what a certain CEO meant when he talked about “cost cutting is in (our) DNA”. If those outside BA ( perhaps some of those contemplating joining ) are sometimes puzzled by the grumbles of cost cutting at the company then they would do well to ponder upon this little tip of the iceberg...
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Old 20th Feb 2020, 10:15
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Would it not be better to actually do the sim on day one? and ditch those maths and verbal reasoning tests, plus I hardly see what use the computer test actually serves.

The sim and interview surely would be a better way of assessing people.
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Old 20th Feb 2020, 11:40
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Originally Posted by Phantom4
Perhaps the only sim ride which exceeds BA’s scrutiny is Lufty.
Well KLM sim is kinda crazy as well,
two day sim,
day one 5hours including 1hour briefing.
day two 5hours including 1hour briefing.

two day sim assessment consist of two candidates.
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Old 21st Feb 2020, 03:52
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Wiggy,Two Whites Two Reds.
Good morning and kindly humour me.
HR are trying to wrest control of Pilot Recruitment as it falls under their budget and not Flight Ops.
Its happened before and a Senior TC approached FoD who resisted it at that time.
HR do not understand nor would I expect them to the intensity,dynamic and mental Model required to perform in the simulator.They have minimal concept of terms such as MSA and CFIT.
Pilot Recruitment is Perhaps the only career path that is not exclusively run by HR and they don’t like it that way.
I stand corrected on Knight falling on his sword but if he wants to save his team he had better stand up to the task or it will be the thin end of the wedge.
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Old 21st Feb 2020, 07:19
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Originally Posted by Phantom4
Wiggy,Two Whites Two Reds.
Good morning and kindly humour me.
HR are trying to wrest control of Pilot Recruitment as it falls under their budget and not Flight Ops.
Its happened before and a Senior TC approached FoD who resisted it at that time.
HR do not understand nor would I expect them to the intensity,dynamic and mental Model required to perform in the simulator.They have minimal concept of terms such as MSA and CFIT.
Pilot Recruitment is Perhaps the only career path that is not exclusively run by HR and they don’t like it that way.
I stand corrected on Knight falling on his sword but if he wants to save his team he had better stand up to the task or it will be the thin end of the wedge.
Morning Phantom4

As Wiggy eluded to above, this sort of thing is just the tip of a very big and nasty cost cutting iceberg.

The short answer is, I think many at Waterside forget what we are. An Airline. And a hugely profitable one at that despite the significant costs involves in flying big aeroplanes around the globe. The back office departments such as HR are simply there to supply admin functions to for the part of the business which actually generates the revenue. Flight Ops. Unfortunately it seems to greatly annoy some at HQ that BA continues to spend lots on flying aeroplanes.

Thats not to say there isn't room for efficiencies...but not when they come at this sort of cost. When I joined British Airlines I started to see some of the daftest things I'd ever seen in my career. Baggage dollies being intentionally left behind aeroplanes, stuck chocks, no stand guidance, crew room staplers locked away at night "just in case" (WTF!!!)...the list goes on (and this was all at our home base). Having come from airlines where this sort of s*** just wouldn't be tolerated on any level I found it tough going for the first year or so. I'd never seen anything like it. Slowly but surely (and as my colleagues promised would eventually happen) these things started to wash over me. Not because I cared any less, but simply that trying to fight the system was pointless and allowing the nonsense at BA to get to you is a recipe for some sort of breakdown at an early age! Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to the appetite for more cost cutting. It's horrible to see from the inside. There's running an efficient business and making lots of money....GREAT....then there's flogging the cash cow until it falls over and dies....NOT GREAT. IAG are firmly on a road to doing the latter if they carry on. Which they will.




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Old 21st Feb 2020, 22:22
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Just a quick one about the DEP interview, I have been speaking to a few people and got some info on what questions to expect during the interview from a HR point of view but I was wondering are many tech questions asked during it?
Are these based on your current type or the a320 also?

thanks, been trawling through this forum to see if anyone mentioned it but couldnt see anything so sorry if I missed it!
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Old 22nd Feb 2020, 18:14
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Are they skipping the Sim for everyone who is already 320 typed, or all applicants?

Or perhaps there's a criteria if you have several thousand hrs and are NTR?
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Old 22nd Feb 2020, 18:19
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Originally Posted by RogueOne
Are they skipping the Sim for everyone who is already 320 typed, or all applicants?

Or perhaps there's a criteria if you have several thousand hrs and are NTR?
Only those who are 320 rated and currently flying/flown recently.

For now...
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Old 22nd Feb 2020, 19:08
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320 rated = no sim? Why? All sim checks were on 747 when I did it. You were not being assessed on type, but for your CRM, decision making and observed learning.

Whatever, as with all “trials” management run, it will be declared a huge success with little evidence and quickly rolled out across the board.





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