Because the company I work for is not so eager to give an ATPL to their hard working First Officers.
Management is afraid we will leave once we have our ATPL. And I guess they are right since a lot of First Officers are looking for a better job. But unfortunately, no ATPL limits the options.

sim
 

anyone got a sim on June 14th - PM me! ;)

I recently went through the BA selection and was successful. Before I went I went through this thread in detail, it's a brilliant resource, thanks to all those who have posted all this info to make it so.

Earlier on in the thread there's a bit of debate about paying for aptitude test prep and interview coaching for day one, and then paying for a 747 sim for day two. All I can say is that I didn't pay for any such preparation - now believe me, I definitely don't consider myself to be superman (and my assessment was far, far from perfect) yet I still managed to get through. It's my humble opinion that BA are looking for a 'fit' - if you are the sort of person that fits their mould then you will get through. Personally I would caution against spending too much money trying to practice beforehand.

As far as the sim goes, the information on this thread is spot on, it's clear that they're looking at CRM. Again, in my opinion the time spent in an expensive 747 sim 'practicing' would be better spent thinking carefully about how you might manage the workload of the limited number of types of scenario which you might conceivably get, especially in the context of working together with someone who is most probably from a different type/company.

Obviously all of the above is just my own opinion!

Best of luck to those who have yet to go through the process.

@ Bus Driver Man:

It's a licensing issue which has nothing to do with your employer. Your license is issued by the appropriate Licensing Authority and as such you are legally obligated.
I suspect it's highly illegal (if you were to flag it up with your Authority) that captains are forbidden to countersign your logbook.
To my knowledge that is against the law

Amended after reading LASORS

We're having the same issue with our current employer.

The problem is the company won't sign off any PICUS time until you complete their "PICUS programme" which requires a simulator check which is planned at the company's whim. They have also issued an NTC to captains forbidding them from signing logbooks unless the FO is taking part in this PICUS program.

If you have 250 (or 500? can't remember exactly) hrs P1 by instructing etc before you get your first airline job then it's not a problem but if you need P1 U/S then you need the company to sign.

No idea why it would be illegal to keep a CPL when you've reached 1,500 hours??

I wonder if any hold poolers from 08 have been through selection recently.
Many thanks.

Ta Daa....Parked Remote's understanding of where to concentrate ones's preperation is spot on, and that Ladies and Gentlmen, is why He/She was succesful.

Jumboy:

yes - I was an '08 hold pooler. Did day one in december, Sim in Jan, I start next month.

@jb5000

Does it actually state anywhere that your logbook has to be signed by the company or a captain?

I've had my UK Licence unfrozen by sending all the applicable paperwork and logbooks to the CAA. The last time anyone, and I mean ANYONE, signed my logbook was in flightschool.

Nothing to do with the company. (well, apart from claiming back the money:})

Why don't you just do it?

I sent my Logbook to the UK CAA without any signatures for my PICUS and 7 days later my shiney new ATPL appeared. I am not sure that you need to have all PICUS flights countersigned.

Cheers for the info everyone, fortunately it doesn't really affect me as I was able to get the PICUS confirmation letter before they stopped handing them out so I now have an ATPL.

We are a Swiss operator and apparently it's the FOCA (Swiss CAA) who are objecting to the traditional UK-style of PICUS authorisation. This is quite contentious as the head of training has been quoted as saying that "we don't want to run ATPL tests for these guys as they'll all be off to Emirates", so we're not sure who is the one demanding the new system.

I did send my licence application to the UK CAA originally as the company were being slow with the letter, and I got everything sent back to me as they did not have either a written letter from the company or signatures from the captains confirming that I had flown PICUS on that leg.

I've heard a lot of people having various different experiences when sending their licence applications down to Gatwick, there seems to be quite a spread of successes depending on who opens the paperwork down there. If you don't have a company letter or a load of signatures then you may get lucky on one day (3pm Friday) when on another you'll get it all sent back to you. Worth a shot I guess but frustrating if they turn you down, then you have your cash tied up at the CAA without a licence to show for it.

Anyway, thanks for your help and sorry to detract away from the thread.

As always, best of luck to everyone going through the selection process.

Anybody got start dates or offers yet for fleets other than A320/737?

Anybody used cockpitweb software recently?

are the tests still up-to-date to prepare for day1? (some folks mentionned the software in this thread but that was back in 2007-2008).

Yes, I believe that Moving Cross 1, Shapes & Numbers, and the counting down in multiples of different numbers are the three to focus on. All others have been dropped from the session - it is just the 'capacity test'.

Can anyone tell me if during the interview with the HR person and pilot you are asked if you have any questions for them? Or is that just assumed to be covered in the separate Q&A group. TBH any questions I have I can find out via the 'net or whatever so I'm wondering if I'll have to pretend to have pressing queries to demonstrate my enthusiasm, interest, understanding etc.

I didn't get asked that Chocks, the Q&A over lunch covers pretty much anything and everything. My brain was too fried by the end of the interview to be asking them questions!

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but the 'current' plan is...

140 this year (most of which have already been given courses)

200+ next year

100 a year after that


HOWEVER, that's just the plan, it's very much economy, fuel price, volcano etc dependent.

Maybe next year they will give chances to non Brits, this year was evidently targeted to locals, and maybe rightly so.

How do you know that? If you owned an airline wouldn't you rather have employees that commuted a shorter distance rather than several hundred miles. I Know BA does employ very long distance commuters, but is that ideal?

I don't think any specific group has been 'targetted' by this recruiting period, that isn't BAs' 'style' so to speak. Perhaps you are confusing it with the re-opening of the military 'managed path' which does, obviously, target the Military?

As to commuting, BA recommend being within 2 hours of your base. As a grown, consenting adult (at least within Flight Ops that's how you are considered!) you can choose to live where you wish and many do. We have lots of LH and SH commuters living in Europe and some living further afield. One Airbus Captain I know well lives in Miami and I know of a couple of SFO's who live in Canada and Australia to name but a few.

The caveat is that the company will have sympathy for those who live within the two hour boundary and are late for reasons of congestion, traffic. breakdown etc. But slightly less sympathy for commuters who fail to make adequate arrangements prior to report. I have never heard of anyone having any problems with commuting though and my J/S policy for the cockpit has always been flight crew first, all others second.

Enjoy.

Courses
 

Are the courses spread over the remainder of the year or is the idea to get everyone online asap?? If over the year, would ba have already given start dates for say September??