I'd like to prepare for my upcoming sim by having a look at Aerad charts like they use, and an example flight plan so I can see the format.

Does anyone know where to find copies (out of date is fine too!)?

Thanks a lot, please feel free to PM me if you can help.

BA now use Lido charts. A google image search for Lido Charts brings loads of examples up.
From memory, you don't get a proper flight plan, just a basic fuel plan, very basic route and NOTAMS/Weather. So no need to study that.

For the BA sim assessment concentrate on CRM and pilot competencies more. They expect you to make basic errors as they recognise that people don't fly the 747 in basic modes every day. Its more how the two of you address this as a team.

I have the same background as you, except I'm a dual Canadian/British passport holder, and dual TCCA/EASA ATPL holder. About 9 type ratings for many of the same reasons as you, flown in Asia also.

I think this comment is nonsense. Maybe you should have gotten your EASA licence, and worked in the UK (not on a validation) before making those comments. You might see things differently. Then again, the majority of Canadian pilots (not necessarily you btw) are scared to death of the EASA ATPL exams, as most would never get through them.

Additionally, your comment about hour requirements, and no cadet programs is grossly outdated. In the 90's, and early 2000's, these comments would have rung true, but not in 2018.

To be honest, I feel worse for the Canadian kids who can't/won't make any money in their careers. You'd make more money as a TTC bus driver in Canada nowadays. It's a shame.

Cheers!

So, not Canadian, dual EU/USA passport, flew in EU (on a full JAA ATPL) for a decade, and for the last decade in the USA. I have only 6 type ratings.. I don't know about the bus drivers here, but a second year FO at pretty much any non-regional is making over $100K. Over 95% of the people getting on at such places have over 2000 hours. There is ONE ab-initio program (JetBlue) up and running, and it starts with a 4 year degree, followed by a year or two of flight instructing, ALL PAID FOR BY THE STUDENT, around $200K). Beginning pilots go to the regionals and make (including sign-up bonusus) $65K/year. Again, I know nothing about Canada, but I definitely prefer the current situation here over the situation in the EU. Correct me if I am wrong, but none of the legacies hire of the street, if you don't do the approved school and are young enough you can forget about getting in (possibly different at BA, my experience is KLM/DLH). If you can't get onto a legacy your options are Ryanair/WOW/Vueling/Wizz/NAS and so on: temporary/zero hour contracts, no union protections, no social security. Never thought I would say it but aviation is a dumpster for starting pilots in the EU compered to the US.

This is just plain wrong. I'm a newly qualified European pilot, married to an American so have the right to work in both the EU & US, so I've looked into this.

The main difference is that newly qualified cadets such as myself, rightly or wrongly, can get into the right hand seat of a commercial air liner with <200 hours. In the US (not sure on Canada) you have to do 1000 odd hours of instructing/crop dusting/parachute drops/banner towing for a hell of a lot less than a Ryanair FO. Ryanair and easyJet have or are ending the temporary/zero hour contracts, they're recognising unions and social security is built into our taxes. Now, I'm not saying their T&Cs are as good as the legacies, but I know where I would much rather do my first 1500 hours. And its my understanding from there you can get into any of the European majors off the street. In the US you have to go through a regional and have a university degree before the Majors will even look at you.

BA A320 DEP Assessment - any news regarding stage 3 (simulator assessment)?
 

Hi guys,

I attended stage 2 (interview and group exercise) of the A30 DEP First Officer recruitment offer on the 21st May, and I got an e-mail beginning of June telling me that I passed this stage.

However the mail was stating that there was no slot available at the moment for the next stage (simulator assessment).

Just to know, is there anyone here who is in the same position? Any idea about when these slots might be released? Anyone already invited for the upcoming sim assessment? During the lunch break at Waterside, we were told that the sim assessments would probably be in June but it seems that they are busy now, with all the applications received.

By the way, I would be more than happy to keep in touch with the persons who did their interview + group exercise on the 21st May or similar period. Feel free to send me an email. Would be nice to have a chat.

Thanks a lot in advance.

You can’t use the Private Messaging system, add url links or images until you have an established posting history.

Wish I knew?

I would say less than a third of BA's recruitment comes from cadets and new flight school graduates. About 50% are probably DEPs from other airlines and the rest are probably Managed Path pilots leaving the military.

Guys what were your scored before going to the day 1 test for verbal reasoning?

Mixed, sometimes good, sometimes bad. I would concentrate on finding a method of doing the questions as quickly as possible. When I was doing the practice ones I would read the whole passage then answer the questions, but I found this quite slow going as I'd end up rereading the passage about 3 or 4 times during the question answering process. I found it better to read the question then look in the passage for an answer as it usually was contained within one sentence.

Ladies/Gents...

I'll just chuck this into the mix for prospective joiners because I suspect some of you will no doubt be planning to "commute" to/from LHR, perhaps on a frequent basis...

Current inmates are aware that BA carried out an audit of peoples pre work travel arrangements a month or two back...the assurance given was that the idea was only to weed out and perhaps warn those who obviously fancied themselves as some later day Marco Polo.. . It now seems BA have perhaps taken a very hard line with a few and are going to sanction those who they feel have been, to use the phrase being thrown around a lot in this context.."taking the @@@@" with their travel plans.

Unfortunately ATM we have no idea as to exactly what the company are defining as "taking the @@@@" , i.e. at present we have no idea of the position of the line between what BA management think is acceptable and what they think is unacceptable in terms of a journey prior to report.....

So the point of this post is to warn that if asked at interview: "if we offer you a job where will you live? " ..the best answer might be: "Well, Windsor might be nice, but a bit expensive..but I've always fancied Hounslow or Longford"...

Once we've got a handle on what BA regard as acceptable I (or I'm sure somebody else) will post it here...

.

The net seems to be closing in on commuters who normally travel more than 90 minutes to work, by any mode of transport. BA may now effectively require these employees to position closer to LHR the day before a duty and stay overnight (at their own expense) to ensure they are seen to be adequately rested before report. An EASA recommendation may be implemented as a requirement.

The roster pattern, even on long haul, is trending towards only 2 days off between trips. This travel requirement could mean very few nights at home for those that live outside a normal 90 minute journey time.

Once BA management start a drive towards a goal they normally get what they want. Anyone considering joining BA should plan on a requirement to live within 90 minutes travelling time of report.

BA probably woke up to the so called Marco Polo's :p when their Pilot got arrested for being drunk before a LH at Gatwick, and it turned out he'd commuted from JNB the night before! Shades of the ATR42 crash in Buffalo where the pilots commuted from all over the US then slept in crew room chairs. The NTSB was less than imprssed at the time.

G

The long commute has been going on for a long time in BA. Some 20 odd years ago as a junior B744 Capt. I turned up for a Dtw trip and was joined by the co-pilot at briefing. (2 pilot sector) First he got up my nose moaning about going to Dtw, he was very senior and spent his time in high allowance trips to Hkg and Nrt etc.
At top of climb out, I noticed his eyes drooping and less than total concentration. On asking if he felt OK, he said he was very tired as he had arrived overnight from Newark USA where he lived, on the jump seat, and 4 hours before our flight. !! I wasn't impressed.

Yep...On another forum some kind individual posted a map showing the 90 minute (driving) isochrone ( no, I hadn't until then either...) centered on LHR....I think that must have come as a shock to more than few..

Link to the charting website here..

https://app.traveltimeplatform.com/#

bex88
They are not worried about you they are worried about long distance commuters (albeit you could argue is that 90 mins by road or plane?)
The sleepy scientists will tell you there is no difference driving another 90 minutes for 3 hours rather than watching Eastenders and Coronation Street then driving 90 mins.
What they will be looking for is unreasonable commuting e.g. over night as per the previous comments, or long distance then hanging around in crew rooms etc.
It can't be any coincidence that the two (may have changed) UK AOC's with approved FRMS both have commuting protocols with their Crew members.
What "they" want from you is for "we" BA and you as a crewmember being concerned about your colleague having commuted all night/day then undertaking long FDP / delays / bad weather at destination etc.
My own personal opinion is that the majority of BA crew members manage their commuting, as always it's the usual 5% that Airline management spend 95% of their time dealing with (probably even less at BA)

Short of putting electronic tags on the ankles of BA pilots, it's nigh on impossible for the company to monitor ones travel movements to such a degree. Commuters will still commute and there has been a recommendation in CAP371 long before EASA was created, that suggested that travel time should be limited to 90 mins and this has been causally overlooked by some for a long time.

The only source of information that BA could access with ease, is ones use of their staff travel and especially on BA flights. However if you booked a standby ticket on another airline, would BA have easy access to the listing history without involving the other airline? Those not using staff travel or traveling by road will still have a great degree of carte blanche with how they choose to plan their journey to LHR, with them being totally off the radar, so to speak.

There has been a large degree of trust placed by airlines that their pilots professionalism will extend to how they plan their travel arrangements to work, however trust is really all they can exercise. I can't see this changing anytime soon at BA or any other airline for that matter.

From what I've heard it is not just "commuting" from home to work that BA have taken a dislike to. I'm not sure if you've seen the latest newsletter/headsup about this out of BALPA but it seems the company has also taken issue with some end of holiday travel arrangments/timings.. " Not quite sure what the problem is but it may be BA's handling/understanding of the EASA rules regarding acclimatisation.

In any event it does seem BA have found an excuse to really look hard at any use of Staff Travel by crew members, whether you are off duty or even on leave...

Yep, I heard ( and I guess you did too) that opinion expressed when "we" brought in EASA FTLs at BA - Given the language used when the company incorporated the rules into the Ops manual (not staying silent on an issue, the use of "should"/"would"/"must") some aspects of the rules have the potential to impinge on leave. I know it suited some in the office (both at BA and at BALPA) to leave it as a grey area because of the implications for the company of being seen to control leave days and the BALPA classic of "don't ask a question if you think you might like the answer...unfortunately for both sides it looks like the audit has shone a light on exactly this issue and some individuals have ended up in the doo daahh...

What do you reckon the solution is? Flying crew (flight and cabin) wanting to use their two weeks leave for a two week holiday simply having to take that time off in Europe/Africa/ the Gulf only...or the company granting extra leave/wrap days for travelling, or the company having a rewrite of the FTLs??:E

( Edit to add: Anyone wondering what this has to do with DEP recruitment - BA have been quite happy to use the staff travel package, and/or the ability to "commute" by air", as a recruitment carrot....)

Not heard of that one it's also likely that BA crew have more leave than the WTD minimum.
2 things to remember.
BA have to protect the BA brand.
BA have a duty to protect their Staff members.
Its now covered in both Operator and Crew members responsibilities.
The biggest risk for many crew members is not whilst on duty, but the drive home.
Commuting becomes an issue for all commuters when an individual f@@ks it up.

Just to say that the rumour mill for a long time has had it that almost 50 % of LH's LH crews live in Majorca.....

Same thing here - everyone reckons, and I've no reason to doubt it, that the first few departures out of NCE, MRS and TLN every morning are more than 50% AF staff commuting up to CDG and ORY...

Just saying - because of it suits AF and LH, then It's highly unlikely to legally impact BA crews in the future....

Blimey.....I saw the initial notice about this last week (or was it an email?).....anyway.....all getting a bit heavy this isn't it!

Thanks for the link Wiggy, I've just had a look and found I'm just inside the magic 90 minute net. Do we think this is a case of a few idiots spoiling it for everyone else or is this just BA being heavy handed? Didn't like the tone of what I read from the company at all.

Having commuted by air in a previous airline many moons ago I know how tough it is trying to keep the plates spinning. There were a few back then that took the p*** and in the end it nearly ruined it for the rest of us. Luckily the CC got involved and came up with a sensible solution with the company. Hopefully this will get resolved without public executions on the T5 roundabout!

The EASA FTL issue in relation to leave has been tested with the CAA by another airline where the same question had arisen. The definitions of this in ORO.FTL.105 are quite specific in that you can only move between conditions of acclimatisation and non-acclimatisation via a duty, which is then defined as a task that the crew member performs for the operator. You therefore cannot become non acclimatised as a result of travel around your leave under the EASA FTL scheme and so insisting on the full minimum time at base after leisure travel is not a requirement. Clearly none of this removes the individual crew member's responsibilities (ORO.FTL.115) to be adequately rested before their duty and to plan and use their rest before a duty. However, any operator seeking to impose MTB between a period of leave and your next duty is on a very sticky wicket.

Commuting covers the same, but there can be no question that some current commuting practices of which I think we've probably all seen examples over the years are pretty outrageous. I always used to suggest that if you had to explain your movements over the last 24 hours over the PA to your passengers then if you could do so without all of them wanting to get off your aircraft as a result of what you'd just told them, you were probably on the side of reasonableness. I can't imagine many passengers staying seated to fly with you if you'd just arrived four hours earlier from a commute in from the US. Your colleagues probably wouldn't be too chuffed either. The folk who turned up and demanded first rest in the bunk due to the length of their journey to work were taking the p*** out of their colleagues, I always thought.