Best CAL Interview & Sim Prep?

[timetoquit]

So with CAL asking the "tell me a time when...." style interview questions, what does one do when you simply cannot answer the question because you have never had an emergency, never been asked to violate SOPs, never had a customer complain to the pilots (this one always surprises me...after all, we are pilots somewhat isolated behind the cockpit door, not customer service agents!) etc..??

With that in mind, who do you recommend for the best interview prep and best sim prep for CAL?

 

[Palomino]

sounds like a very quiet interview setting. if you're a pilot with any amount of experience you have some stories to tell. if they ask you about your last flight to the moon - politely reply that you haven't yet made it to the moon, but you have been to Tucson.

get as close as you can to relaying the information they seek. i'd recommend Judy Tarver through Higher Power. or her sis-in-law Donna Florio. don't have the numbers handy, but someone will.

sim prep at Alteon DFW. do a search. there's plenty of gouge on here or aviationinterviews.om

 

[SteelerMan]

If you don't have an answer for a particular question, just be honest and move on. They will usually tell you that before the interview. I didn't have a story that fit two questions, just hadn't happened to me. They went right on to another question and it was no big deal. As far as sim prep, the MD-80 sim in Dallas (Alteon and Higher Power use it) has alot of issues and flies nothing like the one in Houston. You can get the profile and calls from aviationinterviews.com. Just review that and you'll be fine. I would not spend the money for a sim prep, at least the one in Dallas. It does more harm than good. Just my opinion.

 

[RocketRob]

Normally, those questions are just to get you talking and to try to learn what kind of a person you are. I've always heard that paging thru your logbook and recalling many stories in the past will help answer them. Remember, not everyone have been in a 2.5 negative g dive with a mig at range of 1.5 meters, but you should have been round the block a few times and earned a couple of stories.

 

[Patriot328]

I recommend Judy Tarver for an interview prep. What she does isn't mind blowing or ground breaking, but it will polish you up if it's been a while since your last interview and it will also give you someone who gives an honest review of your interviewing skills. She will not, however, tell you how to answer particular questions. She works in higher power's building in Dallas, but does not work for them. Her email is [email protected] .

Getting a sim prep might also be a good idea if it's been a while since you've flown steam gauges. Granted, CAL's sim profile and the fact you have a flight director make it one of the easier interview sims out there, but you really don't want to spend the first 10 minutes of a 12 minute sim session getting used to the airplane.

Alteon's sim in DFW sucks compared to CAL's in Houston. It is much harder to fly, but that makes the IAH sim that much easier.

If you can, go through Alteon themselves rather than Higher Power. HP uses the same sim but charges about $100 more. Don't have the numbers for those, unfortunately..

Good luck

 

[ClubORD]

I used Jack O'Dell At Alteon last month. It cost $400 but gave me the piece of mind which in my opinion is invaluable. The sim in Dallas flies like absolute garbage, don't let it discourage you though. That being said, it took about 20 seconds to get used to CAL's sim in Houston (which actually flies like an airplane) and the interview evaluation was a breeze. Bottom line, if you can keep the DFW sim upright and somewhat close to speed, you are going to do real well in the IAH sim.


By far the best interview experience I have ever been a part of. Everyone there is rooting for you to do well. Good luck!

 

[jetexas]

I agree with ClubORD. I did the alteon sim prep at DFW with an instructor named Joe Phillips..good knowledgeable guy with many years experience in the 80. I had gone through Higher Power.
For me, I thought the sim prep was essential. I have flown the RJ for many years but never anything with EPR or slats. I felt that, since my goals and dreams of a lifetime were on the line, $475 was a good investment. I thought I did very well in the sim down in IAH and personally feel that things might have been a bit different if I had gone in there not having seen an 80 cockpit from the pilots seat.
As far as the panel interview, it is hard to 'study' for a situational type interview in my opinion. You just have to be yourself. I read 'checklist for success' by Cheryl Cage. That has some invaluable pointers. I did not do an 'interview prep'.
Good luck.

 

[EMB145XR]

I'll stir the pot and say go to Crew Pilot Training in Houston. They use the same sim that CAL does for your interview, so no messing around with a "harder" sim then getting into an "easier" one. The profile is posted, it doesn't change, and the sim instructors will give you every available tip during the briefing.

For your stories, come up with something. To say you've never had to deal with a customer is like saying you hide under a rock and don't pay attention. You've never heard a passenger complain about the size of the airplane, the crappy landing your FO made, or that they're scared to fly and is there any turbulence on this flight? Surely something like that has happened. I didn't have examples for a couple questions they asked, but came up with something similar. They just want to see how you've handled previous experiences, and if you have nothing to tell them, they aren't effectively "interviewing" you.

I read the Irv Jasinski book that talks about interview prep. Highly recommend it. I learned little things that I think helped me succeed.

Best of luck!

 

[BigShotXJTdrvr]

Question about the app:

The flight hours totalizer adds dual to PIC and CFI time.

I logged a bunch of PIC and dual together (perfectly legal), so my total flight time is off by the amount of dual.

Do they want you to discount any PIC that was logged with dual?

Or do they want a total time on the app that doesn't match your logbook?
How do you handle this?

 

[EMB145XR]

The instructions on the airapps site directs you to count only non-dual PIC as PIC. If you were getting dual while logging PIC at the same time, that time is counted only as dual. I don't agree with it, but that's what they want. All that time during your IFR rating with gobs of dual hours, even though you were rated for the airplane, now count as dual, not PIC. Clear as mud?