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Interview situation questions? HELP

  • Thread starter Thread starter nludy
  • Start date Start date
  • Watchers Watchers 2

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nludy

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2004
Posts
8
I am looking for some help with the airline situational questions. Im sure most of you guys have had to answer these and have some good insights. Any help on these would be great. Thanks

1. Nav lights out on xmas eve do you fly if captain wants to go?

2. Drunk captain question?

3. Captain wants to go below mins?

4. Holding and almost out of fuel and captain has no plan yet?
 
1) what nav light?

2) you should call in sick or I will make a call and you will not like the outcome.

3) "minimums"... I have the a/c, go-around thrust, flaps 15, landing gear up, flaps 5, flaps 1, flaps up. Unless he has the runway/airport in sight then let him land. Call the missed approach on the radio..."flight 123 going missed!"

4) if he does not want to be Capt. then you make a decision for him, dirvert when you have to. Tell him to divert, tell atc you need to divert.

Don't let anybody ever kill you in an aircraft, even if they are cool. nobody is that cool.
 
simple rules

NLUDY,

There is no magical answer to each question but there is a magical attitude that you must have that will make you address every question in a matter that the airline (Express Jet?) will say... "Aha this guy is inexperienced but is Captain material"

1.Nav is out. Well the airline is not hiring John Wayne or Charlton Heston to save the day during Xmas eve. Is it on the MEL? then follow it, write it up and go. If it is not then "Good evening folks Captain speaking from the flight deck. Currently sorting out a mechanical problem. Maintenence is currently looking into it blah blah blah"

2. Drunk captain. No airline wants an FO to look the other way if you are flying with a drunk Captain. If he he is drunk you say "Charlie, you smell really bad, like liquor. Listen to me, call in sick and I'll back you up but you got to go. You're going to get busted" If he gets angry and abusive you respond "Alright bro I gave you a chance if I get other people involved things are not going to turn out good for you" Obviously he is irrational and you are certainly not going to fly with him in that state. Ask the interviewer "Well I am sure that at your airline I'll have someone in a position willing and able to help me in such a situation right?"

3. Below mins. Most SOPs have a 2 challenge response-action for instance
FO "100 above decision altitude"
FO" decision altitude, runway not in sight, go around"
Captain does not respond and continues
FO"150 AGL runway not insight , GO AROUND!"
Captain does not respond...
FO puts the hands on the throttles "...Alright Charlie lets go around man" Apply full power and initiate go around.
They may ask you, "You would take control away from the Captain?"
Captain is dead, scared, frozen or whatever but you certainly are not going to let him kill everyone including you, right?
Now, if you guys had diverted 50 times and you are about to run out of fuel and the Captain briefed that you are landing because after going around you would crash anyway then maybe that would be different.

4. Holding and no plan. Come up with your numbers and help the Captain smell the cofee. "Charlie we are burning 1200 pounds and hour and the alternate is at XXX the time there is 15 minutes, we have to go, we are past minumum fuel. What's on your mind?" Start with the minumum amount of fuel that the Captain would land with and work the problem backwards to where you are now so that he can see that time is up and force him to come up with a real plan.
These answers are there to show that you respect the Captain but you are there as an independent thinker, a safety concious pilot, a pilot who will assist the Captain and when the Captain is failing as a leader you are ready to step up. Finally, a pilot who will not let the Captain put anyone's life in jeopardy.

Last question,
5. You taxi into position and hold but are not cleared for takeoff. You have been waiting to go all day and are about to come up against your duty time limit. The captain yells "Alright let's go! I want to see no screw ups on this flight. I am tired of your mistakes. Let's GO!" What do you do? Hopefully you will hold the brakes and bring the throttle levers to idle and say. Charlie we are not cleared for takeoff. Waiting on takeoff clearance..." Just like the KLM FO at Tenerife.
 
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