Employed!

On the morning of 7th October 2014, I was informed that I had my efforts on my Ryanair Assessment had been successful, and that in January 2015 I would begin my Type Rating with CAE on the Boeing 737-800!

The start of the application process with OAA is rather straight forward. As an integrated student, I was able to simply submit my CV, IR, CPL and Ground School Exam Certificates to the careers department who would then send them onto the airline (it's actually CAE who conduct the initial recruitment process). Around three days later I was informed by email that I would need to go through a telephone interview. I received a call on the next week, which wasn't really an interview, more them asking questions about my licenses, total hours, number of ATPL exam attempts etc. So after this, I was granted an assessment date at a place called Simtech, near Dublin Airport.

The process from here onward then suddenly increases speed to Mach 2; the payment for the interview needs to be made rather quickly, and in my case, it was by the next morning. Then you are responsible for your own travel and accommodation, so that has to be booked quickly. And then there is the paperwork side of it; application form along with several written references, updated CV, and Flight Training Report. Of course, this was all completed without a hitch and I was ready to go. 

They recommended a hotel called the Metro which is located around a 15 minute shuttle bus journey away from Simtech, so this was where I stayed. I arrived into Dublin at 15:10 and was checking into the Hotel at around 16:15, which gave me plenty of time to settle in and relax before the most important day of my life.

My luxurious room

The hotel isn't bad, however the area is a bit strange in that the view from my room were some stables on one side, a retail park on another and a sort of nice looking council estate further round. The room itself was pretty nice, although the TV looked like something my family had in the early 90s (not that I'd be watching much TV).

Eventually I needed some food, and fortunately as I was in the hotel restaurant, chowing down on my lamb hotpot, I managed to spot a German guy (who I didn't know was German at the time) and asked him if he was also at the Ryanair Assessment, to which he replied yes. So after initial introductions, he informed me that he had already met a few others who were also doing the assessment, and that they had already arranged a meeting later that evening. Of course I went down later to have a mingle since it seemed a good idea for us to all get comfortable before the assessment, and they all seemed like very nice guys who all came from different flying academies. After a small discussion about the next day, we headed up to get an early night.

The next day, we all met up for breakfast, and we all seemed rather relaxed which definitely made eating the breakfast easier. I ordered just the Continental which only includes the cold stuff, since I wasn't really a fan of how dry and frazzled the bacon looked. After stuffing my face with a few croissants, and washing it down with coffee I was ready and we made our way to the shuttle bus.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at around 08:15 at Simtech, which is pretty much in an industrial park in the middle of nowhere. The place is also a training centre for Cityjet and Aer Lingus so there are a few other people there just doing their Type Ratings and MCC courses. The people there are really friendly and let you their drink tea and coffee etc, so straight away I felt at ease.

Inside Simtech

The day starts just after 09:00 with a brief about the sim and Health and Safety. The guy makes it clear at the beginning that they’re there to take all of us, and that if they say no it’s nothing personal as they have a responsibility of not making people waste €28,500 on a type rating when they aren't confident that they’ll make it, which is a fair comment. After the introduction and Health & Safety brief, we were all provided with a departure and approach plate for the sim, and here we were put into pairs. On my day they put people who had previously flown a 737 sim for their MCC with people who had never flown it. After that, we were briefed quite thoroughly about the sim; what was required, power settings and even some useful tips about the departure and approaches that we'd be doing, which was a lot more than I was expecting.

Afterwards we all went downstairs in a classroom where we all briefed each other on the sim, I was up first with my flying partner and I went first as PF. The sim itself is fixed base, and is supposed to represent the Boeing 737-800, however the general handling of the aircraft was tough, and I found it particularly difficult to get the thing in trim. At first I was doing well to keep the aircraft within +/-200ft. That said, by the time I'd finished the departure, I did get pretty used to it, and the assessor does make allowances.

The sim didn't bring any surprises really; SID, speed changes, climbing and descending, entry into the hold, emergency in the hold, followed by a procedural ILS (which turned into a LOC only) to land. It is a very busy time, so teamwork here is vital. I was a bit more current than my flying partner, who had also done his MCC on a different aircraft, so I had to do a bit more in the way of leading the flight. The emphasis here is on CRM, especially since they know that the sim is rather difficult to control, they want to see that their cadets do what they can to work and help each other.

Immediately after the sim, my flying partner went up for his interview, giving me around half an hour to eat a few snacks from the vending machine and catch my breath a bit.

My time eventually came, and soon enough I was escorted into the interview room by my sim assessor who was also one of my interviewers that day. The Interview Workshop which OAA run for all of their integrated students played a huge role in the success of this interview, as I found many of the techniques useful here. To some who are inexperienced, it can seem intimidating at first, and I say this because there is this kind of good cop, bad cop feel to it. Looking back on it, it's pretty obvious that all they were trying to do here was to see if I could put up with the pressure that they piled on. 

As surprising as it sounds, I rather enjoyed the day, and I left the assessment centre feeling rather satisfied with how everything went, all that was left at that point was to wait two weeks for an outcome.

Preparation is the key to any interview. I started preparing pretty much soon after I had moved home from Oxford (3 months), which involved reading through my OAA Principles of Flight and Performance books, Ace the Technical Pilot Interview, Handling the Big Jets, and a host of feedback questions which were supplied by the school. However I would say that the most important part of that interview is how you come across as a person, and although that may seem like common sense, it is the most important lesson of the interview workshop and I think something that is often overlooked when preparing for an airline interview. When I prepared for the HR style questions, I had written out and practiced out loud my answers so many times that I was dreaming them. Sound mental? Maybe, since I had prepared to the point where I thought I was going to go insane. But it made my interview quite enjoyable as I was able to just naturally fire out the answers that they were looking for, and it also landed me the job. The interview also costs £260 plus expenses, so I don't really need to emphasize here that you want to make sure that you succeed!

It is also particularly important to note, especially for the Ryanair assessment that the end of school report (which every flight school should write) is probably one of the most important assets a cadet can have with them in that interview. I remember Mr Bad Cop having a thorough read through mine before he started asking me questions, so it pays dividends to really put in the work throughout the course.

And that's the end of one chapter and the exciting beginning to another with many more tales to tell. Words cannot describe how excited I am to know that in a few months, I will truly be living out my dream of becoming an airline pilot. Stay tuned, because there is a lot more to come...