There is a lot of beer in Japan. You couldn't possibly drink all of it. But dang it, you sure better try. Enjoy training.

Do you guys have non-rev privileges on ANA? Flights to Okinawa?

There is no non-rev priviliges on anyone. You do however get ZED fare tickets.

No worries on that one - our class has this one down pretty good!

hello guys, im about to apply for this FO AJX position soon, but have couple of questions.

1.lets say you passed all screening including JCAB medical, but when you renew every year or so if you did not pass the medical, what happens then?? ever happened to anybody?

2. Lets say economy goes bad in Japana, and ANA wants to downsize the pilot group, are we (contract pilots) the ones who gets terminated first? anything happend like his before? any protection on this part of contract??


thank you.

1.lets say you passed all screening including JCAB medical, but when you renew every year or so if you did not pass the medical, what happens then?? ever happened to anybody?

People fail the medical from time to time, specially the over 60 pilots because the medical gets pretty tough for the over 60 guys...., one of two things happens then, if it is something benign then you go get medical treatment for it and get back to flight status shortly thereafter...., usually you stay on the payroll in that case..., if it is something more pressing like an irregular heartbeat or something of that nature, then you will lose the medical for upto a year in some cases..., you will get into a battle with the unemployment insurance that as all insurances goes, will try their best not to pay you...! But guys have gotten their insurance paid, it is just a pain to do it. Once you get treatment you might even return to flight status, there is an over 60 pilot in training now that was grounded for nearly two years, and another just got his medical back after about 6 months grounded, it all depends on the specific case.

2. Lets say economy goes bad in Japan, and ANA wants to downsize the pilot group, are we (contract pilots) the ones who gets terminated first? anything happend like his before? any protection on this part of contract??

The contract is very clear in the fact that it could be terminated at any time by both the company and the pilot...., it has happened before, in 96 I believe ANA had contract 747 guys and that contract went away, some of those guys were offered the contract on the 76 but not all of them, also a 737 contract with ANA Wings was cancelled and again a few guys were offered contracts at AJX but not all of them..., it is the nature of contract work. Haven said that, it looks like business is booming for ANA, even their cargo division is making a profit and many cargo outfits are not doing so well these days..., they also have a massive A/C order in place and a big deficit in hiring of locals, I feel pretty confident to say that the need for contract pilots at ANA will be there for a while..., they have announced to the contract companies that hiring will continue well into 2016 and beyond.

thank you for the great info!
always appreciated!

Does anyone have experience doing a sim prep with Longreach aviation? If so, was it worth it?

AJX interview
 

Hi guys,

I just got back from my interview with AJX and unfortunately I did not get selected. A bit info about me, I have around 3000tt with 1600 on the A320 and the rest on turboprops. I went with Parc and they were very helpful with setting everything up. I did not have to go for a prescreening. Parc lady told me that my autobiography was well written so AJX was very interested in talking to me.

Before showing up to the interview, I gave myself a month to go over everything. I was able to spit out the profile from my sleep. I was lucky to get a script from a friend of mine on the sim profile so if anybody wants it feel free to email me. The packet they sent you for the sim is a bit inadequate IMHO. 5 days before my interview, I booked a 6 hours sim session with Paramount to do my sim prep. I've been on the scarebus for about 2 years now so all my scan was out the window. The sim is in Miami and they have the airport RORS in the database so it was very helpful. I've received nothing but positive comments from the sim instructor so I was pretty confident when going in to the interview. I think what I did wrong was calling for the checklist too late. From what I've been reading on the forums and my script, you're suppose to call for the after take off checklist after altitude captured at 3000ft. During my sim briefing AJX mentioned that after takeoff checklist should be called after flap is retracted to 1. Maybe I should've done that and I would gotten the job. I flew the practice visual and asked if they have any advice, the only thing they told me is to watch my bank a bit and square out all my turns. No mentioning of calling the after take off checklist. So overall I don't know why I wasn't selected. I felt this was the best interview I've ever did. Anyhow here are some questions that were asked on my interview. Enjoy guys.

1. Define CAVOK, can you have CAVOK if there's a TCU 10 miles away from the airport?
2. Define calm wind, define wind variable, define gusty wind.
3. Wind published on metar is true north or magnetic? how about over the atis?
4, What kind kind of captain do you think is dangerous? I said ones that do not follow SOP, Procedures, and checklist.
4. Windshear memory item vs terrain pull up item in the A320. What's the difference?
5. What is an MSA
6. Airport elevation and TDZ elevation, why the difference?
7. What happen to an aircraft on approach when approaching a headwind windshear to tailwind
8. Why Air Japan? What if you have difficulty in training what would you do?
9. How did you prepare for the interview
10. What are some threats and how do you manage it? I mentioned threats such as error in ommision, delayed crew reaction, lack of situational awareness, lack of understand of prevailing condition. To remedy these threats one must have proper training, leadership skill, crm skill, and follow SOP.
11. Define CRM, what do you think is a good HAT gradient in the cockpit? I said it should be shallow but not steep that it would prevent the FO to speak up to the captain if there's a problem.

ATP questions:
1. What kind of information does an ILS provide? Azimuth and vertical guidance, and distance
2. Cruising along and you lose 1 VOR, what do you do? Notify ATC
3. Hijacker squawk code
4. Main tire psi is 121, what is hydroplaning speed?
5. Indicated stall speed is affected by? I chose power, weight, and load factor
6.To get the best performance in terms of L/D in a turbojet as weight decrease, one should? I chose increase altitude and decrease speed
7.AC flying over extended water what equipment does it need? I chose life preserver
8. Ground spoilers are effective at what? I chose reducing lift upon touchdown.

For the ATP questions, I didn't purchase a Gleim book. I used exam4pilots and I think it was sufficient enough. Anyway back to my joystick for now until I find something better.

Great info! And sorry to hear about your outcome.

I hate to hijack after a great post with a question.....is anyone going to the pre screening to YVR on January 10th?