FlyingNole
New Member
So my Colgan interview was yesterday...The gouges were somewhat helpful, but overall didnt help a whole lot. I flew up to MCO (myself), changed, and was at Flight Safety about 10 min. before my interview time. No sooner did I get my visitor pass was I greeted by Chuck Colgan, Jr. and Cathy Angelo.
We sat down and got right to it. Some standard questions: Why Colgan, why should we hire you, what makes a good captain, tell me about your worst day in aviation, tell me about a difficult student you have,etc. Then some not so standard ones: Outside aviation, what is a pet peeve of yours, define integrity. I had to stop and think about those for a second. And Chuck and Cathy provide no feedback (visually/emotionally) so I had no idea if they liked what I was telling them. Then after some paperwork it was on to the 50 question written. I studied my butt off for the ATPw, so when it came time for the test, I had it done before some of the guys who were taking it before me. Mostly 121 questions, some wx questions that made me think "WTF!," and some Low Alt and App plate questions. Pretty easy overall. About 4 or 5 guys were asked to leave after the written. Then a lot of waiting. All the guys there were Florida pilots. About 3 or 4 guys were Ari-Ben instructors, one from Kissimmee, and an ex-fire bomber. So we just sat around traded stories, and kinda sized one another up. A couple guys were 1000+ hr guys but most seemed around 600-800hrs.
Finally it was my turn for the sim. That was the exciting part. There were about 4 simulators in a big room. Citation X, Citation Bravo, and Citation Excel, then our B1900D sim at the end. I was asked to sit right seat while the other dude interviewing flew first. Since we were running low on time he got kinda rushed through the breifing which I thought was a lil unfair. But in any event the guy totally blew it. Ill just give a quick summary of his flight...
Sim guy: Hold on the 360 radial, left turns...what way are we gonna hold?
Dude: Uhhh....Uhhhh.....Teardrop?....Uhh, C'mon Co-pilot!
Me: This is your interview not mine, I got your throttles, flaps and Ill make altitude calls, but the rest is on you.
Sim guy: Ok, so much for that...Lets shoot the approach.
(The sim): GLIDE SLOPE! GLIDE SLOPE! PULL UP! PULL UP!.........BANG!
That was the end of that for his ride, then they tell me we're out of time, so I begged just for a landing. The guy agreed, and let me fly an approach from about 5 miles out. It was a blast since I knew I wasnt being graded on it, but when I greased the sucker, I wanted Mr. Colgan to know I had done so
So anyway, finishing this all up, Mr. Colgan greeted us after the sim and told me that he heard I "landed well" but wanted me to do the rest of it. So I was invited up to NYC for my sim session on my birthday on Monday. I hope thats a sign.
I figure the HR/Tech and written went well otherwise he wouldnt have asked me to come up to NYC.
So thats that....I'll let you know how it all finishes up on Monday night.
We sat down and got right to it. Some standard questions: Why Colgan, why should we hire you, what makes a good captain, tell me about your worst day in aviation, tell me about a difficult student you have,etc. Then some not so standard ones: Outside aviation, what is a pet peeve of yours, define integrity. I had to stop and think about those for a second. And Chuck and Cathy provide no feedback (visually/emotionally) so I had no idea if they liked what I was telling them. Then after some paperwork it was on to the 50 question written. I studied my butt off for the ATPw, so when it came time for the test, I had it done before some of the guys who were taking it before me. Mostly 121 questions, some wx questions that made me think "WTF!," and some Low Alt and App plate questions. Pretty easy overall. About 4 or 5 guys were asked to leave after the written. Then a lot of waiting. All the guys there were Florida pilots. About 3 or 4 guys were Ari-Ben instructors, one from Kissimmee, and an ex-fire bomber. So we just sat around traded stories, and kinda sized one another up. A couple guys were 1000+ hr guys but most seemed around 600-800hrs.
Finally it was my turn for the sim. That was the exciting part. There were about 4 simulators in a big room. Citation X, Citation Bravo, and Citation Excel, then our B1900D sim at the end. I was asked to sit right seat while the other dude interviewing flew first. Since we were running low on time he got kinda rushed through the breifing which I thought was a lil unfair. But in any event the guy totally blew it. Ill just give a quick summary of his flight...
Sim guy: Hold on the 360 radial, left turns...what way are we gonna hold?
Dude: Uhhh....Uhhhh.....Teardrop?....Uhh, C'mon Co-pilot!
Me: This is your interview not mine, I got your throttles, flaps and Ill make altitude calls, but the rest is on you.
Sim guy: Ok, so much for that...Lets shoot the approach.
(The sim): GLIDE SLOPE! GLIDE SLOPE! PULL UP! PULL UP!.........BANG!
That was the end of that for his ride, then they tell me we're out of time, so I begged just for a landing. The guy agreed, and let me fly an approach from about 5 miles out. It was a blast since I knew I wasnt being graded on it, but when I greased the sucker, I wanted Mr. Colgan to know I had done so
So anyway, finishing this all up, Mr. Colgan greeted us after the sim and told me that he heard I "landed well" but wanted me to do the rest of it. So I was invited up to NYC for my sim session on my birthday on Monday. I hope thats a sign.
I figure the HR/Tech and written went well otherwise he wouldnt have asked me to come up to NYC.
So thats that....I'll let you know how it all finishes up on Monday night.
I guess I meant what I said, but more along the lines of that he had his hands on them the whole time so I didnt have the option of helping him out with them. Even though he never asked for it.
