Julians Air NZ Interview Notes 8/11/17

Hi guys, here is my write up. I have to give credit to all the previous write ups where I got many good
ideas of how to tackle the interview. So what I write here has already been written before and I would
recommend reading those as they have useful bits of info that I may have neglected to include.

The interview was held over 2 days at the Air New Zealand Simulation Centre at Auckland Airport. It
was the first time it had been held there having been previously held at Rennie Drive.

I stayed at the Ibis (ask for the ALPA discount when booking through reception) and it is within
walking distance (but don’t quote me on that as I never walked…there is plenty of parking at the
simulation centre), although the hotel can be a little noisy as it operates 24/7.

Day 1:

Got to the centre and was greeted by Danielle at the door she let us in and we waited in a room while
all the candidates turned up (One of them was an hour late so it was a good opportunity to get to
know each other). 6 of us were being interviewed.

Welcome Introductions

Once all the Candidates turned up we assembled in a room to be introduced to all the assessors (10
of them), plus the 2 HR ladies (Danielle and Tajna), plus us 6 interviewees. We had to introduce
ourselves and tell an interesting story about our surname. We were also given the schedule for the 2
days. Which included: Day 1 – Logbook/paperwork check, Sim Briefing, Planning exercise, Simulator
check, Interview, Presentation; Day 2 - Tech exam, Group Exercise, Lunch. The order of these varies
between candidates but some of them are done together eg Group Exercise and Lunch.

Logbook/Paperwork check

A couple of Assessors checked my logbook and the declaration form I had filled in prior. It’s a good
chance to declare anything else you had forgotten to beforehand.

Sim Briefing

We were all briefed on the take off, the climb profile, straight and level profile, and descent profile. I
wrote down the pitch power settings and memorized them. (All forgotten now, besides, you wont be in
the 737 Sim as its been sold off).

Planning Exercise (1hr)

This was the Queenstown sheep scenario that’s been given previously. There is a snowstorm coming
and you only have a few hours to transport hay via road and ferry, or rail only, or road and rail, from a
supply depot to where the sheep need it. There is also the added emergency of a group of kids
needing rescuing. And you’ve promised to see the boss of the supply depot in hospital.
I made the mistake of not reading the instructions. It is important to write down all working and
thinking. I thought we were going to present it to someone so I made the working legible to myself, but
anyone marking it would have had a tough time following it.

I made a priority list of 1) Safety 2) Children 3) Sheep 4) Boss

Then Under a heading of Safety I listed things such as when it was not safe to travel by road, when
the snow storm would hit etc. Basically I wasn’t going to send anyone anywhere if it was going to risk
their safety…unless there was a very good reason to do so.

Under Children I started working out how I was going to save the children…which basically involved
collecting them and transporting them to the hospital. I figured that I would collect them in a four wheel
drive vehicle that had a trailer attached. I made the assumption that it was big enough to fit 15 kids in.

Under the heading of Sheep I started on the rail only option as I had heard from previous interviews
that you could get all the sheep sent that way. But they must change the scenarios slightly because
after 50 minutes working on this it wasn’t working out and so I had to basically start again to find
another route. My working went really messy as I was in a slight panic by this stage. I managed to
work out a rough answer in time but as the day progressed and with discussion with other candidates
I had a sinking feeling that my answer wasn’t correct. That combined with the fact I hadn’t written out
my working clearly didn’t leave me feeling confident…in fact it was the exercise that I was feeling least
confident on.

However, in the feedback that I received after the interview I was told that it was “Acceptable”. I was
told that I accurately interpreted the data (use the yellow highlighter that’s given to highlight pertinent
data), my priorities were good, but my maths had errors but I was going in the right direction. So my
advice would be not to get too hung up if you don’t find an answer, but to keep working logically
towards an answer and to write down all your working.

As far as my answer went, in the end I sent all the sheep via the road and ferry option, and still had
time to see the Boss in hospital…but take this with a grain of salt as I don’t think it was entirely
correct, and your scenario could possibly be slightly different.

Simulator Check

I was driven to Rennie Drive for the 737 simulator. It has been sold off so you shouldn’t be using this
anymore. They mentioned it would probably be the 777 Sim in future.

There were 3 Assessors. One was my co-pilot. One was standing behind us and giving instructions.
The third seemed to just be observing.

The assessor that was giving the instructions gave me a brief on the controls and showed how to use
the power lever for take off. Then he said that he would see how much I remembered from the Sim
Briefing earlier in the morning. But if you don’t remember just ask. We took off, and climbed to 4000’.
Part way through the climb I remembered to use my co-pilot and got him to bug the target altitude. I
was given a turn and the rollout coincided with leveling off. I had asked the PNF to let me know when
we had 200’ to go but he said he forgot. I’m not sure if he did it on purpose just so they could see how
I handled a simultaneous rollout and level off. I don’t think I did too well as they wanted to see another
climb to 6000’.

Then it was a turn to the left onto 150. He asked what AoB I needed for a rate 1 turn. I didn’t notice
the Groundspeed readout and just went off IAS (which was 200kts) and said 27 degrees. Then he
asked what the formula was for a rate 1 turn. I said TAS/10 + 7, but I mentioned that I was holding 25
degrees AoB.

Then it was a medium turn to the right onto 330. I noticed the speed reducing slightly and he asked if I
added power in a medium turn in the Twinstar to which I replied I didn’t. He said I needed to in the
737 so I added a touch. It wasn’t the greatest medium turn so he got me to do another to the left onto
150, and this time I made sure to add power. Then it was a steep turn onto 330. The sky pointer really
confused me as it doesn’t work like a G1000. I found I had to ignore it, set my angle of bank with the
wing bars, then confirm with the skypointer, if it needed more I had to reset it with the wing bars, then
confirm again with the skypointer. When I tried to reset it whilst looking at the skypointer I always
rolled the wrong way.

Then the PNF took control and I was asked to fix my position using AA VOR and to choose another
NDB. I chose Waiuku NDB. He asked why I chose that one. I said because I thought it was closer to
my current position which I thought was slightly SouthWest. He said I could be anywhere because we
had been turning etc. It turned out we were slightly North West. He asked for a position in relation to a
radial and distance from Whenuapai VOR then tuned in Whenuapai to compare. They seemed happy
with my pinpoint. Then he asked what we had done so far ie, altitudes climbed to, headings turned to.
I gave him what I thought we had done (disclaimer, the headings and altitudes above may not be
exactly correct, but it’s all I can remember).

Then he dragged and dropped me closer to the AA VOR and got me to draw a standard hold with
inbound of 256. I took my time and triple checked my calculations…even making simple subtractions
and additions of 180 degrees on the piece of paper that was given to me. He eventually asked if I was
ready and what type of entry I was going to carry out. It worked out to be an offset entry. On the way
to the hold he mentioned groundspeed is about 240kts (I still hadn’t found the groundspeed readout)
and asked how many miles a minute I would cover. I said 4. Approaching the hold I noticed the
Groundspeed readout and was confused as to why it was higher than IAS. He asked me why that is
and I started waffling on about position error etc and he led me to the correct answer which seemed
obvious once I got there. Entering the hold he asked how many track miles I would cover on the
entry… I asked if he meant at 240kts and wasn’t sure if he meant just the offset tracking so I said
4miles. He waited abit then asked how about the rest of it so I said 12. He asked if that was my
answer, I said yes. Then he asked the hold speed. I asked if he meant for a Cat C aircraft. He said
that will do. So I gave him 230kts. He waited a bit then asked for the rest of them so I rattled them off
and he seemed happy. I only completed the offset entry and he cancelled the hold and gave me a
radial to intercept and join the ten DME arc from the inside. I joined the arc and he asked what
method I would use to maintain it. After I replied he got me to intercept another radial and said we
were tracking to the ILS. Then he got the PNF to take control while I briefed the ILS and he set me up
for an intercept and asked if I was happy with the intercept angle. I intercepted the ILS at 4000’ and
things start happening quickly. The glideslope is alive about the same time as the localizer, then the
PNF is lowering flap and you have to promptly pitch down to avoid ballooning (he gave me a hint by
asking what happens to altitude when you lower flap). So I was above glideslope before I knew it but
managed to sort it out. I was asked what sort of runway lighting AA had. I was busy trying to scan the
plate whilst flying the aircraft and he eventually pointed to where I needed to look on the plate. But I
never got to give him an answer as I noticed the localizer was approaching half scale deflection so I
fixed that but managed to just go out over the first dot. Then I started looking at the plate again and
noticed I was going out to half scale again! I caught it sooner this time and fixed it, stabilized the
approach and we broke through cloud.

Then he asked if I wanted to land to which I said yes.

Overall, I found the Sim a handful. It took a while to get used to it. Its got heaps of intertia so it takes a
long time for it to slow down. Don’t be afraid to go to idle power to slow the aircraft down. Scan the
speed trend indicator to help anticipate when to reapply power when you are trying to slow it down.
And vice versa when you are speeding up, wait for the speed trend indicator to touch the target speed
then reduce power.

With the trim wheel I was briefed to use it with small touches of the trim switch. But what I found was
that will only work when you are trying to fine tune straight and level. When you are leveling off from
or entering a climb or descent then you just had to go hard on the trim switch.

Power changes would cause large pitch changes so be ready to go hard with that trim switch.

I also found the briefed power settings were more a guideline. I was having to adjust power as
required to maintain speed and altitude… but that could have just been my flying.

Initially I was lucky to stay within 300feet of target altitude. Once I managed to trim properly I was able
to stay within 100 feet until I had to conduct a climb or descent again or change the power setting then
it would be back to plus or minus 300’ until I stabilized it again. Keep the scan rate going as best you
can…not easy when its your first time in the thing and trying to get used to the slightly different
instruments, but good luck.

I left the Sim not feeling very confident. But the feedback I got was that it was Acceptable and I had a
“solid” sim and they could see I had prepared a lot (find all the questions they have asked previous
candidates and practice drawing holds and flying holds/Arcs/ILSs eg Fuel Burn in a hold/Aquaplaning
formula). So I wouldn’t get too disheartened if it doesn’t feel like it is going too well. Just keep fighting
for it. They will throw questions at you at critical moments eg approaching the end of the offset leg. I
think they are looking to see how much workload you can handle, it mustn’t have been much for me
as I didn’t get questioned as much as I have heard other Interviewees have done. The only practice I
had done for this was in the Simulator at work. I didn’t do any Sims in a 737 simulator. I have a feeling
that if I had shown more capacity to handle the Sim then they would have just kept asking me more
questions to load me up. But this is just my guess. And use the PNF as much as possible eg get him
to tell you when you have 15 degrees to go in a turn, and start rolling out at 15 to go, don’t wait until
you are on the edge of the heading bug as the aircraft is very slow to roll(if your trying to be smooth). I
was trying to be as smooth as possible but at one point I was wondering if I was making the
assessors motion sick.

Interview

I had two Assessors and I was asked to tell my life story. I had prepared one with examples linking to
the Air NZ values and attempted to tick off any questions they might pose me. I think this helped as in
the end they only had a few questions.

Some of the questions they asked:

 Have you got your ATPLs? (I hadn’t but explained it was a matter not having the time and/or
money but that I heard there was financial incentive to get them done. They were keen to
explain the financial incentive and mentioned that it was a big issue that pilots didn’t have
their ATPLs as the time to captain was now quite quick)
 What are your future plans? (I explained my plans if I made it into AirNZ and if I didn’t. They
were happy to hear I had thought about it in detail)
 Whats one word you would use to describe yourself? How would your colleagues describe
you?
 What is your weakness?
Then they asked if I had any questions, I was curious as to why they had shut down Eagle when I had
been told in my previous employ at Air NZ that they would do everything to defend their domestic
network. Apparently it was undefendable (losing a million dollars a week).

But this kind of backfired as one of the assessors decided he did have more questions for me. He said
that he had heard that CTC had the bible on Air NZ interviews and wanted me to tell them something
they didn’t know about Air NZ. I was a little stumped as I thought they would know more than me but
eventually asked them if they knew what date TEAL started in and what date TEAL changed name to
Air New Zealand. Then he asked what TEAL was called before it became TEAL…I had no idea. He
said that it was one for me to look up…I still don’t know. And later that night I realized that I had given
him the wrong dates for when TEAL started and when it changed to Air NZ lol!

Feedback was that I had good examples, spoke openly, shared previous Air NZ experience (I had
experience in the call centre), and my motivation came through.

Day 2:

Presentation (30min)

We had run out of time to do the Presentation on Day 1 (because one of the candidates was an hour
late) so it was moved to Day 2.

I got the Eco-resort scenario where you are on an island and a storm has been causing issues
through the week. I was given 10 minutes to make a list of what I would prioritize first. There were 8
issues to attend to. First I listed my priorities on the whiteboard: 1) Safety 2) Customers 3) Staff. I put
them in this order as I believed it was in line with Air NZ principles.

Then I started the list in this order:

1- Rope off the tree that had fallen over the footpath so no one else would get hurt (Safety)
2- Get the Lama out of the Art Gallery (Safety)
3- Find more perishable food (Safety)
4- Fix the hut (Customers) I placed this above the high value guest and the bored family
because there were customers booked to use the hut so they were guaranteed revenue
whereas the high value guest was only considering coming back at a future date with his staff.
5- Attend to the high value guest (Customers)
6- Attend to the bored family (Customers)
7- Check on the sick staff (Staff)
8- Pay for overusing water. (Safety) I placed this last as we needed to use water and if we had
to pay extra for using too much then it was just something we were going to have to accept.

After the 10mins was up the 3 Assessors came back in and I had to explain why I placed everything in
that order. Then they questioned me to try to get me to change the order. Some of their arguments
had good reasoning and I gave them careful consideration. I finally gave in on item 3 and said I would
move it behind the staff as it was only perishable food that was running low and we could survive on
the non perishable food. I believed they were looking to see that you stuck to your list, but were also
flexible.

Feedback was that I showed good logic and justification, was open to comments and showed some
flex.
Tech Exam (60min)

There are plenty of questions out there to prepare you for this. I have forgotten the details of the
questions I got but I found the questions in Cades and Makis write ups were good. Supplement this
with as many other write-ups you can find, and if you also use the Flip Cards and read through the
“Technical Questions” document, then you will have a sound base to ace this exam.

Feedback was Acceptable.

Group Exercise

Duplex lego blocks exercise.

We were told we were going to be shown a structure and had to recreate it and we were told getting
the right colours was very important. We were given 5 minutes to discuss how we would tackle this.
Half way through we were asked who was in charge, and who was responsible for what. One of the
guys that had started talking first ended up being nominated. And he was asked who was in charge of
time keeping etc. The team leader nominated himself, another guy and I to make note of the shape of
the structure. And he nominated the other 3, including the timekeeper to make note of the colours.

We were taken to the room where the structure was and given 5 minutes to inspect it.

Then we were taken back to the room where the spare blocks were and started to re create it. I was
immediately pulled back to the room with the structure and told that they specifically didn’t want the
large yellow block on the bottom and I had to communicate this to the team without letting them know
that I had been told they didn’t want it, and they didn’t want any conflict in the team. So I went back to
the room where the rest of the team had been busy building and told them I was sure the yellow block
didn’t belong as I had had a second look. They accepted this but were very confused. Whilst I was
telling them this the assessors must have taken someone else out of the room and told them
something else. And I also found out that the timekeeper was no longer allowed to speak (and he had
this analogue watch that no one else had a clue how to read so we basically lost track of time until
they said we could change time keepers). The timekeeper was taken out of the room and when he
came back he said the yellow block that I had said didn’t belong now belonged. I went with it as I
knew he must have been given these instructions. But then I was taken out of the room again and told
that they still didn’t want that yellow block. So I told the team that it didn’t belong and the Team Leader
put it to a vote and they decided they wanted the yellow block 5 to 1. Time started running out and the
structure was no where near complete so in the last minute we started throwing blocks together but it
was a very rough replica of the structure.

After we were told to stop the Assessors started trying to find out why we hadn’t completed the task.
They were asking if it was the Team Leaders fault, if it was the time keepers fault, if it was my fault
because I took the yellow block away etc.

Basically, it seemed like they were trying to put us under pressure and trying to create conflict to see
how we would react. Our group didn’t really react as we all got along quite well.

After the assessors left we discovered that one of the group had been told they didn’t want any blue
blocks but they couldn’t tell the rest of the team. This explained why they structure kept getting put
together one minute and next minute it was all pulled apart.

I recommend you just try to participate where possible. Give ideas even if they seem silly, as long as
you are contributing (eg before we had seen the structure I thought it would be a building of some sort
with 4 walls and a roof so I suggested we assign a team member to a wall each and 1 to the roof…but
my team mentioned it could be any structure so we would wait until we saw it).

Feedback was that I worked well with the group on my delegated tasks. But a small criticism was that
I didn’t challenge others and it may be something to work on. But I gave good contribution.

Lunch

I made sure to try and get around and talk to all the Assessors and especially the 3 Managers that
turned up.

Feedback was the Managers were happy.

Then it was over and I got the call the next day.

So good luck, be yourself (I added an extra effort of friendliness and happiness), try to make small talk
to the Assessors as they come in and out of the rooms as it goes towards the overall impression.
They are basically deciding whether they want to sit next to you all day in a cockpit.

For prep I used the Flash Cards (available on the Cram App, search for Air NZ), went through the
“Technical Questions” document, read as many other write ups as I could (focusing on the most
recent ones), and talked to people that had already been through the interview. I also watched some
youtube videos of Chris Luxon which were very valuable; recommend that as he talks about
Customer, Cultural and Commercial excellence. It is a useful guide when listing priorities eg Safety
then Customer, then Staff, then other. Also, have a read of the ‘MyNotes.pdf’ as it had useful
company info without having to read the entire website.

Thanks to everyone that helped.