Robert Stogsdill’s Flyblog

On Saturday one of the CFIs from my school sent me a text message saying that Air Wisconsin was having a career fair in 2 days in Milwaukee and that he found flights for $215 round trip! He has over 1000 hours and is itching to move on. We decided it would be a good move to let our other CFI friend know who also works with us. He was up for it as well. Within the next 15 minutes all 3 of us had tickets to Milwaukee for the following Monday.

The next day we met to tell our chief pilot that we would need the day off and told him why. We figured it was best to keep him in the loop as opposed to lying about what we where doing. That night I ironed out my suit, picked out my shirt and tie, and polished my shoes.

Air Wisconsin’s minimum hours to apply are 500 hours total time, and 125 hours multi-engine time. I have 344 hours total time, and 129 hours multi-engine. I come no where close to meeting the hours that AWAC (Air Wisconsin) requires. My main goal in attending the job fair was to meet the recruiters face to face, get business cards, interview as best I could and hope that in a few months I would be able to apply with more hours and get the job. The 2 CFIs who where going with me had 1000 hours total with 140 multi and 460 hours total and over the minimum of 125 needed. I kept telling these guys that they where shoe-ins.

The next day we met up and car pooled to the airport. On the flight to Milwaukee we studied together, going over all of the questions that other people had on previous interviews. We knew it would mainly be human resource questions with a few technical questions.

We arrived at the airport and caught the shuttle bus to the hotel. Once arrived we went to the conference room and where greeted by a few AWAC employees. They led us to a room with tables for filling out paperwork. We where then given packets with a ton of info to fill out, and with information about the company. Sara Tilkens came over and introduced herself to us, she is a recruiter for Pilots and would be interviewing us along with John Gijsen, the head of training. She then told us to begin filling out the paperwork and that we could either finish it and turn it in, or mail it in. She then asked who wanted to interview first, and I quickly raised my hand. I preferred to get it over with and wanted to stop worrying. They led me across the room to another smaller table with 3 chairs. As I walked over I looked back at my 2 friends and told them not to cheat and listen to the questions.

Sara began with the HR questions, while John looked over my logbooks. She asked me things like “what is your leadership style?” “what 3 things can you offer AWAC?” “any time you have been in an emergency and how did you handle it?” There where about 10 of these types of questions, and I had expected most of them. I felt I answered them fairly well. John then began with asking me a few technical questions. He asked which plane I had flown most, I told him the 172, but multi-engine was the Seminole. He wanted to go over the multi-engine. He asked me things such as “what is the final flap setting available for a seminole?” “what is maximum flap extend speed?” “What series engines are on the plane?” He then told me a bit about the CRJ-200, the plane AWAC has in its fleet and asked what I would do to prepare myself for training in it. I answered every question correctly, and was pretty confident in my “opinion” type questions.

They then asked if I had any questions. I asked if I was to be turned down due to my time, would they keep my resume on file and allow me to call them when I had more hours. They both kind of stared at me without answering, the silence worried me a little. I then spoke and said “am I over thinking my low time?” John said that I was over thinking it, and that he had hired someone with less than 300 hours and they passed training with flying colors while he had hired someone with 6 years of experience in the CRJ-200 that failed training. He explained that he hires on personality over anything. With that comment the interview was over and I went back to the table with my 2 friends and it was time for one of them to interview.

We all worked on our paperwork as we would rather hand it in face to face rather than mail it in. The paperwork took about 3 hours to complete but this was a good thing. It allowed us to see if anyone else would interview, and no one did! In the time that we where there, we where the only 3 pilots to interview. We where also able to ask more questions, as Sara and John where just sitting around doing nothing (actually they where doing work away from work on their laptops but interview wise, they where doing nothing.) We asked Sara about class dates and what was currently going on. She explained that the next class was in a week and that it was full. Air Wisconsin currently has a pool of 10 hired applicants, and that they put 7 into a class. The company was not sure if there was going to be a second class in February due to the age 65 rule taking effect in December of last year. If they did have a class, those poolies would be put into that class. She said we should expect a class in March. We then wanted to verify how long it would take to hear back from AWAC about being hired and she said “up to 2 weeks.”

So far I am fairly impressed with AWAC. Sara and John where 2 of the nicest people, and even if I am not hired right now, I will apply again when I am able. But for right now, the wait continues for a phone call… or anything…

Posted by v1valarob / Airline Interview(s)