Robert Stogsdill’s Flyblog

Broke 500 hours today. 500.9 to be exact when the day was done.

2 Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Being a CFI...

As said in previous posts American Eagle makes low time new hires go through a jet transition course. Going from a Cessna 172 doing 110 knots to an Embraer doing god knows what is a huge step. I have to successfully complete the course to be allowed to go to American Eagle ground school. Here is the information about the transition course which I have received so far:

Welcome to the American Eagle / FlightSafety Academy RJO course. The course you will be enrolled in is three weeks long and will include the following:

- 40 hours of ground school

- 4 hours of Frasca 142 flying

- 6 hours of Piper Seminole Flying

- 2 hours of ERJ-145 Cockpit Procedures Training (CPT)

- 8 hours of ERJ-145 training.

Training will consist of all aspects of IFR flying to include ILS, VOR, Back course, DME Arc, and GPS approaches, as well as, performing holds and flying SIDs and STARs. During the first week and a half, you will be flying the Frasca 142 and Piper Seminole as a single-pilot operator. The purpose is to verify your IFR flying abilities. The second week and a half will be in the ERJ-145 level D simulator. The purpose of this training is to get you familiar with flying turbine powered aircraft.

In order to complete the course, you will need to be proficient in IFR flying. It is recommended to get as much IFR flying done as possible before coming down to Vero Beach. In addition, make sure you are familiar with the use of the HSI, RMI, Garmin 430 GPS and, if possible, the Piper Seminole.

American Eagle will cover the expense of training and lodging. Food is not provided and will be at your own expense. For those who are not driving, Eagle will provide transportation to Orlando International. FlightSafety will be providing a shuttle from Orlando to Vero Beach. Within a few days of your arrival, expect another email with shuttle information.

4 Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Eagle Transition Course - Flight Safety

Well I reapplied with Air Wisconsin, just to see if I would get a call. AWAC is still my #1 choice and I would hate to get stuck in an 18 month contract and find out I had another chance with AWAC.

No Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Airline Interview(s)

Today Tiffany from Eagle HR called. She let me know that my medical had passed and that she was able to get the ball rolling on my jet transition course. She gave me a few options, but the soonest would be May 5th in Vero Beach, Florida. The course is held by Flight Safety and is 3 weeks long. You fly 12 hours in the Seminole and 20 hours in the Embraer 145, which is the aircraft Ill be training on for Eagle.

My class date is May 26th after completion of the Jet course. I cant wait!!!!

No Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Hired by Eagle!

On Friday I anxiously awaited a phone call from Eagle. I worked all day, and my last flight was around 430pm. After the flight ended I turned on my phone and checked my email. I read the subject line “American Eagle Captains Review Board.” My stomach dropped, I thought for a split second that I had been disapproved. I figured a phone call would happen with approval and email with disapproval. I then saw the last word on the email: “Congratulations!” Here is the email:

“Your file and application for a First Officer position at American Eagle Airlines was reviewed and given conditional approval by our Captain’s Review Board today. The board has recommended that you attend and successfully complete a Regional Jet Training Course. We have several programs in place that we provide to applicants, with the cost of the program and sleeping accommodations being covered by American Eagle Airlines. We will contact you upon clearance of your medical and finger prints to discuss the options available to you at that time. In the meantime, we will continue to process your background information and contact you if we have any questions. Congratulations!”

After this all I could do was wait for my info to pass. I was a little annoyed that they did not have any sort of time line. But to be approved was a good feeling.

No Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Airline Interview(s)

Its been a few days since I have updated, and a ton has happened.

I arrived in Dallas Fort Worth in the afternoon last Tuesday for my simulator interview the next day. After I arrived I called the hotel to find out where to meet to be picked up for transportation back to the hotel. 20 minutes later the Baymont Inn van arrived, 2 gentlemen where in the van already. I stepped in and heard one say “CRJ.” I instantly knew both guys where there for the same reason as I was, American Eagle interview. I asked both to confirm that they had just interviewed. They told me that they had, and that it was pretty easy and relaxing. They said that out of the 17 people interviewed, only 3 had been let go. I told them that I had already done the tech and HR interview, and they couldn’t believe that I was coming all the way to Dallas to fly on a simulator for 15 minutes. They tell me a little about the sim, and its tendency’s. “Pitch sensitive” is the common phrase when describing the simulator. A few minutes later we arrive at the American Eagle training center and the van fills up even more. The guys we had just picked up had done their simulator evaluation in the full motion Saab 340 sim. I was jealous. In a nut shell they said the sim was “awesome.” And that you really think your flying.

We arrived at the hotel, I check in. The guys who had just been picked up had been selected, and passed the interview process. All that was left for them was the medical test the next day. They checked in on American Eagles dime, and where clearly pleased.

The next day I wake up to catch the 630am bus to the American Eagle headquarters. I hop into the van along with other applicants. We are all silent, wearing suits, and nervous. I was glad that I had completed the other portions of the interview. My nerves where calm as I realized all I had to do was go out and do what I do every day, just fly. As we begin to talk in the van I let the other guys know that I had done the tech and HR and that they had nothing to worry about, and that the HR people are extremely nice and the whole thing is relaxed. I know that if I was in their shoes, this is what I would want to hear.

We drive past American headquarters 1 and pull into the Headquarters 2. The buildings look huge, I cant believe that there is this much that goes on with an airline. After working out of a hanger with Colgan, this is amazing. This is also NOT the location where training happens, that is a completely separate location.

We walk into the doors and query the security as to where we go. He points us toward the lobby/waiting room. We all sit down. The seats slowly fill up. I count just under 20 applicants. Ashley and Rainne, the HR / Tech people show up and hand out temporary badges to all the applicants. Rainne tells us to follow him. We all stand up and follow him through a door in the corner. As we walk through we realize we are in a huge office. There must be at least 40 cubicles. People are running around, doing whatever it is that they do. Rainne lets us know that we are in the back corner, and that these people are working hard, although he doesnt know exactly what it is that they all do, we shouldnt bother them. He then leads us back to the corner of the huge office space, and then brings us into the conference room. We sit down and he begins his speech. It was much of the same information given during the job fair in LaGuardia. He then pops a tape into the television hanging from the wall, presses play, and leaves the room. After the video ends Rainne enters again and says that because we where such a large group, half of the class would be sent to the Saab 340 sim for their simulator interview at about 2pm, and the rest of us would have to do our simulator portion in the Baron Frasca. I really wanted the Saab. He then called a few names, none to include my own, and announced that those where the people who would be going to the Saab 340 sim. I was jealous again. Rainne said that he was going to brief the guys staying in the headquarters on what would be asked of them on the sim ride. The Saab guys where told to go grab a coffee. Rainne then took 30 minutes and walked us through the sim ride. They give you every single piece of information needed. The only time you are expected to think on your own during the whole ride is when given the hold. After the brief the other guys came back in, along with Ashley the HR lady. Ashley then told us that the interviews would start and that everyone would begin to fill out background paperwork. Ashley left, and every 15 minutes a random person from American eagle would stick their head into the room and call a name. I sat studying my sim profile, I felt very luck that this was the only thing I had to worry about. About an hour later Ashley sticks her head in and calls my name. She hands me 5 forms, and a piece of paper with the name of the previous employees from the past 5 years listed which I had given on my application. She explained how to fill out the paperwork and sent me on my way. I personally dont like talking on cell phones in a quiet room. I decided to find a quiet hall away from American office workers and began calling old employers, looking for phone numbers and fax numbers. About 30 minutes later I had all the information I was able to get. I walked back into the conference room, which seemed to be less occupied compared to when I had left. A short while later Bill sticks his head into the conference room and calls my name, its time for my simulator interview. He walks me back toward the room with the sim. He asks questions along the way about how much simulator time I had. I explained that at ATP we did about 45 hours of simulator in the exact same FTD. He opened the door leading to the Simulator and I was relieved to see that it was in fact the exact same type I had previously flown in. He puts me into the sim and talks me over the same things which Rainne had gone over. Im not going to go into detail about the sim ride, but it was pretty relaxing and not stressful. The part that most people worry about is the hold, all I can say is, take your time. Bill will freeze the sim, give you a clipboard with a blank sheet and then give you the hold instructions. You have a good minute to figure out the hold. Dont stress, just remember what you have been taught. After the simulator interview Bill gave me a $5 coupon for the American Airlines cafeteria. Again I was impressed with how big the cafeteria was. I bought a hamburger and sat down in the huge lunch room.

20 minutes later I head back to the conference room, I walk in and grab my paperwork and bring it back to Ashley. She looks it over and takes it away. I was pleased to finish it quickly. Dorothy then walks over to me and asks if I am Robert Stogsdill, I say yes and she tells me that its my turn for the fingerprinting.

We walk into the office and begin fingerprinting. I found this to be the hardest part of the interview process. I even joked with her about it. My fingers would just not scan right! I fingerprinted my pinky almost 30 times and every time it came back as unreadable. She decided to send them to the FBI that way anyway as it was hopeless. She then sent me back to the conference room.

As I walked into the conference room I couldnt help but notice how bare it was. Only about 9 people where still waiting. Rainne sticks his head into the room and calls a name. The person stands up and Rainne tells the person that he needs to bring his bags with him. The applicant looks scared. He walks out the door and shuts it behind him. We all wonder what that means. Are they going home? Did they pass? 20 Minutes later the same thing happens, Rainne sticks his head into the door and calls a new, the applicant stands up and is then told to bring his bags. This time however the applicant doesnt close the door and all we hear is Rainne say “At this time we are not going to continue the interview process.” The room stays fairly silent. We are all nervous at this point for anyones name to be called along with “bring your bags with you.” 2pm rolls around and the Saab guys are not told anything. 3pm rolls around and Ashley walks into the room. She announces that all of us in the room where all successful and would be kept for the medical the next day. Becuase there where so few applicants left, the Saab guys would no longer fly on the Saab, but would be flying the Frasca just like I had. This was kind of strange as 4 of the 7 of the applicants still left over still had not completed their Sim interview. This leads me to believe that the HR and Tech is make or break during the process, and the simulator portion is just to make sure you really can fly an aircraft.

The 3 of us who had completed our sim interview go back to the hotel. We are all excited that we had made it.

The next day seems like deja vu, only now I am in business casual and the guys wearing suits are just like we where the day before. Nervous, scared and anxious. We arrive at the headquarters for our medical test. We find out that we are an hour early, but who cares, this is the easy part. We are brought into the medical office, which is a full size clinic, complete with dentist office and just about everything except an emergency room it seems. We fill out the paperwork, I finish first. I then complete my urine test and then my audiogram. The nurse then hands me a letter of conditional offer. You couldnt slap the smile off of my face if you wanted to. I then walk back to Ashleys desk and hand in my temporary badge and they explain to me that a Captains board meets on Friday and that Ill have to get the thumbs up from them before anything else, but that I had complete the interview process.

Tiffany, another HR lady hands me a piece of paper with my flight info. I then head back Dallas Fort Worth for my flight home….

No Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Airline Interview(s)

So yesterday my friend Mark and I went to an American Eagle job fair at the Marriott in LaGuardia, NY. My sister was nice enough to hook us up with US Airways buddy passes so that we could hop on a direct flight for fairly cheap.

The job fair was to begin at 10am with a presentation. We decided to take the 7am flight out of DCA which was schedule to arrive in LGA at 8am. I had checked the weather in LGA and the clouds where extremely low and I knew there would be some type of delays. We got our seats on the plane and buckled up for the ride. Just after take off I noticed we where doing circles when I commented to Mark that I thought we where holding. A few seconds later the pilot comes on and tells us that visibility had dropped and we where holding for 25 minutes. We then broke out of the hold and moved closer to LGA, we then where put into another hold. Mark and I both started to worry that we may not make it to the job fair in time. But in the end we arrived at around 915 and made it to the hotel with 15 minutes to spare. I realized after it all that I was glad to have that extra hour on the plane to study rather than sit in a conference room for an hour, sweating the interview to come.

We walk into the conference room and we where fairly surprised to see about 15 people already sitting down staring at the projection screen reading “American Eagle Job Fair. 10am LaGuardia.” The lady who seemed to be in charge was having trouble with the computer and quickly hustled to find someone to fix it. Mark and I sat down in the quiet room, and tried to be as unnoticeable as possible. As we blended into the group, many more applicants showed up. Almost 30 applicants had packed into the conference room which had once looked large, but now seemed to be a tight fit. 10am rolls around and the presentation begins. We find out that the people standing in front consist of 2 human resource employees Karen and Claudette, Chris the chief pilot in LaGuardia, Rob the assistant chief pilot in LaGuardia, and 2 first officers with Eagle who are based at LGA and DFW.

The presentation is what you would expect and did not provide much more information than I already knew. The went over how base selection worked, and that currently every base was open. They flat out said that they are desperate for pilots in LaGuardia, which is why they are there. They discussed what knowledge would be expected on the technical portion of the interview. Part 121 regulations, Weather, and Jepp charts. They said that if anyone planning on interviewing had not used Jepp charts before, they may want to reconsider. After the presentation it was time for questions, I asked how quickly an applicant hired out of todays job  fair could be a class. Karen answered that if you had not previously worked for an airline, after the simulator portion in Dallas, they have had people approved for class within a week. I was glad to hear about the chance to quickly begin.

After a few more questions we where told to speak with anyone of the American Eagle employees to make sure we where even able to interview today. Mark and I knew that we would have no problem as we had already been invited to Dallas for the whole process to begin with. I saw one gentlemen told that he could not be interviewed because he did not have enough multi-engine time.

After being “approved” for an interview we broke for lunch and where told to meet up at 1pm to begin the interview process. After meeting back up we walked into the conference room and noticed they had cut the room in half using a temporary wall. The amount of applicants had noticeably shrunk down to just above 20. If anyone was told to leave, it was done discreetly. They had setup 3 seperate rooms for 7 interviews to be going on at one time. It was a one on one type session.

An hour of waiting later, Marks name is finally called for the technical portion. 15 minutes later my name is called for the human resources. I was nervous, but when I was lead into the room I noticed mark was in the opposite corner. I was put at ease when I heard mark laugh a little and realized this was a relaxed atmosphere and that it was not a checkride, and that I could do this. She begins by looking over my paperwork and asks questions along the way. They where not HR questions, just little things like “Where were you born?” and just “get to know you” type questions. We then begin with the actual HR questions. These where some of my questions: Why eagle? Tell me something about yourself that is not on your resume or application? Have you interviewed with any other airlines? In one word, describe yourself… What will be most difficult about training for Eagle? What should Eagle hire you?

I stumbled on a few questions but turned it around into my favor. I was thanked for interviewing and told to go sit into the conference room and that I would be called for the technical interview. A few others had finished with their tech interviews and where sharing some of the questions asked. Hearing another applicant say “It wasnt that bad at all” really puts you at ease. Mark was back and also commented that it was not bad, and that we had studied the right material.

30 minutes later I was called for my technical interview. Interviewing me would be Rob, the assistant chief pilot in LGA. We sat down and he looks over my application and asks what I currently do. We begin the interview with a METAR and TAF. The metar and taf where basic, no curve balls, no strange symbols. It was a straight forward weather brief, which Im sure he was bored of hearing. We then moved onto questions on an airport diagram. He asks me to tell him about the runway, what type of lights and just any information I could. I immediately flipped the chart over. At this point Im sure I had passed this question, as I then read all the information from the back. He was just checking to make sure I had used Jepp charts. He then went back to the diagram and pointed at a few symbols and asked what these symbols where. Things such as the beacon and airport reference point. Rob then pulled out a random approach plate and asked if I would normally brief an approach before beginning it. I mentioned that of course I would, and it was how I was taught. He then handed me the approach plate and told me to look over it and brief him. He then asked what would happen if the glideslope where to fail while shooting the ILS. He asked how we would enter the hold at the VOR on the missed approach. He pointed to the approach minimums and gave me a visibility higher than was published, but an RVR which was lower, and asked if we could continue the approach. I asked if it was before or after the final approach fix. He said before, I said no we could not continue the approach because RVR is controlling, and it was below minimums. He said that I answered exactly as he wanted.

He then pulled out a low en route chart. He points to what I see is a change over point and asks me what it is, he then opens the chart fully and I noticed he is searching for something. I began to worry that he was looking for the one thing that nobody knows. He is then interrupted by the chief pilot who is in the other corner interviewing, they are talking about a pilot that he knows and he wanted to comment. He then apologizes and comes back to me and points to an altitude and asks me what it is. I say that it was an MEA and he then closes up the chart and mentions “yea, you know all your stuff.” He then asks me about 121 work restrictions for pilots. I then said that I was a former crew scheduler, and he instantly knew that I would know the answer. I answered anyway. He then pulled out my logbook and asked what multi engine aircraft I had most flown and when the last time I had flown it was. I mentioned the Seminole and that the last time I had flown it was last September. He asked me what type of engines the seminole have and what was my memory item for a failed engine. I then rattled off the memory item. I couldnt believe I remembered it so quickly.

He then tells me that I would be invited to Dallas for a simulator interview. I then asked a few questions about commuting to LGA, which is what I would be doing. He answers the questions and I head back to the conference room. An hour later Mark is finished with his human resources interview and we are both heading back to the airport with sim invites to Dallas. Mine is April 16th, 3 days from now. Marks is in one week.

In my opinion this job is mine to lose, and while Im not nervous right now, Im sure I will be on Wednesday morning when Im waiting for my name to be called again and its time to perform.

Wish me luck!!!

4 Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Airline Interview(s)

My last post said that I had scheduled my AE interview for 9 April, well I then had it changed to April 16th. Now its changed again, its this Saturday. At least the Technical and Human Resources portion. AE is having a job fair in LaGuardia and myself and another CFI are headed up there to see if we can hack it. If we do well enough on this portion, they will invite us to Dallas for the sim portion of the interview.

My student who ralphed a few times has turned out to be a pretty good pilot. He went to the flight surgeon and they gave him some drugs. He used them for a few flights and as far as I know he has been off of them for the past 4 or 5 flights and is doing fine. I only have 3 more flights left with him until he finishes the IFS program and is on to Pensacola, FL.

I was also given a raise at work! I wont say how much, but I was pretty impressed. I make more an hour now than a Colgan First Officer :D. I felt bad because after I was notified of the raise, I told my boss that I was going to the AE interview.

After this weekend I will update with how the interview went…

473/129

No Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Airline Interview(s) and Being a CFI...