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Colgan Air Pilot Interview Profiles

» Home » Pilot Interviews » Non-Jet Airlines » Colgan Air
Date Interviewed: June 2008
Summary of Qualifications: 790TT 101ME CFI CFI-I MEI AGI IGI, Comm ASEL AMEL
Were you offered the job? Yes
Pilot Interview Profile:
Stayed at the Laguardia Hotel the night before for $259 but it was a nice hotel room and very peaceful so no complaints. Woke up at 6:30 did the normal prep of getting dressed and pysching oneself out by talking to themselves in the mirror. Caught the shuttle from the hotel to the marine air terminal with two other canidates where we proceeded to flight safety international. Was greeted by a friendly receptionist who led us to the interview room where there were already a four canidates waiting three who were taking the written test. Side bar take your ATP written before comming because it pardons you from the 50 question written test which eliminated a couple canidates unfortunately. Was greeted by Dir. of hiring Mrs. Cathy Angelo who is an absolute sweetheart very nice lady as well as her colleage Karen Chase both very humble down to earth people. They ask for the paper work which you are to print out and bring to the interview, and they also give you some more paperwork to fill out. At this time those who have not taken the ATP written will be administered the Colgan Air 50 question exam which fortunately I didn't have to take. Cathy and Karen start calling individuals out one by one for the HR portion which is compiled of the basic interview questions; Why Colgan, What makes you a good canidate, tell me about a time... etc. ONce that was all down we waited for our tech portion which was done in combination with their senior capt Sam who is very cool and makes you feel at home and Mr. Charles J Colgan Jr. Side bar 2; Mr Colgan came in right before they started calling guys and girls out for tech and gave us the most humbling speech I have every heard. This is trully a family company that cares about their pilots and if you have a chance to work here I highly suggest it I was extremely impressed that the owner came in to talk to us. Tech is compiled of briefing an approach tell me about your flight experience, tell me about your past training, any failed checkrides, DUI's etc. Back to the interview holding room where Mr. Colgan bought us all lunch I thought that was very impressive and nice and we had a chance to go around the room and introduce ourselves and talk to mr colgan and hr in a casual setting. Sam our sim and tech interview capt then sat us all down and briefed the sim and took the first three volunteers. Sime profile for us is as follows

Aircraft will be position on runway 16 in HPN with the engines running. The instructor will complete aircraft Contiguration.
Complete as Applicable
A briefing with your Non-Flying pilot as to the duties you would like them to perform and the westchester One Departure

Take Off
Hold Brakes, set power 3500 lbs trq (2nd guage from the top), release brake, Caution Torque
Accelerate to 110kts, V1, Rotate Pitch 10 deg nose up and maintain 160kts PITCH and TRIM Fly it Like a SEMINOLE

Level OFF
Airspeed 160 to 200 as deemed by SAM (1300- 1500 lbs of trq)

Given Direct ot Hester OM and told to hold as published and give him tell him the enty and what you will do upon reaching the fix. Its a RMI so its pretty simple just remember slow to holding speed as assigned and make normal radio calls entering and leaving. You actually do the hold which is cool because a lot of other interviews you don't hold. Once you turn out bound ask Sam to start your time and ask for your Approach checklist he will he'll also give you a descent at 180kts to a specified alt and clear you for the approach ILS 16 @ HPN

ILS Profile
Loc Alive Flaps 17(approach) 160kts
caution ballooning
Glide Slope Alive call gear down before landing checklist
Glide slope intercept Flaps 35(landing), 130kts 1000 to 1300lbs of trq

If all goes well they'll give you a form to take the drug test @ med port which the Route A bus will take you too.

Over all the best interview I've been to and no this is not my first but I really felt relax at home and for once appreciated as a pilot and not just a number. There are certain things that I cant emphasize enough about how great colgan is as a company or how one should prep. BEST ADVICE.. Study for ATP written Sheppardair.com passed with a high score after studying three days.. Study Jep plates and if your a lot luckier than I study the profile before you go because I don't have a sim so I was new to it all but SAM is good so he'll relax you. BE RELAXED I can't stress this enough go with the mindset that your their to enjoy yourself and you'll be the next FO at colgan. Good Luck all

P.S. Kathy Karen, Sam and Mr colgan are all extremely great people they have some great advice for any and every one
Date Interviewed: January 2008
Summary of Qualifications: 1150TT, 52ME, CFI, MEI
Were you offered the job? Don't Know
Pilot Interview Profile:
Ased to come up to LGA the night before. I used Hotels.com to get a much lower rate than they advised in the email with travel plans. It was a basic hotel, but got upgraded becuse no kings were left when I arrived!! I took the 8 am shuttle for a 9am interview. Colgan interviewer Karen got ther at the same time I did. It was pretty relaxed. Study the ATP written, I cracked the book on the plane ride up and it helped. study Weather... 1 guy didn't stick around after the SIM ride. The others were offered to be put into the pool for the New "Pilot Develupment Program", which sounds liek a cool gig. Its 8 days in TX, 4 days ground 10 of wathcing the new Q400 Sim then some time in a King Air sim and another Sim I don't remember maybe the 340? I did the finger printing first, then HR and FO interview, very easy, Kathy was super nice, just HR stuff adn a few situational questions from the FO. "What do you do if the Capt. goes below min. on an app." Then the 1900 Sim...Well it was fun! Had a "Sky Pointer" which was new to me. That was the interview - over by noon.....Good Luck!!!
Date Interviewed: January 2008
Summary of Qualifications: 2500 TT All ME
Former AF KC-135 pilot, 4 years out of the cockpit, so currency is an issue
ATP + ATPp written
22 hours in the last 4 years
Were you offered the job? Yes
Pilot Interview Profile:
Interview was scheduled for a reasonable time of day considering I was coming from the west coast. Stayed at the Clarion LaGuardia. The dump cost $140.00. Smelled the whole way down the hall. Only bright spot is that they aren't far from Flight Safety which is where you need to be at 9 AM. American Eagle and Comair wanted you there by 7 AM sharp...hotel is 5 miutes from the interview and 2 from the terminal.

If you are worried about taking the ATP written before the interview, you should be. Take the $300 dollar course through ATP professionals and it'll be worth it. They give you a 500 question bank and take 84 questions directly out of it when you get the exam. (ROTE memory of the right answers.) If you have it, they don't make you take the 50 question test. Most of the guys that were eliminated, were because of the test.

Sim was a joke. Broke down, couldn't get the intruments to work properly. Flew the worst ILS of my life because the intruments weren't working on my side. Had to fly cross cockpit. Boy was that fun.

During the interview there were no tech questions. Because I was interviewing for a Saab 340 direct Captain position, they were more concerned with whether I could handle 121 without experience. Flew the tanker, interacted with scheduling, maintenance, ops, TACC, very similar to what you do, I said.

30 minutes later they were offering me a job.

Now I need advice on whether I should take a FO position at American Eagle for 6 months to a year or a captain position in a prop at Colgan for 18 months and then make the move to a major. Hope I can get advice.

iflybigjets@hotmail.com if you have any good advice.
Date Interviewed: August 2007
Summary of Qualifications: Commercial ASEL, AMEL. CFI, II, MEI. 800TT 90 Multi.
Were you offered the job? No
Pilot Interview Profile:

Date Interviewed: July 2007
Summary of Qualifications: Total 1330 PIC 1174  Cross Coutry 747 Dual Given 753 Actual 89 Single Engine 1241 Multi Engine 71
Were you offered the job? No
Pilot Interview Profile:

Flew to LGA the day before. Stayed at the Clarion, prices they give you for the hotels is wrong, the hotels have increased their prices. The Clarion was disappointing when you consider I priced 150 for the nigh tax included, the place was a dump.
The pilots that were their to interview us were all super. They kept it on the level of first officer. This changes with each interview they bring in a different set of pilots, this is how the pilots earn browny points for upgrade. I had the tech interview with a Capt and First officer both great guys and seemed to really want you to do well. The CApt used the ILS/Loc qapproach for PI, Maine. Asked where the FAF was and then followed up with if the Glide Slope was inop where was the FAF. What is the most dangerous ice and why. What is CRM and how does it work. The First Officer asked how do you determine if an alternate is need? That is all I can remember him asking, he didn't say much. HR now that is a different story. I was asked since this is the second career I have had and because I am older than most applicants ( flirting with age discrimination there) How would I feel if I was assigned to a 23 yr old female Capt ( now I am offended) My answer for further reference, as I am a flight instructor, I told her flat out, doesn't matter if she is 23 or 43 doesn't matter if she is a she or a he, thwey have earned that position, they are the Capt and it doesn't matter as long as what is asked of you is legal, moral and ethical you listen to the Capt, they are the PIC. That question really bugged enaough that had an offer been made I would have been forced to reject it. I know how hard people work to become pilots so I was a little offended. I instruct at a small Part 61 that I was hired to turn around and try to bring in more students, so currently we don't fly 100s of hours a month that was an issue before they offered the interview and I thought had been settled just to be brought up by her again. That was strike 2 against them. So if on the phone there is an issue I would think twice about accepting an interview.

Now here is the part that bite me in the butt, I knew going in that the sim was going to be a problem, I just didn't know how bad it could get. We had the ILS 16 at HPN. Fly the departure, vectors, they will turn you several different ways and then give you the hold. Previous postings had stated you would go miss then to the hold, not anymore. You will be in the sim with another person who is interviewing. Breif the approach then fly. The other person can be act as the first officer and it your choice as to which side you want to fly from. The 2 of us were both instructors, you should be able to see the problem coming. The guy I was with was a fairly new instructor that hasn't learned that an instructor should have his/her feet ready to be put on the rudders in the event they need to take the plane. Had to tell him to get his feet off the rudder, well until I reaslized what was going on I was all over the place. At first I thought it was the sim, it turned out to be him, but it was to late by the time I figured it out. Oh well crap happens no big deal. The sim is touchy for a full motion sim. My advice is correct as soon as you relaize it is getting out of wack, manual trim forget the electric trim ( doen't work for crap) Aslo verify they have started you were you are suppoe to be that would be RWY 16 at HPN (they reset and even the instructor was lost for a few minutes as to where he put me. It was a bad experience all around. In talking to a couple of Captains at the airport they were fimilar with the sim I did the check in and they told me don't sweat it the sim that was used is junk (the one Colgan normally uses was busy) they also told me be thinkful because I would have regretted my choice and then gave information for three companies they would recommend. Good experience was meeting those Captains at the airport, they may have saved me some greif. Good Luck, but don't worry if you don't get hired, just shout NEXT and go on to the next one which for me is Monday with a carrier who flys alot of overseas routes, which by the way the Captain at the airport told me was an outstanding choice.

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