AirNet flew me in on the Lear to Columbus and what a great ride it was! Made prior arrangements with the Baymont Inn and Suites for the AirNet discount price of $42+Tax/24hr. Remember that when you leave for your interview to keep your bags in the hotel it's good for 24hrs, I felt so stupid to leave my one bag at the receptionist's desk, I felt that wasn't a good first impression. We toured the facility, and what a great company AirNet is! Very impressive!!! Excellent maintainance team and facility!! Toured the offices learned what AirNet does and how they do what they do so well. Was given a presentation about the company, Mr. Washka is a well spoken individual, he said everything I wanted to become as a pilot for AirNet! The written test wasn't hard at all! Keep up on the instrument written test bank, or keep instructing and staying instrument current, you'll be fine. The HR interview went well. Questions of your current A/C, systems, engines, scenarios. Asked when there was a time when I went out of my way for somebody else. What makes a good freight pilot? What will make you happy? The simulator evaluation wasn't too bad, I always talk to myself in the plane and the sim so I can catch my mistakes. Better to be audible that way everyone knows what your doing, or what mistakes your making to correct. It keeps the instructor informed. Also talking through the flight to yourself is excellent when it comes time to brief the approach. Stay cool, calm, and RELAXED you'll be fine! Always think it through and have a plan. Told me i'd receive a call within 7-10 days, wrote a nice thank you letter while at the hotel! I did this reguardless because this company really is great I was very happy they considered me for an interview, I felt a thank you letter was a good gesture. I received a phone call 3 days to congratulate me! AirNet is a great company and i'm thrilled they chose me to give my best!

Alright to start i flew out of midway on one of their company lears to LCK (rickenbacker, OH). i was nervous like everybody else was but i began to calm down once i saw the demeanor of airnet employees. they aren't up tight at all and they try to have as much fun at work as possible. the flight took about an hour and once i got to klck, i walked to the baymont that's right on the field. there isn't a shuttle to or from the hotel after 11pm, so i was outta luck and had to lug my bags. it's not very far, i think i just brought too much stuff. i flew the sim prep the day before so that i was able to get used to the frasca and i am really glad that i did. i was trained in a frasca, but i haven't flown one since i got my instrument, so i figured it couldn't hurt. youre gonna pay 60 bucks an hour to fly that sim, and i flew for an hour an a half. the day of the interview started with a tour of the facility. it's huge and the maint. dept. is even bigger. they actually have around 9 million dollars in spare parts. this suggests that preventative maint is huge to them and a pilot really can't ask for anything more. the presentation was about three hours long and it was really informative and successful in getting me excited about working with airnet. craig repeatedly said that people there go to work because they want to, not because they have to. yeah, you have to expect him to try and sell the compnay as much as possible (that's his job), but after observing the other employees, he wasn't kidding. everyone there is happy and being happy at work is more important to me than a paycheck. lunch was after that, and given during the written test. tip: once you get lunch, close the book on the test, eat, and talk with the interviewers. dont try to force convo, just be yourself and relax. sure, the interview is still being conducted, but this is the portion where they decide if they can sit in a cock pit with you in the middle of the night, four days a week. the two of us who did that got hired, the other two didn't put the test down, had much more time than i do, and didn't get a job offer. the written was simple. everything should come back to you. i didnt' study much but i just got out of school about 4 months ago. what are the req weather mins if youre going to your alternate and that airport doesn't have an IAP??? just stuff like that. some weather, some charts, aerodynamics, nothing crazy. the sim was the exact same as everybody has said. take off on 28L (make sure every time you talk to "tower" you press the PTT.) I only remember to do that everytime if im actually in the air so that took some getting used to. Identify the runway that you are on with the LOC freq. They are huge on this because they dont want Airnet to be on the news as the next Commair. youre gonna take off, get vectored, steep turn, slow flight, power off stall, Dirct to APE vor. Then you will shoot the VOR-A into Newark probably with no attitude indicator. on this approach, the pilot controlled lighting is on a different freq (123.3). so make sure you use that to turn on the runway lights. you will go missed because of traffic on the runway. climb out to enter published missed, lose your engine, declare an emergency, get vectors for ILS 28L and youre set. the HR part was short and sweet with craig washka. he's gonna ask you some technical stuff. to start, he wants all your paperwork. i typed all of mine. the email was sent to me with the paperwork attachments, so i was able to click and type it to fill it all out. this was quicker for me and it also shows attention to detail. im positive it scored me points. have two copies of all the paperwork they ask you for also. the tech stuff was....what kinda twin have you been flying? tell me about it, how many ways are there to know that the gear is down and locked for sure? there are four, and i only could think of three. are you willing to relocate and sign our contract? what do you wanna fly freight and not pax? what are short/long term goals? what's your fav aviation movie? when have you gone out of your way to help a customer? what would your former employer say about working with you? that's about all that i can think of. i hope ive been helpful. working with airnet will truly make me the best pilot i can possibly be. that will make me marketable and allow me to go wherever i desire once my time with airnet is up. i mean directly to southwest, united, fedex....wherever. airnet pilots are excellent pilots and the rest of the industry knows that. good luck.

Airnet flew me up to Columbus, OH through their system. It was nice to see first hand how the system works and also gave me plenty of time to talk to the pilot. The interview began at 9:30am and lasted until around 2:00pm. There was some waiting but not too bad. At the scheduled beginnig of the interview we (myself and one other interviewee) were met by a pilot recruiter and walked around the facility in a real informative tour. We were able to ask any questions. After the tour we were shown a slideshow presentation of the company and again were able to ask any questions we had. After this we were given a written test of 60 questions. They were mostly multi-engine and instrument questions. Not very hard if you are up on your stuff, especially if you are a current CFII/MEI. After the written came the sim evaluation. A Frasca 142 was set up in Baron mode. I was told to get in the sim and familiarize myself with where the controls were and how the radios worked. I was then told to do the cheklist, omitting some items because it was already started. I was cleared for takeoff and had an engine failure on the roll, aborted and all was well. I restarted the engine and was cleared for takeoff again. I entered IFR at about 300' AGL. Upon reaching 3,000' I was asked to do a steep turn (either direction). I had to reduced MP to approx. 15" to establish 150 knots. After the steep turn I encountered an attitude indicator failure. When I told "approach" of the problem, I was cleard direct to APE VOR to hold as published on an approach plate I was given. Once established in the hold I got my AI back and was cleared for the VOR-A approach. I shot the approach to mins and went missed. On the missed I had an engine failure. Once I had stabilized the plane I tols "approach" I needed vectors back to Port Columbus and was immediately given a vector heading to the final and cleared for the approach, a single-engine ILS to a full stop. During the sim ride YOU ARE PIC. Do not ask questions. Do what you know to do and you will be okay. I missed a few checklist items and didn't have much time. Everything happened QUICK. After the other interviewee had done the sim ride I was in for my personal interview with Craig Washka. It started with some HR stuff, i.e. US citizen, willing to relocate, what co-workers/bosses would say about you, any FAA violations/accidents, okay with a background check, what makes a good freight pilot, where do you see yourself in 10 years, where did you hear about Airnet, etc... He asked what light twin I was most familiar with and asked a few questions about that plane. Then a few technical questions: What to do when engine failure on takeoff roll - Abort & tell tower Engine failure in flight - FLY THE PLANE Engine failure in solid IMC after takeoff - Aviate, Navigate, Communicate Vyse doesn't hold altitude - Pitch for Vxse or even slighlty lower, not below Vmc What is your favorite aviation movie - Pick your own and know who stars Then he asked if I had any questions and seemed pleased that I did, I even had them wrote down and also wrote down his answers. Craig did not like me answering questions with "you" or "your". He wanted me to tell him what "I" would do with "my" situation or "the" airplane. Overall the entire process was VERY relaxed. The interview packet said "no tie required" and they mean it. I wore one and they made me take it off. It is a very casual company. Wear khakis and a nice shirt. Everyone I spoke with/to was very informative. No one had anything bad to say about the company, in fact the pilot I flew with said they would do it all over with in a heartbeat. My interview was on a Thursday, I was called on Friday and asked to attend training, I my class date is only a week and a half later.

First off they show you all the facilities for about an hour followed by the written test. Basic questions straight from the AIM and part 91. No big deal at all. Then came the Frasca sim ride. No real difficulties there as long as you are sharp on your instrument skills. If you have weak flying skills you will wash out of training or bust the sim ride so make sure you are sharp. They want to see how you fly the airplane as if you were by yourself in a poorly lit night environment. No cookie cutter stuff here just fly the airplane and fly it well. It will be a BE-58.

After that came lunch then the one on one interview with Craig. I think thats what did me in. I had a few brain farts then at the end, screwed up by opening my big mouth about how I previously tried to go active duty in the AF when he asked me to tell him about myself. I told him I was not pursuing it anymore. I dont think he bought it. Airnet is having problems with people working for a few months then up and leaving. So just dont say anything about any other places of interest even if they are from the past.

Some other things talked about were Vmc, how the gear works on your airplane. If you have an engine failure in solid IMC in your airplane (mine was a Seminole) at 200 AGL out of runway what would you do? FLY THE AIRPLANE!!! Just say what you were trained and stick to it. Only different thing is they want to hear troubleshoot at ALL times which is different than what the flight schools teach. He disagrees with the whole "feather" at low altitude thing. First time I heard that one and kinda threw me in a loop but whatever....We all know to troubleshoot at high altitude but he wants you to troubleshoot at ALL altitudes.

Bottom line.......just keep other interests like military, airlines to youself. Still cant figure out what possessed me to mention that one.

Hope this helps.