Do you really think that employers hire you to work the ramp so they can "sense your abilities" ?
Working the ramp is an old Canadian method that must be eliminated.
Risk:
It takes 12-24 months to upgrade a ramp pilot to the right seat.
2 years of almost zero flying.
later you take this young man and expect him to program the G530 in the B200 and fly RNAV SID in IMC manually after 2 years of non flying time.
few words from my previous post:
N1 Green wrote:
Big Pistons Forever wrote:
Work hard keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open and you can earn a good flying job.
2 years later he is getting his first pilot job he "EARN" and go fly b200. 10 minutes later the Capt drops 10 knots below reff, one thing for sure: our newbie F/O will keep his mouth shut. he doesnt want to say anything, not now, not after he cleaned the office toilets for 2 years and now he is getting a chance to fly...
which by the way, I am sure he will do great after not flying for 2 years. .
Benefit for business owners:
Ask yourself: in an average 703 operation, who is getting paid fairly ?
-AME’s ? (40 an hour?)
-OFFICE (15-25 an hour?)
-ACCOUNTING (25 an hour?)-
-HR (60-70 a year?)
-Building Maintenance (50 a year?)
-Ramp supervisor (60 a year?)
-Full Time Ramp guy with no intention to became a pilot (20$ an hour say after 3 years?)
-Full time Ramp guy with his name on the board waiting for Dave to check him out on the Navajo (12.50 an hour?)
If the owner would have to hire new guys to work the ramp and give them a stable job, he would have to pay them 20$ an hour on their 3rd-4th year.
why would someone work the ramp for 12.50 with no intention to became a pilot? I would prefer to work Tims and stay warm -
and the owner knows that.
He/She understands that providing fuel services in the airport would cost him 120,000 a year. but hold on, what if he hires 9 ramp guys for 10.20 an hour and reduces the yearly cost to 60 a year!
In order to justify this method of abusing , employers start using all kind of professional sayings like:
“If he can work the ramp he can fly the plane safe”
“You will have to work the ramp first so we can assure that you are the right guy for this complex 703 operation”
“always work hard young man, you will only see good things out of it”
IS HE THE RIGHT GUY FOR THIS MISSION ?
If you want to make sure that your new pilot can handle all of the operation aspects - you must have the correct screening process.
How do you do that? How can you screen the right guy without working with him first for a year?
ANSWER: you build the right screening system
according to your needs.
I’ll give you an example:
Let's say I am running a 703 ops up north.
I am looking to hire 5 FOs for a local B200 operation.
We are flying to remote areas. let's say it's similar to the Buffalo Airways concept - just for the example.
The hiring process is published to be 7 days. 20 candidates to start, 5 will get the job.
no it's not just an "interview" or "Sim evaluation".. let's just call it "Buffalo Hiring Camp" - just so you get my point.
Day1: Interview.
Regular interview – but not just someone from the office asking you some questions, but a real interview , with the owner! With HR! with the chief pilot!
When the young candidate find out that Buffalo take it seriously , he will take it seriously as well. Whereas some ramp sup will let you file some paperwork and 5 minutes later tells you “you got the job – go get the blue boxes from the hanger”
You always make sure that once a task is completed (say an interview), the candidate goes back to the same room where the others are waiting. You always monitor the group , you are looking for personality highlights – will talk about it in a second.
At the end of the day all of the candidates are staying in the hanger and spent the night with sleeping bags.
No cell phones or any method of time indication is allowed (clocks/watches/phones/talking to other staff).
Day2: SIM
Starting at 4AM
Wake up everyone. get them out of the warm hanger. Put a white board and some seats out on the ramp. Give each one of them flashlights. paper and a pen.
Brief them for the sim!. Sim is based on 2 major parts:
1.Solo concept.
2.CRM concept.
The idea is to give them goals for the sim. Not just to fly an NDB APP in IMC (that as well), but more like giving them goals (say a w/b and navigation planning scenario).
you let them pick their partners for the sim. You let them figure out who is going in first to the Sim , who is last. Say every team that finish sim get to go back to sleep.
It will create some conflicts – that’s ok, it’s part of the personality profiling process.
DAY3:
Teamwork eval,
You get all of them into one room, and start giving them team based missions.
Examples:
Mission A – you bring an IKEA complicated furniture into the class. No manual, no original screws – only 10 screws and 2 screwdrivers for example.
You asked them to built it in the dark. You asked them to report you every 10 minutes about their ETA (what time they think this furniture would be built). You give them 30 minutes for the mission, where is should take about an hour to figure it out.
You add more elements of teamwork potential conflicts. The main goal is to create as many conflicts as we can. The idea is to identify the right guy that is able
to stay sharp , stay focused on the mission and trim the team to follow his ideas.
Mission B – Same concept as A , but with more realistic conditions. For example: you ask them to load a trailer with a forklift. They can only use the forklift 4 times. Having 6 skids for example.
the idea is to identify maturity, identify who is able to stick to the main goal under dynamic and changing environment.
More missions with the same concept during day 3…
At the end of the day: Sociometry exam. Means that each one of them answers 100 questions exam. Every question evaluate the other members of the group, for example:
1.During the first Teamwork mission, who Impressed you the most? (1 – LOW/ 5 – HIGH)
DAVE - 3
BRIAN – 3
DON – 5
BROCK- 1
2.During the first Teamwork mission, who Impressed the team but did not Impressed you? (1 – LOW/ 5 – HIGH)
DAVE - 3
BRIAN – 3
DON – 5
BROCK- 1
3.would you feel combatable to fly a plane under an emergency situation with: (1 – LOW/ 5 – HIGH)
DAVE - 5
BRIAN – 1
DON – 1
BROCK- 2
4. Say you need to pick one of your group friends to became Buffalo General manager, who would you pick ? (1 – LOW/ 5 – HIGH)
DAVE - 1
BRIAN – 1
DON – 1
BROCK- 4
DAY4 to DAY6
Field operations.
You fly/drive the group to a remote area to set up a camp.
They don’t have any sense of time (no phones/no watch/clock).
It is a combination of all of the previous stages, but outdoor with bad weather. The idea is again to issue missions. (build a 2000 foot strip for example) and to evaluate them as indivisuals and as a team.
DAY 7 – Final Sociometry exam to evaluate changes made during the field operations.
---------
The idea is to find the right person. It must be done professionally, means that a Psychologist must analyze the Sociometry exams and monitor the team during all of the 7 days. He/She should stand on the side and write notes about each one of the team members.
The ideal candidate would show:
1.Maturity.
2.Assertiveness
3.High level of evaluation by the rest of the group (Sociometry exams results)
4.Mission focused, zero emotional behavior – super rational thinking under stress AND under normal conditions. (very important to evaluate rational thinking under normal conditions. More people tend to go emotional under normal conditions).
5.Open mind, creative thinking – use all available sources.
Create new sources when needed.
once you figure out your new 5 FO’s, let them work the ramp for 30 days so they understand the other side of the cockpit. And start their ground school on the 31st day. No delays.
Let them fly jump seat for 4 weeks during ground school.
By creating such a process you bring pride to the job, to the company. You bring the right people and make better pilots.
Looking at the current process today, anyone who can load a van and work the ramp for 2 years will get the right seat. But is he the right guy!?
Every screening process has to match the final goal.
If you are hiring a bush pilot so use the example above, if you are hiring a 737 CRM environment pilot, make sure he tells his PF “LNAV Green” up loud when flying the SID.
If you are hiring a skydive pilot, make sure he can do the same mission over and over with respect to routine. After 200 jump flights some pilots tend to shortcut what they have learned on the first day.
MCC training will catch up in Canada in the next couple of years. I hope that one day , a guy with 201 hours would get a job because he is the right guy for the job, not because everyone likes him and he “worked his ass” on the ramp.
Keep your ass warm! Use your brain.
. 
