The Airline Simulator Assessment

The airline simulator assessment, often called the sim check or sim ride, is the stage of pilot selection in which an airline watches a candidate fly. In a session that usually lasts 30 to 60 minutes, in a full flight simulator or a fixed-base device of a jet or a generic transport, the candidate flies an instrument profile as one of a two-pilot crew, sometimes with an engine failure, while an assessor grades handling, procedures and teamwork. Knowledge of the type is rarely the point; many candidates have never flown it.

Not every airline uses one, but many do. KLM grades candidates in the simulator before they meet its hiring committee, Turkish Airlines' screening of experienced pilots includes a simulator check, Emirates flies its simulator assessment in Dubai, and Qantas pairs a simulator test with its assessment-centre interview. The wider selection process is described in airline pilot recruitment and selection, and the devices themselves in flight simulation training devices.

Purpose of the simulator assessment

An interview shows what a candidate knows and how he or she communicates; the simulator shows how the candidate works. In a short profile the assessor sees the instrument scan, the accuracy of basic flying, procedural discipline, briefings and callouts, cooperation with the other pilot, and the reaction when something goes wrong. Perfection is not expected. The question behind the session is whether the candidate will cope with the airline's type rating course and with line flying, so the way errors are noticed and corrected counts as much as the errors themselves.

For cadets and low-hour pilots the session is largely a test of trainability: an unfamiliar aircraft, a briefing on its numbers, and how quickly those numbers are applied. For experienced pilots, and captains above all, the emphasis typically moves towards managing the flight and the crew. easyJet runs its simulator assessment for direct-entry captains and co-pilots alike, with a full briefing beforehand, and Ryanair's cadet assessment covers basic handling, CRM and flight management.

Typical format and briefing

Formats differ, but most share a shape. The candidate is briefed on the aircraft, the profile and the numbers to fly, then flies with a second candidate or a company pilot, often taking turns as pilot flying and pilot monitoring. Norwegian's session is flown in both roles, and Ryanair's cadets fly 45 minutes in a Boeing 737-800 or 737-8200 training device as both pilot flying and pilot monitoring. Edelweiss runs a half-day A320 session, and TAP's full flight simulator check includes a theoretical evaluation.

The briefing is part of the test. The pitch attitudes and thrust settings given there for each phase are the numbers to fly, worth writing down, and anything unclear is better asked in the briefing than discovered by trial in the simulator.

Raw-data and manual flying

Some assessments are flown, wholly or partly, on raw data: with the autopilot, the flight director and often the autothrust off, the pilot flies from the basic indications of attitude, speed, altitude, heading and ILS deviation. British Airways' simulator stage is reported to be flown on raw data, over two sectors with very limited automation. The skill matters because automation fails rarely but suddenly, and a pilot who has not been in the loop is often not mentally prepared to take over. Raw-data flying shows whether the basic skill is there.

The technique is attitude plus power equals performance (see instrument scan technique):

• Set, then check. Select the briefed pitch attitude and thrust for the phase, trim, then confirm the result on the performance instruments.
• Scan radially. Use the attitude indicator as the hub and return to it between glances at speed, altitude, heading and the needles. Avoid the three classic errors: fixation on one instrument, omission of another, and emphasis on a single source.
• Use the rules of thumb. On a 3° glide path the rate of descent is about five times the groundspeed in knots, close enough to set the initial attitude: 140 kt needs about 700 ft/min.
• Correct small and early. ILS deviation is angular, so the same needle displacement means much less height error close to the runway: one dot below the glide path is about 190 ft at 5 NM but only about 40 ft at 1 NM.

A fly-by-wire Airbus changes some habits. In normal law pitch trim is automatic, so the pilot does not trim, and in turns up to 33° of bank no pitch correction is needed once the turn is established.

Commonly assessed manoeuvres

The steep turn is the classic test of scan and coordination. In a level turn the load factor is 1 ÷ cos (bank angle): at 45° it is 1.41 g, so the wing must produce 41% more lift and the stalling speed rises by about 19%. Rolling in, the pilot adds back pressure and a little thrust to hold altitude and speed, then anticipates the roll-out and releases the back pressure as the wings come level. An instantaneous vertical speed indicator can show a false climb in a steep level turn, so the altimeter is the reference for height. A conventional aeroplane tends to overbank in a steep turn and may need a little opposite aileron. An Airbus in normal law does the reverse beyond 33°: released, it rolls back towards 33°, so the pilot holds both lateral and aft pressure on the sidestick throughout the turn.

Other common items:

• Climbs, descents and turns at set speeds: level-offs anticipated, speed held with thrust, headings captured without overshoot.
• Holding: the correct entry for the inbound track, outbound legs of 1 minute at or below 14,000 ft and 1½ minutes above, and drift allowed for on the outbound leg (see holding patterns).
• Go-around: go-around thrust, the go-around attitude, flap retracted to the go-around setting, positive climb and gear up, then the published missed approach. Under most airline procedures either pilot may call a go-around and the pilot flying complies (see go-around and missed approach).
• Non-precision approach: flown as a continuous descent final approach at a constant angle from the final approach fix towards a point about 50 ft above the threshold, with height checked against distance. The minimum descent altitude is a floor that may not be broken without the required visual reference, so operators add an increment, commonly 50 ft, to form a derived decision altitude at which the go-around begins if the runway is not in sight (see CDFA).
• Precision approach to minimums: stable by the gate, typically 1,000 ft above the aerodrome in instrument conditions and 500 ft in visual ones, then the decision at minimums.

View full schematic

Non-normal events and the engine failure

A common non-normal is the engine failure after V1. The take-off is continued, and the assessor watches the order of priorities (see engine failure and engine fire):

1. Directional control with rudder as the yaw develops. On the A320 the sideslip index on the primary flight display turns blue to become a sideslip target, and centring it gives the rudder needed for the best climb performance.
2. Rotation at VR, not before, then the engine-out speed the flight director commands: on the A320 the speed at which the failure was detected, kept between V2 and V2 + 15 kt; on the Boeing 737 NG the speed at the failure, kept between V2 and V2 + 20 kt.
3. Positive climb, gear up, and no action on the failed engine below a safe height, typically at least 400 ft above the runway, other than flying the aircraft.
4. Identification and confirmation: the dead foot suggests the failed engine, the engine indications confirm it, and the other pilot agrees before anything is shut down.
5. Acceleration and clean-up at the engine-out acceleration altitude, then the checklist, a distress or urgency call, and a plan to return or divert.

Assessors look as closely at whether the aircraft is flown accurately while all this happens, and whether the crew talks, as at the checklist itself. Other faults test the same thing: one pilot flies while the other works the problem, with a structured decision model such as DODAR or FORDEC once there is time. A sudden, unexpected event can delay or distort the first response for several seconds; recognising that and slowing down is part of the skill (see startle and surprise).

Crew cooperation in the assessment

Where the assessment is flown as a crew, both roles are assessed. The pilot monitoring's duties are the airline ones: standard callouts, checklists, radio, configuration changes on command and, above all, calling deviations (see crew coordination, briefings and callouts).

Briefings matter more than candidates expect. A short, interactive briefing that puts the threats first, states the plan and invites questions builds the shared mental model the rest of the profile depends on. Closed-loop communication, in which an instruction is read back and confirmed, keeps both pilots synchronised as the workload rises.

When paired with another candidate, the aim is not to outshine the partner. A strong candidate supports a struggling colleague with timely, factual calls, takes on tasks when asked and never flies the aircraft from the other seat. If the partner makes an error, the right response is the airline one: say what is seen, suggest the correction, and escalate only as far as safety requires.

How performance is graded

Each airline has its own grading sheet. Where it uses the pilot competencies of competency-based training and EBT, they appear in the simulator as observable behaviour:

Errors are expected; what is assessed is whether they are noticed, announced and corrected. Flying accurately in silence leaves the communication and teamwork competencies without evidence. In some processes the simulator is a pass-or-fail step on its own, as at Cargolux, whose in-house selection runs aptitude, technical, interview and simulator stages as separate pass-or-fail steps. In TAP's last pilot competition, by contrast, the simulator check was followed by a final interview with a selection jury that took the decision.

Preparation

A type-specific assessment changes the preparation. Where the airline names the type, as Ryanair and Edelweiss do, the basic flows, callouts and flight mode annunciations of that type repay study; Cathay Pacific assigns the type about seven days before its assessment. A type-rated candidate should expect standard operating procedures to be judged as well as handling, unless the simulator is waived altogether.

For every candidate:

• Practise raw-data instrument flying in any available device, with the pitch and power numbers of a jet: level-offs, steep turns, holds and ILS approaches by hand.
• Rehearse aloud: briefings, callouts and the engine failure sequence, with the partner if the airline pairs candidates in advance.
• Revise the numbers behind the profile: holding entries and timings, approach minimums, the 3° rate of descent, and the speeds and limitations in any briefing material.
• Treat each deviation as recoverable: correct it, say so, and move on rather than dwell on it.
• Arrive rested, since fatigue lengthens reaction time, slows and narrows the scan, and lowers the standards a pilot is willing to accept.

Library articles are written for study and exam preparation. They do not replace your aircraft's approved documentation, your operator's procedures or the regulations themselves.