Being picked and probed during the medical phase of the airline pilot interview process was an anticipated expectation. My understanding was that the airline was not only testing for current health issues but also the possibility that family history might forecast problems that could manifest themselves later.
One of the more challenging portions of the undertaking involved an aptitude test that not only included solving equations but also capacity for retaining and comprehending other information simultaneously. In other words, being tested on multitasking skills.
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My memory of the items on the test from four decades ago are limited, but I do recall the sporadic narrative math problems among other cognitive questions. A group of about 20 interviewees answered a seemingly endless number of these questions while listening to a recording of communication between ATC and pilots during a thunderstorm event in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In the second phase, we continued with the written cognitive exam but were asked to pay closer attention to the ATC communication. I soon became fascinated with the terse exchanges between the controllers and pilots while they attempted to deal with rapidly deteriorating weather.
Shortly thereafter, we were given another multiple-choice exam that required us to recall details of the ATC recording. I excelled at this task but to the detriment of completing the cognitive exam. Thinking that this particular interview phase would be my downfall, my hiring expectations lowered. Fortunately, the required grading must have been at lower standards because I was given the opportunity to complete a 34-year career.
Although my 1980s interview experience was a holdover from the protocol of the 1960s and ’70s, today’s screening process has developed a different philosophy for many airlines. With the majority of hiring at most major airlines being funneled from the regional carriers, the current requirement to possess an ATP certificate indicates that appropriate cognitive skills already exist.
For the most part, the testing described has already been completed by virtue of such pilots having successfully operated in the airline environment. Of course, exceptions exist in the form of pilots hired directly to major airlines with primarily military backgrounds and those with other types of GA experience like corporate flying. With major airlines having embraced ab initio training, independent flight schools are now affiliated with mainline regional carriers, enrolling a record number of aspiring airline pilots. In that regard, this is where aptitude and cognitive testing should be initiated, more so than at the airline hiring level.
If my attendance at the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) convention in February was any reflection, many of these flight schools have already established the testing process. The reasoning is relatively simple. Paying for flight training is not a cheap investment. If a student just doesn’t have the aptitude, money is being wasted. The vast majority of independent flight schools have the integrity to evaluate a student showing a lack of ability. But those that administer an aptitude test prior to an aspiring airline pilot ever touching a control yoke distinguish themselves even more as honest brokers of the profession.
For a better insight to pilot aptitude testing, I tasked representatives from the assessment company, Symbiotics. The company manned a booth in the vendors’ section of the FSANA convention. The back of its business card reads, “Experts in psychometric assessment for the aviation industry.” For those like me that don’t have a clue about the definition of “psychometric,” it’s the science of measuring mental capacities and processes. James Hoad, Symbiotics’ head of sales, indicated that it employed three aviation psychologists and five occupational psychologists. Aleksandra Kapela, one of the aviation psychologists, patiently answered questions about the company’s assessment process. For the most part, testing is completed online through a proprietary platform customized for each client. Although a flight school can administer at its location, most prospective students complete the exam remotely.
The process can be divided into phases depending upon the client’s needs. Once the assessment is completed, the results require interpretation. Symbiotics trains flight school personnel to make sense of the data, and then it becomes incumbent upon them to set their standards for student admittance.
So, what exactly is tested? A personality assessment plays an important part. It comes as no surprise that competent pilots have character traits pertinent to the occupation. Decisiveness. Assertiveness. Cautiousness. Cognitive reasoning and the capacity to assimilate information are measured through a series of tasks.
Mathematics and physics are tested as well. Pilots may not be on the Einstein level in these areas, but a basic knowledge of these subjects is critical to a safe operation, notwithstanding the ability to understand various facets of flight training. Dexterity and hand-eye coordination is also tested. Hoad insisted I apply my skills to one such test. With a joystick attached to a laptop computer, the objective was to keep a virtual ball in the center of a circle by manipulating the control appropriately. A wind vector would be added during a portion of the exercise. I was reluctant to participate, thinking that I would prove my successful career to have been a farce. Even with the shortened version of the test, my results were only slightly above average. The B-777 I flew for nine years would never be in my future.
In addition to attending some of the unique breakaway sessions at the FSANA convention, I was also a keynote speaker. My presentation, the “Four Most Important Leadership Skills of Great Captains,” is a subject I’ve taken on the road to both university and independent flight schools. Would the testing described assist in a screening protocol that would place competent leaders in the left seat of an airliner a few years down the road? Time will certainly tell.
One of the more infamous airline interviews of the distant past was given to pilot applicants at Delta Air Lines. Part of the process involved a conversation with the carrier’s psychologist. It wasn’t so much about the paranoia of having this type of professional find a disqualifying mental issue but rather how an interviewee would sit in the rocking chair. Rock or don’t rock? I never received consistent answers on how colleagues fared with rocking or not rocking, so maybe this wasn’t a test to be feared…or taken seriously. As an unfortunate side note, the psychologist that administered this phase of the interview took his own life. Not sure what that says exactly. Certainly, criteria has changed over the years to a more data-driven system.
It goes without saying that in the current environment of unprecedented hiring the flying public deserves competence in its airline cockpits. Assessment screening for pilot aptitude should be an important part of the process. Because not everyone can be an airline pilot.
This column first appeared in the May Issue 958 of the FLYING print edition.
