AirAsia Cadet Pilot Programme 2017 : Experience Sharing

A very good day to all reading. A friend of mine has just recently completed all the stages of his AirAsia cadet pilot programme of 2017. Hence, I thought it would greatly benefit others who are anxious to know about the whole process from start to finish and what goes on behind it. As updated resources and articles from blogs are few and scarce, I am very grateful that my friend has accepted my invitation to write for this humble blog, sharing the same hopes that this will encourage, inspire and in due course, prepare the next batch. Happy reading.

P.S. - It's long. But if you're truly interested, it won't matter, wouldn't it?

"I'm a candidate of the AirAsia Cadet Programme Year 2017 and have just completed my SPM last year. It's a golden opportunity for those who dream to soar the skies when AirAsia announced their cadet pilot programme opening. As an SPM leaver without having any hesitations, I directly applied for the programme on the day my SPM results were released. Soon after that, I was glad to get an invitation of STAGE 1-Entrance Exam a month before sitting for the assessment. The assessments of this year were basically still the same as the previous year. Now I’m going to share in detail all of the processes I’ve gone through.

In Stage 1, we'll be assessed in 3 SPM-syllabus based subjects namely English, Maths and Physics. All papers were in the form of Multi Choice Questions (MCQ). English paper's standard was slightly more advanced than SPM and it was similar to MUET standard. Without any doubt, I just kept practicing by doing MUET Paper 3 as much as I could, although I knew that I was just an ordinary SPM leaver. Remember what Sir Tony Fernandes has said, "DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE, BELIEVE THE UNBELIEVABLE and NEVER TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER." Bear in mind, we weren't allowed to use any calculator for MATHS paper. But non-programmable scientific calculators were allowed to be used in PHYSICS paper. Physics paper was okay for me because it was more to SPM syllabus. Please do not just pick a chapter of SPM Physics which is related to aviation to study, TRUST ME the questions asked in the exam covered all the chapters. Do practice lots and lots of SPM past year questions especially for Maths and Physics until you get familiar, by then you should be able to ace the exam. The most important thing for this first stage is to focus as much as you can in doing your preparations as those efforts will pay off.

Surprisingly, I got my invitation email for Stage 2- Harrison assessment after 2 weeks. The Harrison assessment is a personality test assessing our characteristics whether or not we are suitable to become a pilot. Firstly, I was assisted by a HR lady in logging into the test, so there shouldn't be any problem. Always listen to instructions from the HR people during the assessment. Well, in this test, there are at least 8 statements in each question. Eg. I like outdoor activities, I don't mind sitting for a long time, etc. You will need to drag the statements according to your personality, the one you put at the top describes you the most while the one you put at the bottom describes you the least/not at all. Don't arrange the statements as how a pilot is going to arrange, just be yourself when answering. The system itself is able to detect our dishonesty if our answering pattern is not consistent. So, you will be asked to repeat the test again from beginning to ensure consistency. There's no time limit for this test BUT the HR lady told us not to do more than 30 minutes as doing more than that, means you're over-analyzed of yourself and this surely will affect your marks. As there is no wrong and right in this test, you can’t really tell if you did well or not. And once again, BE YOURSELF when answering the test. That's all for stage 2.

And again after 2 weeks, I was very excited to be invited for Stage 3- Face to Face Interview. It was an individual interview instead of a group interview. There were 2 sets of interviewers, so each set would be interviewing ONE candidate at the same time. We had to wait for our turn to be called for interview session. Yes, it was indeed a very nervous period of waiting time. Moreover, I was the last to be interviewed. My interview panel consisted of one captain and 2 HR ladies, thus it was 3 vs 1. As soon as I handed over my documents and certificates to them, I was asked to tell them about myself. They did ask me a CRM question which seemed to be quite hard. Try not to ignore their suggestions though. And, DON'T lie to them and just say you don't know if you have no idea how to answer their questions because they'll know from the way you answer. I was asked about AirAsia, specifically about the background, newest route and board of directors (Who are they? What are their roles in AirAsia?) all in rapid fire. There were a few candidates interviewed earlier who were asked to draw an aircraft on the whiteboard, label the components on the drawing and explain their functions. They might not ask any technical questions at all, but instead ask a lot of questions related to your academic experiences and qualifications (not necessarily related to aviation) if you're a diploma/degree holder. Everyone has their own background, so we would be given questions differently, but still we have to prepare at least for questions regarding the basics of flight. As they know I'm a flightsimmer and did study about the A320, I was asked to visualize the A320 cockpit instruments, what's shown on Primary Flight Display, what are ECAM actions, how do I cope with engine 1 fire etc. I believe they were just interested in your passion towards aviation. My advice is, BE HONEST. Alright, stage 3 done.

After that, I got an email saying I passed the interview and invited to attend Stage 4- QCT and psychomotor test/Final Assessment of AirAsia Cadet Programme 2017. We were given a manual of the psychomotor test and a short briefing on the overall assessment, so technically don't have to worry much. Then, we were split into 2 batches. I was in the first batch going for QCT first while the second batch would be waiting to sit for psychomotor to save time. QCT (Quantitative Critical Thinking) is a computer-based Maths exam to test our quantitative reasoning ability. There were a lot of problem-solving questions related to simultaneous equations (2 to 3 unknowns) and each question had its own time limit depending on the difficulty. They were in the form of multi choice questions (MCQ) and had 8 choices of answers. Once the time limit is reached, you will automatically jump into the next question. So you need solve as fast as you can and not waste any time. Although you have solved the question and still have time left, you can't go back to it right after you've clicked to proceed to next question. Thus, do make use of the remaining time to double check your answer. The system will keep giving you questions until you can’t answer anymore to see how smart you are. And yes, you're allowed to use non-programmable scientific calculator and given A4 papers in this test.

Next, we proceeded into the 2nd part of the assessment which is the psychomotor test to assess our multitasking skill. In this test, you will be facing a monitor with a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick provided, a 3x3 numeric keypad, a headset and a mouse (which you don't actually need). Before the psychomotor test begins, you will have a short trial for practice and familiarization. Okay, let's talk about the tasks.

First task- On the Primary Flight Display (PFD), you have to follow the flight director/crossbar which constantly moves, as close as possible under the conditions of wake turbulence.

Second task- You need to memorize the 5-digit recall numbers displayed at the top of PFD as you will have to key the number in a box which only appears when the PFD freezes. There will be only ONE 5-digit number appearing for about 5 seconds at once. In my session, I had two different numbers appear consecutively so I had to memorize them and input the numbers in sequence. After you've keyed in the recall number, the PFD unfreezes. Note: You can't write down the recall numbers in a paper, you MUST memorize instead. <------ (This is new) 

Third task- You're required to listen to the voice from your headset, continuously calling out a number (range 1-9) with an interval of roughly 5 seconds before the next one is mentioned. When you hear 3 consecutive odd numbers, press on either one of the odd number-labeled buttons on the joystick. If 3 consecutive even numbers, then press on an even number-labeled button on the joystick. There are buttons labeled 1, 2, 3 etc. on the joystick. Try not to miss out any number callout.

Fourth task- You'll see two virtual 3x3 numeric keypads situated beside the PFD, one on the left and right respectively. It's just like a game. Whenever any key of any of the virtual keypads illuminate yellow, you must quickly react by pressing on the corresponding key on your 3x3 number pad to acknowledge. Prolonging the reaction time will affect your result. Only one key will illuminate yellow at once. It's kind of a test to see how fast our reaction is towards a change.

Overall, you have to carry out all the tasks continuously up to 10 minutes. Felt so exhausted after the test but I was grateful to have completed all the assessments of AirAsia Cadet Programme 2017.

Thankfully after everything I’ve gone through, I received an email from AirAsia to prepare for Class 1 Medical test. I've got my Class 1 Medical Certificate and am now waiting for my enrollment into HMA, Langkawi next month. Being a pilot has always been my dream since childhood, it's now getting one step closer towards getting it realized. Invest your efforts into something you dream to achieve in life and the efforts will definitely pay off. They will."