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."

Hello Lion City! AK705 KUL-SIN

Continuing on where I left off from the previous report, this is the second sector of my holiday, KUL-SIN.

The haze that night was really bad. Couldn't even see KLIA Tower 1 and the terminal.

After having spent the night at KLIA2 (we didn’t sleep), it was a nice and early morning flight out of Lumpur down to Singapore. The flight time was actually surprisingly very short.

Check in was already done when I was in Kuching and I have printed out the boarding pass for all of us. I find the fact that AirAsia offers various methods to check in to be quite a potential life saver. For example if I lose the physical printed boarding pass I can always reprint the boarding pass by scanning the QR code at the kiosk that I’ve downloaded into my phone.

This sector was quite exciting because we get to use the skybridge to the international pier. Was hoping for aircraft to pass underneath us but it looks like the early morning rush wasn’t in full swing anymore. Our gate was P12 which is at the east end and the last gate of the pier. By the time we reached the gate, it felt like I had been hiking all morning. Or maybe it was just my physical fitness. Heh. 

Malindo territory

We had a slight delay for departure that morning with the scheduled departure time being 8.35am. Boarding began only at 8.15am. Visibility was at 2500m that morning according to the METAR.

There were 3 flight crew in the flight deck that day and equipment used was the fairly new 1.2 year old WiFi equipped 9M-AJQ.

Seat 25F for me. MAB Boeing 738 landing runway 14R.

Pushback commenced at 8.40am for runway 15. Flaps 2 takeoff via Y2 intersection. Taxied via U5 Z Z3 and Y.

Taxied past some of AirAsia X’s big birds and came across 9M-XXF (Visit Malaysia Year livery) at remote bay Q18. I noticed in some recent videos that she has been there for quite some time. Anyone knows what’s gonna happen to her? 

Takeoff roll begun at 8.53am. Video can be found here.

RM9 for 3MB of mobile data. My opinion will be it’s not worth it just for a couple of selfies to post online to let everyone know what you’re doing up in the air. But it would be worth it for some urgent messaging or emails. The descent into Singapore was pretty much like flying blind. There was nothing we could see out the window until we were somewhere over Johor, an indication that we would be seeing nothing much but haze in Singapore too.

Banking right somewhere near Pasir Gudang on one of the LELIB arrival STARs for runway 20R.

Passing Tanjung Langsat Port.

Pulau Ubin in sight.

Passing Changi Beach Park and Singapore Aviation Academy.

Landed runway 20R at 9.30am , vacated W7, left onto WP and was greeted by the sight of SIA's Dugong.

Landing video here.

Taxied past not one but two Dugongs in SG50 colors. What luck!

Right onto North Cross 3…

Parked beside Jetstar Asia 9V-SJ. Shutdown at 8.35am.

All in all the flight was pretty uneventful. And the fare for this flight was only RM39 per person! Can't say it wasn't a steal. Didn’t go for any inflight meal option due to the short duration of flight and we just had breakfast before boarding. During disembarkation, the captain was out to greet passengers. Our request for a cockpit visit was politely declined by the captain out of fears that we would be posting our pictures on social media which was understandable. However I did take the opportunity to thank him for taking us safely to Singapore and congratulated him on the greaser landing. 

AirAsia KCH-KUL Trip Report/Review- A Change in Schedule

It's been quite a while since I've done a trip report. The last one I did was when I flew with Firefly on the Kuching-KL route around 5 years back, give or take a few years, I can't recall. Hence I decided to do a proper one today.
The opportunity for a vacation to Singapore with my besties finally came true. Keep in mind that we are 21, all students and are not the type of people with the financial capacity to go on trips together outside Kuching all the time. So this was really something we were looking forward to, a dream come true of sorts.

The plan was for two of my companions to meet at KLIA2 since they were both in KL together and I would fly over to meet them there before taking the next morning flight down to Singapore. I could've gone direct to Singapore from Kuching since AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines Berhad offered several flights daily KCH-SIN and back but the idea of travelling together seemed so much nicer.

My original flight was supposed to be AK5215 to Kuala Lumpur which was supposed to depart at 7.10pm. However just as I was about to leave home for the airport I got a text message and an email from AirAsia informing me of my flight retime. Which was retimed to a shocking 11.35pm. Having resigned myself to this fate and the worst delay of all delays I've ever experienced, I proceeded to the airport, hoping by luck that I'm able to get on an earlier flight. I am normally the type who loves staying in airports but this time I had a schedule and my friends were waiting so I was quite bummed by the retime. However it did give me ample time to explore the airport and to take a look at some of the renovation progress being carried out at the airport.

But luckily, as I was about to enter the immigration area, I was referred to the check-in counters and was put on an earlier flight. My new flight was AK5219 which is scheduled to depart at 10.20pm. Alright, still over 2 hours to go. Time to go jalan-jalan.

Kuching International Airport gates R, 1-4 have notoriously being known to be suffocatingly crowded and there's just not enough space for everybody so a small expansion project was underway.

Expansion outside view (landside)

Expansion outside view (landside) 2

Gate 3 was closed off and not used and it seems like new flooring has been installed

I walked quite a lot around the airport since there wasn't much to do and I didn't like sitting around too much. And I also experimented with some long exposure shots. The Xperia Z2 camera is capable of producing such shots but only if you use certain camera apps. I used Camera FV-5 which allowed me to set the exposure time but with a maximum 60 seconds.

AirAsia aircraft taxiing past

9M-AQN operating flight AK5412 arriving from Johor.

9M-AFG, the Banana plane which will operate my flight to Kuala Lumpur arriving as AK5218 from Lumpur. From now onwards I'll call it The Reverse Flash Aircraft because of this picture.

My gate was changed from Gate 1 to Gate 4 and boarding commenced at 10.10pm although it was scheduled for 9.40pm. I forgot to ask the crew the reason for delay.

Banana! The aircraft is over 9 years old. Still a reliable workhorse.

The beautiful CFM-56B engines powering all of AirAsia's A320 fleet.

A shot from this angle is a must heheh

Sister ship 9M-AHS over at Gate 2

My seat was 19F as I requested a window seat from the counter agent. He originally gave me a hot seat on row 5 but for me, a window seat is like an Asian's rice. And he was also kind enough to give me a seat where I had half a row to myself! The other 2 seats beside me were unoccupied. Until later.

Thanks so much kind counter agent! Sorry didn't get your name though.

Pushback commenced at 10.28pm and since AirAsia have introduced their new revamped in-flight menu programme called Santan, I decided to check it out.

Can't wait to see what AirAsia has to offer. I have to say the menu design looks much better than what was offered previously. They have done away with the trademark red and white colors and have chosen something a little more tempting and visually pleasing.

The last time I was on an AirAsia flight, Uncle Chin's Chicken Rice was only RM9.90!! And count the chicken slices in the picture, there are 5 slices. #typicalchinese

One does not order just desserts from a low cost carrier's in-flight menu. Especially with such steep prices. Butter cake at RM6 I can probably live with but cookies for 8 bucks?? No way.

Maggi noodles at RM5 and Shin Ramyeon at RM8. What the heck? Plus a laughable RM6 for a packet of nuts. I feel sorry for the cabin crew for having to collect such amount of money for the items they are selling onboard. It's not their fault.

I can definitely see much more variety in the dishes selection. However the most noticeable thing is the price. Gone are the RM9.90 and RM11.90 affair. Now meals cost at least RM4 more at the very least. However you do get them for a few ringgit cheaper if you pre-book them online. And seriously a KitKat bar with a cookie bar for RM7? I feel assaulted.

While I was reading the new inflight menu and flipping through the inflight magazine, we were on our way to the runway. Exited apron via taxiway H to join the main taxiway A for a A1 intersection departure on runway 25. Pusback to takeoff roll took 10 minutes.

Exiting the apron via H, joining A

Takeoff roll commenced at 10.38pm. The haze all over the city was quite apparent.

On the Kuching Radar One departure with a slight right turn right after airborne for heading 258 over VKG VOR.

Takeoff video can be found here.

Found something interesting. Was hoping for a chance to try dining here but unfortunately didn't.

Since it's been well over 3 hours since I had dinner, I was starving from all the walking and waiting back at KIA. So I purchased a meal of chicken rice, a dish which I have been craving a lot. Does anyone know where I can get in-flight meals outside the aircraft in Kuching? Hit me up ya!
A combo of chicken rice plus a drink of choice was RM18. The chicken rice alone was RM14. I seriously need to start pre-booking meals in the future.

I feel the way meals are given to pax on AK flights to be rather 'naked'. I would prefer MAB's lunchbox approach rather than this. Passengers may risk dropping or spilling food items because the foil box is hot. Even if it is wrapped with a makeshift sleeve of tissues there's always the risk of something going wrong. 

The chilli sauce given with the meal. It has a sweet tangy taste but less on the sour side. Definitely something different from your normal chicken rice chilli sauce.

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five. I am happy. As soon as I lifted the hot foil lid, the aroma of the rice and roasted chicken wafted through the row and I began salivating. And I am also salivating as I am writing this,

I never thought chicken skin would look this sexy.

Chilli sauce game going strong

With my cup of ice lemon tea.

Overall for the meal I would give:
Presentation: 3/5

Presentation was okay. I got my 5 chicken slices as advertised. Two small slices at chilli provided the color contrast but that was it. 

Taste: 4.5/5

It was quite delicious and I would always recommend someone I know travelling with AirAsia to try this dish. Glad my recommendation still stands strong after all these years. The chicken was nice and soft with no bones and the rice was flavorful and aromatic. The chilli sauce just brought the whole meal together very nicely.

Overall package and value: 3/5

As I am fully aware that AirAsia is a low-cost carrier, the fact that you have to pay quite a lot for almost everything was expected. However I did not expect such a dramatic price hike.

With my meal finished, all that was left was to find something to do to pass the time over the South China Sea. The inflight magazine, Travel ThreeSixty offered a lot of articles and an informative section written by Captain Lim, who has a book out called Life In The Skies. Recommended for those who wish to know more about flying and is a pretty good read to allay fears of flying. 

As I was seated in seat F, a lady came over to seat D for some shut-eye. She was with a group of travelers visiting Kuching for a pilgrimage up Mount Singai, a popular destination for Catholics. Instead of listening to music, I opted to eavesdrop on the many interesting stories and opinions of the two Indian aunties and one Chinese uncle behind me. Cabin service I found to be a tad slow especially when it came to clearing up disposables from passengers.

Throughout the flight I noticed a female flight attendant hovering around one of the seats in the front. She spent almost the entire flight talking to the passenger there. And she was also joined by the flight's captain who sat next to the passenger until descent. Perhaps it was a passenger who was afraid of flying or a young passenger travelling alone. It's always good to see that the crew actually cares about their passengers and would offer up their time to soothe you and talk to you. And for those wondering about the captain, there is no need to worry. AirAsia's SOP calls for a minimum of 2 persons in the flight deck at all times one of them being a flight deck crew operating the aircraft. So if one of the pilots exit the flight deck, a flight attendant has to take his/her place in the cockpit. This is to prevent any unwanted incident by the pilot left alone in the cockpit such as what happened to GermanWings flight 9525 and as a precautionary measure in case one of the pilots are incapacitated while the other is out of the cockpit. 

Soon we were descending into KLIA2 on what I presume was the MENIK1B arrival for runway 15. The descent was pretty choppy due to thunderstorms in the area as well as the haze affecting visibility. We had a solid touch down at 12.10am midnight, 5 minutes behind schedule but as the saying goes, 'biar lambat asal selamat.' Vacated via Y6 and taxied to gate J12 for disembarkation.

KL coming into view

The aircraft's yellow body reflected by the landing lights

On taxiway Z

First time passing under the bridge at night. Quite beautiful.

All in all, I arrived in KL safely albeit hours behind schedule. I am thankful to the crew for bringing us safely and twas another good flight with AirAsia. The trip report for the next sector KUL-SIN will be coming soon :)

Thanks for reading :)