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[Londonrake]

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[Paphitis]

I like it.

Although, we use the AP when we can see as well.

The Item annotated as Watch looks like a typical High Frequency radio. It's basically Shortwave. It's pretty much redundent in the US, but still used in Canada and Australia because of the vastness of these countries whereas the US has end to end Radar Coverage coast to coast.

Only exceptions in the US is Alaska and Hawaii.

It's only used as a back up VOLMET Radio, where you can get Weathger Reports when AWIS Fails. And this is where you get the SIGMET Reports and advisories when weather is below minimums such as when there are storms, and blizzards or information on your destination when things get dicey, which often happens this time of year.

Watch is referred to Guard which is frequency 121.5 which is set up on COMM Radio 2 and monitored after we are handed over from Tower, to Departures and then Radar.

Comm 1 on Radar, and Comm 2 on Guard. On guard we listen for Emergency Locator Beacons, such as when a plane crashes, and it is where Control will contact us if Communications are lost on Comm1.

If comms are lost in US Airspace, it is likely that the National Guard will try to get in contact with you on Guard as well.

The actual watch (as in time piece) is to the far laft or far right and on the Flight Management Computer and it is in Zulu Time or GMT.

[Paphitis]

We also use Foreflight extensively. and each of us have 2 company issued IPADS with all the programs we need like Foreflight.

Foreflight is equivalent to Oz Runways in Australia which I used to use. It's like a secondary Flight Managment computer. It plots position, and even has a live Weather Radar as well. And you have all the Approach Plates - Instriment Approaches, STARs, SIDs, Aerodrome information and so on.

But we use another program from charting. Most US airlines use Jeppessen. United Airlines and its subsidiaries use LIDO. And another company app where all the Operational Documents are help, like Performance Charts, Regulated Take of Weights and Trim Sheets, and vital documents like the FCOM.

So enroute, we use Foreflight. Departures and Arrivals we use Jeppessen or LIDO.

At the moment, we are using LIDO. Which was a learning curve. I never used it before. But it is pretty good. I have been using Jeppessen since 1992 before that.

When I was interviewed, I was told to focus my efforts on getting to know LIDO. So in preparation, I was watching all the tutorials about it on YouTube. Sure enough, when I got to the interview, which last about 1 hour, about 30 minutes was just chatting about old war stories like we were a bunch of guys at the pub (I knew I had a job offer at that point and became quite relaxed) and then the panel popped up about 2 to 3 LIDO Approach plates and they asked me what certain symbols meant. I answered all of them correctly as I was fully prepared.

Then I was asked a few questions about Alternate Aerodromes and when I need to file for an alternative, holding fuel and when to carry it, what I would do if I needed to divert, and asked to read a US Forecast (TAF, Trend Type Forecast TTF) as well as Sigmets which had some interesting weather, so they also asked what I would do and how much fuel I would carry and whether I would file for an alternate airport on the flight plan, and the funniest question was when they asked me what the QNH setting was which in the US is imperial.

That phase lasted about 10 minutes, and then it was all over.

Oh and I was asked if I had any incidents and accidents, which I always answer honestly and candidly. Plus I gave them a full print out of my CASA Flight Record about it so there was a bit of a discussion about that. These questions seem to be standard all over the world. These questions are probably the hardest and most awkward questions to answer, as you are basically showing them the closet with skeletons inside and you just don't know what their reaction will be. I never had any accidents but I told them about a couple of dangerous incidents I had where I portrayed pretty poor decision making and got myself into trouble. From my experience, it is always better to answer these honestly, then to try and cover up stuff because if you do that, they will find out anyway and then you're are stuffed.

After that, we went back to the war stories and Afghanistan and how they loved the Aussies in Afghanistan as we are the best blokes and our military is so good and professional etc etc

Then I was handed over to a very pretty Human Resources lady who started to talk to me about contracts, pay, VISAs and what life would be liked and she wanted to know about my immediate family and needed details about their VISAs etc etc. I was mesmerised by her actually and by her accent too.

Best interview I ever had in my life...