Two flight examiners talking in an event set up as an interview of R with CC4

25. R: So with regard to then technical, let’s you know go down that path to begin with. With regards to a minimum of standard with technical skill, um, do you have something in your mind that if you were, if you were checking again now with your, the current airline, that you would be expecting guys coming up to command [i.e, being trained for captain] to know. Would you be looking for something specific?

26. CC4: Yes, the background there really is just the [specific airlines regulator] requirements for their licence renewal. (R: okay..Yep) apart from where the technical issues divert into technical knowledge (R: yep) which isn’t laid down by [specific airlines regulator] of course, (R: yeah) not specifically.?

27. R: How do you, how do you assess that, the technical side of things??

28. CC4: The manipulative ability or? The manipulative ability is simply [specific airlines regulator] standards. (R: Yep, okay) You know, that’s the minimum standard, (R: mm) and then the technical knowledge, you just assess that by a few questions. ?

29. R: Mmm, okay. And when you question do you stop at a few or do you??

30. CC4: It depends on the response, you know, if it’s whatever it is, if the responses are correct or very close to correct, you’ll quickly get um the feeling that this guy has been doing his reading, he’s being doing his homework and understands the system that you’re enquiring. (R: Yep, okay) But if he, if his answers are wide of the mark, well then you have to ask a bit, delve a bit deeper to see where the problem is. Whether it’s a, his inability to grasp the topic or he just hasn’t been doing it, hasn’t been doing his homework.?

. . .

39. R: Okay, yep, yep. Okay, so with the communication skills that individuals have um can you, I know I’m asking you to go back and try and think but have you actually trained or assessed in the sim or on the line, guys who have actually had some, their, their communication skills you think oh god they’re terrible. You know you’d like to really (CC4: mm) I wish I could get inside your head and maybe (CC4: mm) mix it up a little bit. (CC4: mm) Have you actually got those?

40. CC4: Yeah, I can think of one guy who has, I’m sure to this day, has poor communication skills. This particular person interestingly is quite a religious person (R: yep) so ethics and morals (R: yeah) what we were just talking about, on the plus side for him. (R: yep) He’s certainly got the right work ethic (R: yep) um and you know, I assume he’s got good morals (R: yep) just from his religious background, uh but he does have a problem communicating with people and he, he is somebody that you would have got a nudge nudge wink wink in the bar about considered ‘minimum standard’.

41. R: Yeah, okay.

42. CC4: Okay? I did have several occasions where I can recall now that, you refreshed my memory. I recall several occasions where I checked him. (R: yep) I don’t recall ever having anything to do with his training. (R: okay)