I had an interview time of 9:30am (would advise arriving 1/2 hour early) and began with the paperwork part of the interview. They want all your certificates, the filled out application (even if you filled out one before), resume, etc. Don't forget to get the driver's record review notarized before your interview!!

By about 10:30, there were actually 4 of us there for a full interview and one person there for a repeat of the sim. 2 minorities and 3 male applicants. Following the paperwork, they staggered people between the HR folks and the chief/asst. chief pilots. That day, Lamaar was flying so we actually met with Todd, the asst. CP.

Very laid back! They ask about your flying experience, how you got started, about your current job, etc. A couple questions like, "What stresses you out?" "Tell me about a time that you had a conflict with a coworker?" "How do you deal with those situations?" "Why do you want to work for Horizon?" It seems like they are really big on attitude and want people who really want to work for Horizon. They like to talk about the company, where it's going, the new aircraft coming online - be sure to do your homework about it so they know you are really interested.

After meeting with Todd, I then went to meet with HR. Again, very relaxed and candid. They have to ask the typical FAA questions, go over your work history, and then some personal ones. "Why should Horizon hire you over someone else?" "What is one accomplishment in your life that you are very proud of?" "Are you interviewing with anyone else?" Pretty painless...

After everyone has gone through those, then they let you know if you get to stay for the sim and written. All 4 of us got to go on to the afternoon portion.

The written is right out of the ATP written book. Some regs, wx, aerodynamics, and a couple of performance. There was one weight and balance (for a b1900), one on fuel burn for a trip, and one on %MAC. Also some using performance tables. Overall, pretty easy.

As some people are doing the written, they pull others out to do the sim. It's a Frasca 142, and very sensitive. I had practiced in an ATC 800 and really over-muscled the 142 at first. RELAX and trim it!!! First, depart EUG 16, intercept the 190? radial, 6 DME arc east. Freeze Then about 3 miles S of the NDB, given a hold, diagram the hold and tell them which entry you are going to use. Fly it. There is pretty good wind, I'm guessing 20-30 knots so do the best you can to correct for that. Freeze.. Again, set up South of the NDB, execute the NDB approach with procedure turn to a missed approach. They ask you to call proc. turn inbound. Freeze.. Then, set you up North, about 2-3 miles from the FAF and execute the ILS to minimums. Get the plane slowed and dirty quick so you can get things stablized for the approach.

The biggest thing is if you make a mistake, correct it as if you were really flying - call ATC, ask for further instruction or make a request. They want to know that you are flyng the sim, not the other way around.

At the end of the day (about 5pm) the asst. CP called us in individually and talked about the day. They don't give specifics on test scores or anything but discuss everything else. I think that at least two of us got offers and maybe a third. Class date the end of September for the Q200.

Horizon is just finishing contract negotiations and so things are probably going to change a little bit (probably for the better) as far as pay, schedule, etc. Everyone there was very nice, all the way down to some of the pilots in recurrent that walked by us. I read on some other web sites all of the negative things about Horizon and I just took them with a grain of salt. I talked with others who work there and they really love it - great people, great region, new aircraft and heck, they can go down to 700RVR while the "other guys" are still holding for wx! So, good luck, hope to see ya there.