[SpiraMirabilis]

Alright, before I slink off under a rock in shame here's the promised info. Everyone at IFTA is extremely nice, you'll be met by a lady from HR who will walk you up to waiting room if you're early. Once the interview begins you'll be sitting in a small conference room for the written test. It's 50 questions straight from the CFIA and FOI exams, should be easy smeasy. Then you'll have either the flight portion or oral next. I had the flight portion.

You'll be met by one of their standardization instructors and he'll brief you on the bonanza and exactly what the flight profile will be. He'll do everything including taxing, checklists, run-up and you'll be given controls on the runway, lined up and cleared to go. After your take-off you'll go to one of the practice areas they have (I think there are 7 or 8?) -- you'll know which ones, where to go, their dimmensions from the briefing. Mine was 18-36 DME away from the vortac bounded by a highway and a lake and then mountains on the far end but thats just coincidence most likely. They'll be pretty quiet in the cockpit and they expect you to do everything -- IE they wont say 'Do slowflight.' The maneuvers I did were slowflight (with 12' flaps at 80kts) and steep turns (130kts.) The steep turn to the right was nothing to write home about but overall I did the maneuvers OK. My shame comes later. After the maneuvers he'll put you under the hood and you'll intercept and track a radial (Their phraseology seems to be different from what people are used to, although I don't know why since its the correct way-- for example he might say 'Intercept and track the R-143 to the station.' which means of course you have to set your HSI/OBS to 323.) After you've done this he'll start vectoring you to the east for the ILS 30R into BFL. You can use whatever approach briefing that you are used to giving and all the frequencies and everything are already pre-set.

This next part is a bit hard for me to admit. I briefed the approach like normal, turned the OBS and HSI to the inbound approach course verified the frequencies were in (or so I thought) and got cleared to intercept the localizer. I do so, and the next thing I know approach is querying why I'm 3/4 mile off the localizer to the east. Thats weird I think, its pegged right on there. I start double checking I have the right inbound course from my chart -- I do.
Well, the error, if you hadn't guessed is that I had the ILS frequency in the stand-by slots and the VORTAC frequency still in the nav slots -- when I was briefing the approach I did glance up but I guess not being familiar with the avionics I just saw the frequency up there and was like 'good to go!' (another reason you should identify the localizer even on a clear day!) Well, by the time I got sorted out I was so high and so close that it was over. The other guy lands the airplane (even if you don't screw up) so don't have to worry about your landing being judged, just the flight.


I felt like such a maroon -- although the standardized instructor was extremely good natured about it (He said: 'I bet thats the first time that's happened to you!' which it was -- and the last I swear -- unfortunately it had to happen then.) I tried to collect my things and sneak away, so embarrassed was I, but I forgot that I left my briefcase in the interview room (and the building I was in was pretty big and was afraid of getting lost.) Obviously thats where the interview ended but they were still quite nice and they said I could reapply in a couple of months if I wanted to.


Final thoughts: IFTA seems like a great company. The aircraft are _extremely_ well maintained (after every flight a maintenace person zips over on a golf cat like a ninja, meets you at the parking slip just to put the chocks under your wheels and ask you if there are any squawks), the facility is generally speaking immaculate, the salary is great, schedule is great, the city of Bakersfield seems alright enough and theres many apartments in close proximity to the airport. To anyone who doesn't want to jump right into a RJ for small bucks I'd say IFTA is a good idea. The flight part of the interview is actually easy so long as you don't have a sudden onset of temporary but uncommon stupidity like I did.