Mesa Airlines — questions reported by pilots

How do you build a cockpit culture that produces consistent, safe performance on a high-cycle operation?

How do you stay current with regulations and operational changes between training events?

What distinguishes a great regional pilot from an average one?

Describe your philosophy on pilot error and how you respond when you make a mistake.

Personal weakness?

Why Mesa and what do you know about our current operation?

What are your professional goals and how does a career at Mesa support them?

How do you approach learning a new aircraft type?

Why Mesa and why a regional first?

Explain the E175 fly-by-wire system and what happens in degraded modes.

Explain the effects of high density altitude on turboprop and jet engine performance.

What are the IFR currency requirements under Part 61 and how do they apply to Part 121 operations?

What is the significance of the V1 decision speed and how is it affected by runway contamination?

Explain V1, VR, V2, and what changes them.

Explain Part 121 authority of the PIC and the limits of that authority.

Explain the crew concept of command gradient and why both an overly steep and overly flat gradient are problematic.

What are the MEL procedures for dispatching with an inoperative first officer oxygen mask?

Unusual attitude recovery?

Dispatch sends an amended release that reduces your alternate fuel. You believe you need more. What do you do?

The captain skips a checklist item. What do you say?

Flight briefing approach?

Your CA briefs a non-standard technique for the approach that contradicts the published procedure. What do you do?

During the cruise phase your CA falls asleep. What do you do?

Your CA instructs you to turn off the weather radar because it is causing interference with the avionics. How do you respond?

You are first officer and notice the CA has not completed the before-takeoff checklist before accepting the takeoff clearance. What do you do?

Your FO is performing well but pushes back on every SOP. How do you address this?

Dispatch wants you to accept a MEL deferral for a piece of equipment you are not comfortable operating without. What do you do?

Tell me about a time you successfully de-escalated a tense situation with a colleague.

Tell me about a time you worked under pressure.

Tell me about a time you received feedback you initially disagreed with and later recognized was correct.

Tell me about a time you identified an improvement opportunity and acted on it without being asked.

Tell me about a time you changed a company process for the better.

Tell me about a time you maintained your composure and effectiveness in a genuinely dangerous situation.

Tell me about a time you worked in a stressful environment and maintained your effectiveness.

Tell me about a time you had to give someone a performance evaluation that would significantly affect their career.

High-stress situations?

You receive a TCAS RA on climbout. What do you do?

You are in cruise when ATC issues a clearance to a significantly different altitude than filed. You believe there may be a read-back error. How do you handle this?

On climb-out from a mountain airport your aircraft fails to achieve the required climb gradient. What are your options?

Your E175 experiences a dual generator failure in cruise. Walk me through your response.

You are on a visual approach in VFR conditions when another aircraft on the parallel runway begins a rejected landing roll toward your runway. What do you do?

Your E175 experiences severe airframe icing at cruise in RVSM airspace. You cannot maintain the assigned altitude. What do you do?

Your E175 encounters a severe microburst on final at 600 AGL. What do you do?

You are on final and the landing gear fails to extend on the third attempt. What do you do?

Descending through FL180 into a busy terminal area your transponder fails. What do you do?

Why Mesa?