If you are a student and want to become a pilot for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, you have to go through a lengthy selection procedure. This procedure can take up to 6 months from start to finish, and costs around f250.00 per person. The tests are in the following order: Psychological tests (1 day), Coordination/ psychological/ leadership tests (1 day), Medical tests (1 day), Simulator tests (4 days), and Interviews (1 day). If you fail any one of these tests, you are out of the race. That means you will not be invited to the next step of the selection procedure. So take every step very seriously. Because you can only participate in the whole selection procedure once in your entire life! (you do get a second chance if you failed the first time, but only if you successfully obtained a college degree. (Of course, these degrees can be bougth online; you pay f1000.00 and have a diploma. Search for something like: "earn a college degree in one year" or "buy a college degree")). Anyway, below is a detailed explanation of each of the selection steps. Everything is for real, as anyone that would possibly know can tell you. This is the real thing. I am not aware of there being any copyrights on this information, so feel free to distribute / copy / print / sell / edit this information in any way, shape, or form.
I. Psychogical tests.
These tests make up the first part of the procedure. The tests take place at SHL Pshycotechniek in Utrecht. Do not let the word Pshychotechniek mislead you into thinking this is all about how planes fly and such technical things. That is not true at all. The tests are IQ and personality tests, as you will see shortly. About 10-20 candidates (all of whom have read this page!?) will be there together with you. Everybody is let into a room with desks, and one computer is on every desk. The curtains in front of the windows have been closed, this is done to create a constant atmosphere with no outside disruptions. You are given 6 tests during your stay in this one room. Each test has between 30 and 40 multiple choice questions. You can take as many brakes as you like at any time. There are free drinks and cookies outside. I do not know in which order the tests come, but I do not think that is very important anyway. I will just call the tests 1-5 without regard to which one comes first or second, etc.
Test 1. You have to read little pieces of text (one paragraph actually) and than answer 4 multiple choice questions with the answer being either: a. True; b. False; c, Cannot Say. The last choice (C) means that you cannot know for sure if a given statement is true of false. The 4 questions are actually 4 statements, which you have to judge as being either "true", "false", or "cannot say" based on the information given in the paragraph. You are given 30 minutes to complete this test, which has a total of 10 paragraphs and hence has 40 questions. There are some exact same sample questions on SHL's website for Great Brittain. Search for it online. There may even be more sample questions on other SHL websites in other countries. The same website in Great Brittain also has the exact same sample questions for Tests 2-5. I mean, those sample questions are what you are going to see! They are 100% guaranteed the same things! For all tests this day!
Test 2. This test has 40 questions as well, multiple choice. You get to see a series of 4 figures. In this series is one empty space. You have to decide which one figure is suppose to go into this empty space. For example, you get to see a triangle in the first space, nothing in the second space, a pentagon in the 3rd space, a sixsided figure in the 4th place, and a sevensided figure in the 5th place. Now you have to decide which one figure has to go in to the second place. You have to pick this missing figure from 5 other figures given; in other words, this is a multiple choice test. Of course, the answer to the earlier question is that a square has to go in the second space. This test is difficult if you have not practiced before. So I strongly recommend that you try to do as many of these tests as possible. Go to your library and search for IQ tests. And try to find a book that not only gives answers, but also explanations of why a certain figure was the answer. And learn to read a old analog watch, the one with dials instead of the digital kind. You will know what I mean if you have done some practice tests! You are given 30 or 40 minutes for this test, I do not exactly know.
Test 3. This test has 40 multiple choice questions. You get to see one page out of an instuctions manual, for example for a fax machine, a telephone, clock, computer, or other similar product. Based on the short text of instructions you just read, you have to answer 4-5 questions. But do not try to learn all about computers or fax machines, that is really not needed. If you just can follow instructions you will do very well on this test. Just keep moving along and do as many questions as you can.
Test 4. This test is the most difficult one of them all. About 40 questions. Do not worry if you cannot complete them all, nobody can. You get to see a figure like a cube. This cube has different figures on each one of it's sides. These figures are all very similar to each other, yet different. The question is which one of 5 given cubes is the same as the one shown. Other questions deal with mirror images of complex figures, so try to practice some of those.
Test 5. This test is like a mathematics test. You have to know about percentages (%), fractions, and be able to add, count, and subtract numbers. Also, knowing how to use a pie-chart, simple graphs, and simple sets is helpfull. The graphics include, for example: population of a large city during 1975 and 1985, percentage of children that like certain hobbies, a company's budget for two different years, number of people living in different parts of a large city, income of a certain family, etc. Based on these statistics you have to answer 40 multiple choice questions within 30 minutes. Sample questions online as previously explained.
Test 6. This is something completely different from the earlier tests 1-5. You do this test at the very end. It is a personality test. It has 90 multiple choice questions. All questions start with the phrase: "I am someone who..." Under that are 4 statements, and you have to choose one which is most true about you and one which is least true about you. There is no time limit to this test, you may take all day if you like. You can do some research on personalities of pilots through your library, search for guides to the 16PF (personality factors). And I believe that SHL in Great Brittain is selling books about personality profiles, maybe pilots are in that book as well. Look on their www site.
This is the end of the testing this day. You will hear right away if you passed or not. Good luck!
II. Coordination / psychological / leadership tests
These tests are also done at SHL in Utrecht.
Test 1. You are led into a room with desks, and one computer on every desk. Again, the windows are closed with curtains or venetian blinds. One test is a motivation test. 144 questions and no time limit. Every time you get to see a statement like: "a high salary." Underneath are the possible answers of which you have to pick one. The answers are: a.) motivates me very much; b.) motivates me some; c.) is not important for me; d.) lowers my motivation; and e.) greatly lowers my motivation.
Test 2.
Part one: Coordination test. Done on the same computer as test 1. You have to keep a + sign in the middle of your computer screen. The middle of the screen has a vertical line running from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen. You have to try to keep that + sign as close as possible to that vertical line in the middle of your screen. You use the mouse to keep the + centered. The difficult thing is that if you want to move the + to the left, you have to move the mouse to the right, and vice versa. Fortunally you get two practice sessions before the actual test starts. The + sign does not move up and down, only left and right. On both the left and right side of your screen are two border lines, and if the + sign goes over one of those lines you start over again. It is very normal for the sign to cross the border lines about 10 or more times during the whole test. If you manage to keep the + sign around the center of the screen and without going over the border lines for 30 seconds or more you are doing great. The + sign is constantly moved left and right at varying speeds by the computer. Your job is to keep it centered with the mouse. The total time for this part is less than 30 minutes.
Part 2: Memory test. You get to see 4 (four) letters which you have to remember. You may take as long as you want to commit those 4 letters to memory. This test is also done on the same computer as Part 1, by the way. Once you think you have remembered the 4 letters you click a button on the screen with your computer mouse, and the test will begin. On the center of the computer's screen one letter will appear, and if that letter is one of the 4 letters you remembered you have to click the right side button on the mouse. If it is not one of the 4 letters you have to click the left side button on the mouse. The letters will remain for 2-3 seconds on the screen. It is OK if you accidentally make 2-3 mistakes during each test. Like in part 1, here you too get some practice sessions before the actual tests start. The total time for this part 2 is less than 30 minutes.
Part 3: This is a test of both your memory and coordination, a sort of multi-tasking. It is in fact a combination of parts 1 and 2. You have to remember 4 letters. Than you click start. You have to keep the + centered exactly like in part 1, and also click on the left or right mouse buttons when you see a wrong or correct letter, exactly like in part 2. Again, you get some practice sessions before the actual tests start. Here is a picture of how part 3 looks:
Test 3.
Part 1: Leadership test. The Future city transport system. This test is completely different from any of the tests you have done so far. This test is in fact called an assesment test, and is less objective than the other tests. The duration is about 20 minutes. You are first safety officer (FSO) and must give instructions to a second safety officer (SSO), who is in fact a psychologist. This psychologist will also interview you after this test and will also report your scores to the KLM. There are no other people in the room. The Future city transport system is as its name implies a public transport system for some large city. It will be easiest to compare it to a railway system with trains and stations. The railway (a sort of circular track with 5 or 6 stations) is represented on a computer screen. You cannot do anything yourself, but have to give instructions to the psychologist who has control of the keyboard and mouse. You do not get to practice yourself with the keyboard and mouse. There is no practice session at all. Your job is to keep everything moving along swiftly and without major delays or accidents. There are 6 trains, each a different color. Sometimes one will go on fire, or bump into another train or will be full of people. Before the test begins you get 30 minutes to read a large book with instructions and guidelines. You may take notes from this book and may in fact use it during the test, although I do not recommend it as the trains will keep moving and keep getting on fire, etc. The most difficult part is in identifying the trains. There is a page in the large book that has a list of all the 6 trains on it. It tells which color each train is, like train 1= blue, train 2=green, etc. It is best to open the book to this page and leave it there. By the way, do not spend too much time reading the first chapters of the book, as than you will have absolutely no time to read the last few chapters. Read very fast! There are busy times at the stations sometimes, and if that is so, you have to put more trains on the track. You do this by taking them out of the hangars, one at a time. And if there are very few people waiting on trains at the stations you have to put back the trains into the hangars. There is a certain procedure you have to follow here (for example letting out all the people before you park the train) but you get a checklist that you have to use during the test that has everything on it. There is a small checklist for when a train gets on fire, or when an engine fails and you have to restart it, or when the railroad tracks freeze and you have to heat them up, etc. Maybe there is some computer game online that is similar to this test, I do not know. During the test the psychologist tries to distract you from your work by talking about how much he would like to become a FSO. He tells you that the only reason he did not pass the exams for FSO is because he is not good at math. And than he tells you that he wants a cousin of his to take the math test and what you think about that. He might make it seem that this test is only a joke, because he is joking himself, but take this test very seriously. The results of this one test are very important. You have to show cooperation, descisiveness, anticipation, attentiveness, responsibility, caring, etc. All the things a captain must show basically.
Part 2: This is a 20 minute long interview with the same psychologist as in part 1. Just have to give some examples of when you took charge of a certain situation, when you were working with someone you did not like and how you handled that, etc.
This is the end of all tests this day. This is also the last time at SHL in Utrecht. You will get your results mailed to you.
III. Medical tests
These tests take place in Soesterberg. Not much you can do to prepare for this, of course. It takes about half a day.
IV. Flight Simulator tests
These are the most fun. They take place in Eelde, at the KLM Luchtvaartschool. During this time you stay in a small hotel which is about 15 minutes by bicycle from the school. The hotel is being paid for by KLM, and the bicycles you may borrow for the week for free. Before you get one though, check it out carefully as some of them are in pretty bad shape (only 1st gear is working, for example). One week before these tests you get a small instructions manual you have to learn. It gives you the basic principles of flight and also cross-check procedures for different parts of the flight. You have to remember these as you will be tested on the material in the booklet on the first day. The test is not hard, about 20 multiple choice questions of which you may miss something like 4 questions. I heard that nobody has ever failed it. The simulator is a Frasca 141 non-motion simulator. (http://www.frasca.com). It is a single engine cockpit. You will be doing instrument flying only, there is no monitor or such which shows you the runway or sky. All you have in front of you are the instruments to guide you. Everybody gets one practice session on the simulator. After that it is all for real. They want you to take this serious and want you to believe you are in a real plane up in the air. So do not think "this is just a simulator" and fly sloppy or dangerously. I strongly recommend you buy several good flight simulators for your personal computer. Microsoft flightsimulator is nice, but there are many better ones. Once you have it installed, fly it with 0 feet visibility, no wind, no rain, no snow, auto-coordination off (meaning you have to use the rudder pedals to keep the slip-ball in the middle of the tube in the turn-coordinator). Before each flight you get a small map with the route you have to fly. You also get to see a short video detailing different parts of that flight, like the climb and level-off, and the RPM settings. Wear a suit when you go to the KLS, everybody does!
Some things you will have to remember and which you can practice for with your PC based simulators:
Take off power: 2650rpm, max. power used only during the start
Climb power: 2550rpm, climbpower
Maximum cruise power: 2450rpm, equal to 100 kts in horizontal flight
Normal cruise power: 2350rpm, equal to 95 kts in horizontal flight
Minimum cruise power: 2050rpm, equal to 80kts in horizontal flight
Take-off checklist:
1. Brakes = on
2. Parking brake = off
3. Throttle = full
4. Brakes = release
5. Airspeed 55kts = rotate nose up
When you rotate, look at the artificial horizon and let the plane symbol in the center come up to the 5 degree above horizon line. You need to climb at only a 5 degree angle. Let the airspeed accelerate to 75kts. and at that time adjust the rpm to 2550.
Instrument cross-checks. This is the path your eyes have to follow over the instrument panel during different phases of the flight. You will be tested on this also.
The Climb: The plane will have a 5 degree pitch up attitude, a constant speed of exactly 75 kts with 2550 rpm. The vertical speed will be 500 ft/min. The X-check is: pitch attitude-airspeed-bank attitude-heading-slipball
The level off: About 20-40 feet before reaching the desired altitude you have to bring the nose down to a 0 degree pitch attitude. The airspeed will go up. Trim the airplane nose down, and wait till the plane is going 95 kts, at which time you bring back the power to 2350 rpm. Now trim the airplane precisely for 95 kts.
Horizontal flight: The X-check is: pitch attitude-altitude-bank attitude-slipball. You must not go off course more than 5 degrees, go 5 kts too fast or too slow, loose or gain 100 feet. Notice that you do not have to check the airspeed, as it will remain constant if the rpm stays constant.
Turns: The plane must turn 3 degrees per second. Or 30 degrees per 10 seconds, which is what you will need to know. The bank angle shall be 10% IAS + 7 degrees.
The X-check is: pitch attitude-altitude-bank attitude-heading and time (every 10 seconds later you should be 30 degrees further)-turn coordinator and slipball. There is a stopwatch in the cockpit. The kneepad you will get will have the exact time on it of when you are supposed to start turning left or right. These times will be either something like 1min30sec, or 4min00sec. You will be told to start turning about 3 seconds before the indicated time, so practice doing that at home. If the heading/time is getting too far off you have to correct for this by changing your bank attitude until the heading and time are correct again. The turncoordinator should have one wing on lining up with the 2min indicator. I mean, you are flying a rate one (2 min) turn. If you do not understand it do not ask me but get a book about basic flying.
Going from horizontal flight to a climbing flight: Bring the nose up to 5 degrees above horizontal. Wait till the airspeed has dropped to 80 knts and keep the nose up at 5 degrees. With the airspeed at 80, increase rpm till about 2500. Once the airspeed is 75 kts, check the RPM indicator and correct it to exactly 2550 if needed. At last, trim the airplane for 75 kts. The vertical speed will be 500 ft/min. The X-check is: same as Climb.
Climbing turns: The procedure is the same as for the one right above, namely: Attitude, power, trim. However, when you pitch the nose up 5 degrees above horizontal, you at the same time have to initiate the turn by changing the bank attitude of the plane. Do this about 3 seconds before the indicated time. For example, if you are suppose to do a climbing turn at 12:00 start the procedure at 11:57. It is important to note that the maximum bank attitude is 15 degrees left or right. The X-check is: pitch attitude-airspeed-bank attitude-heading/time-altitude/time-slipball/turncoordinator. You should check that you are turning 30 degrees every 10 seconds and also you should go up 250 feet every 30 seconds. If not, take appropiate actions to correct for this.
Transition from a horizontal flight to a diving flight, diving with a constant speed, and returning to horizontal flight: During the simulator tests you will have to descend with exactly 500 ft/min. To accomplish this reduce your RPM with 400 and keep the airspeed constant by pitching the nose about 2 degrees down. I mean, you have to keep flying at the same speed you were flying during horizontal flight. Trim the airplane if needed. Check the altitude every 30 seconds, and correct with adding/removing power as needed. When you descend too slowly reduce the RPM until you are back on schedule. The cross check is: Pitch-speed-bank-altitude/time-bank (again!)-heading-slipball. To level-off the first thing you do is to increase the RPM to 2350. Than after that you pull up the nose to a level position. And finally you trim.
Descending flight with the intend of landing: The only thing different here is that you first have to start flying slower, and after that you start descending. So keep flying horizontal and reduce the RPM to 2050 in order to start flying at 80 kts. Make sure you do not lose or gain in altitude, you have to keep the plane flying at the same altitude. You manage to keep it at the same height by pitching the plane slightly up, until the plane is going 80kts. Now trim the plane for this new speed. Now you are ready to start descending, which is done exactly the same as described here above.
Descending turns: The procedure is the same as with the regular diving flight. Except when you start to push the nose down, you also have to start turning the plane. The plane should turn 30 degrees every 10 seconds, which you are required to check using the clock. Also, you are required to check your rate of descend, which is 500 ft/min. You have to check this every 30 seconds. The descending turns are always done at 80 kts. and 1850 RPM. For example, you are flying horizontally at 80kts and 2050 rpm. To initiate a descending turn do not simply reduce rpm with 400, but reduce it to 1850 rpm. and keep the plane moving along at 80 kts. The cross-check is the same as with the climbing turn.
Below are some flight patterns you will have to fly. These are not the exact same as they are using now, but they all are similar to this format. They do not get any more difficult than the last picture. That flight is very similar to the one you will be flying on the last day of the testing. The very first few flights are easier than the two below. The two below are from like day 3 and day 4 of the testing period. You can make similar pictures for your own use and strap them to your knee as reference during the flying of your simulator. Try changing the transponder and ADF frequencies as well, as you will have to do that during the actual test as well, but never during any turns or changes in altitude. Only during level flight.
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V. Talks with members of COVA
These interviews are not difficult, as some people will have you believe. There are only two interviews, each being exactly 20 minutes long. Each time you are inside a quiet room talking to two people. Those people can be senior pilots for KLM, psychologists from the KLS, etc. They will focus almost exclusively on your "levensbeschrijving" (live story you typed). So read that over many times and think about any questions they might ask. Furthermore, they will also ask about your results from the earlier tests. They ask you what you thought about your own performances (be critical of yourself). They will also look over the copy of the results from SHL. So read your own copy several times before going there, and make notes about things you want to explain, etc. The people that will interview you are generally very nice and friendly, relaxed. Of course, wear a nice suit (navy-blue is best I think) and a conservative tie (blue also).
VI. Medical test done by KLM
Good luck! Don't drink and use drugs before coming here, but you already knew that.
