Simulator Assessment Guide: What Airlines Test & How to Prepare

What Sim Assessments Actually Evaluate

A common misconception: the sim assessment is a flying test. It is not — or at least, not only.

Yes, you need to fly the aircraft to a reasonable standard. But assessors are evaluating something broader: whether you would be a safe, effective, and trainable crew member on their line operations. That means your manual flying skills, your CRM, your decision-making, your communication, and your ability to handle pressure are all being scored simultaneously.

Airlines use competency-based assessment frameworks, which means every action you take is mapped against specific behavioral markers. Flying a perfect ILS scores well on manual flight skills, but if you do it in complete silence without briefing your partner or making callouts, your communication and teamwork scores suffer. The candidate who flies a slightly wobbly approach but communicates clearly, briefs thoroughly, and handles a system failure calmly will often outscore the silent perfectionist.

The other thing to understand: assessors are not expecting airline-standard performance from someone who has never held a type rating on that aircraft. They know you are flying an unfamiliar sim, possibly in an unfamiliar cockpit layout. What they are looking for is your capacity to learn, adapt, and apply fundamental flying skills in a new environment. A candidate who starts rough but improves across the session demonstrates exactly the learning ability an airline wants in a new hire.

The EASA Competency Framework

EASA defines ten pilot competency areas. Every European airline assessment — and most Gulf carriers — maps their scoring against this framework. You do not need to name these competencies during the assessment, but understanding them changes how you approach the sim.

The split is roughly 50/50. Half the competencies are about your stick-and-rudder skills; the other half are about how you think, communicate, and work with other people. Candidates who prepare only for the flying and ignore the non-technical side are setting themselves up for disappointment.

6 Typical Maneuver Profiles

While each airline has its own sim profile, the vast majority draw from the same pool of six exercises. Knowing what to expect takes the surprise out of the equation and lets you focus on execution.

A320 vs B737 Cockpit Differences

If you have been flying one type and the assessment is on the other, spend time studying the panel layout before the session. The instruments show the same information, but the physical arrangement and control philosophy are different enough to cause confusion under pressure.

Pitch/Power Reference Basics

Without autothrust or flight director, the only way to fly accurately is to set a known pitch attitude and a known thrust setting, then fine-tune. Candidates who start from memorised references stabilise within seconds. Those who hunt for the right settings spend the entire approach making corrections.

A few universal adjustment rules that apply to both types: each 1,000ft altitude change or 1-tonne weight change shifts N1 by roughly ±1%. A 25° bank turn needs about 1.5% more N1 and 0.5° more pitch. A speed change of ±20kt corresponds to roughly ±10% N1. Write these on a kneeboard card — having the numbers at hand is preparation, not cheating.

Working With Your Sim Partner

In most assessments, you fly with another candidate. How you work together is being evaluated just as carefully as your individual flying. Some candidates treat the sim as a competition — if my partner looks bad, I look good.

This is completely wrong. Assessors evaluate CRM as a team competency. If your partner struggles and you do nothing to support them, your score drops too.

Start with the pre-brief. Arrive early, introduce yourself, and agree on basic conventions: callout protocol, who handles what during an emergency, how you will brief approaches.

This five-minute chat is often observed and contributes to the assessor's first impression of your CRM skills. During the session, use closed-loop communication consistently. Make callouts, confirm changes, and share awareness: "Passing FL100, setting standard" gets a response of "Standard set, confirmed." That loop is what assessors mark as effective communication.

When your partner makes an error — and it will happen — address it calmly. Use inquiry rather than accusation: "I am seeing us 200ft above target, could you cross-check?" is professional.

"You have set the wrong altitude" is confrontational. If the error is safety-critical, intervene immediately. Saying "I have control" when the aircraft is in an unsafe state is not a CRM failure — staying silent while the situation deteriorates is.

Common Reasons Candidates Fail

Debrief Strategy

The debrief is not a formality — it is part of the evaluation. Some airlines state explicitly that the debrief carries as much weight as the flying. The assessor already knows exactly what happened; the debrief tests whether you know too.

Structure your self-assessment: start with one or two things that went well (be genuine — do not manufacture positives), then honestly address areas where you struggled. Be specific: "My localizer tracking on the second approach was inconsistent because I was overcorrecting — I need to make smaller heading changes and wait for the result" is far better than "I need to improve my manual flying." The first shows understanding; the second could have been said by anyone.

Avoid three things in the debrief: blame (the sim felt strange, my partner gave me wrong information), denial (I thought everything went well), and excessive self-criticism (I was terrible at everything). Assessors want balanced, honest, specific self-assessment with a forward-looking improvement plan. "Next time I would brief the holding entry earlier and set up the nav aids before reaching the fix" shows you have already identified what to change. That is exactly the learning orientation airlines want in a new pilot.

Airline-Specific Sim Notes