Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Hands-on competence
35% weight
Check hands-on hours on spray and mapping platforms (DJI Agras T40, XAG, eBee), nozzle and swath calibration, RTK base setup, and processing NDVI or NDRE imagery in Pix4D or Agisoft.
Evidence to listen for
Names the equipment, materials, and tolerances they work to
Can describe a job start to finish without hand-waving the hard parts
Holds the tickets, licences, or certifications the work requires, and they are current
Knows what they are not qualified to touch
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot describe the work concretely; lacks required tickets or licences.
2
Needs Improvement
Basic familiarity; needs supervision on routine tasks.
3
Satisfactory
Competent on standard work; slower or unsure on unfamiliar jobs.
4
Very Good
Skilled and independent across the normal range of the role.
5
Excellent
Names specific airframes flown, logged spray acreage, calibration figures for flow rate and droplet size, and imagery workflows they ran end to end.
02
Evaluation factor
Safety discipline
30% weight
Probe Part 107 currency, Part 137 agricultural aircraft operator certificate involvement, pesticide applicator licence, drift buffers, tank mixing PPE, and battery fire handling around LiPo charging stations.
Evidence to listen for
Treats procedure as protection rather than paperwork
Can describe a time they stopped work and why
Knows the specific hazards of this trade and the controls for each
Reports near misses instead of hiding them
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Casual about safety; describes shortcuts with pride.
2
Needs Improvement
Follows procedure when watched; cannot name the hazards that matter.
3
Satisfactory
Sound safety habits; less certain on unfamiliar hazards.
4
Very Good
Safety is instinctive; can describe stopping work over a real concern.
5
Excellent
Holds current certificates, cites label rates and wind or buffer limits by number, and describes a flight they aborted on safety grounds.
03
Evaluation factor
Fault finding
20% weight
Test troubleshooting of RTK fix loss, pump or nozzle clogging mid-mission, compass and IMU errors, patchy coverage in overlap, and misaligned orthomosaics after processing.
Evidence to listen for
Has a method for narrowing a fault rather than swapping parts
Reads schematics, manuals, or error codes and acts on them
Knows when to escalate rather than guess
Can describe a fault that took real work to find
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Parts-swapper; no diagnostic method.
2
Needs Improvement
Fixes symptoms; cannot explain how they found the cause.
3
Satisfactory
Solid on familiar faults; less structured on new ones.
4
Very Good
Clear systematic method with a real hard-fault story.
5
Excellent
Walks through a real field failure with the sequence of checks used, the root cause found, and what changed in the pre-flight routine afterwards.
04
Evaluation factor
Reliability and conduct
15% weight
Assess dawn wind windows, season peak workload, grower relationships, as-applied record keeping for compliance audits, and how they handled a mis-sprayed block or damaged crop claim.
Evidence to listen for
Turns up, on time, prepared
Handles shift work, callouts, or travel as the role requires
Documents work so the next person can pick it up
Deals with customers or site staff professionally
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Unreliable attendance; unprofessional on site.
2
Needs Improvement
Inconsistent; documentation is an afterthought.
3
Satisfactory
Dependable; paperwork is adequate.
4
Very Good
Consistently reliable, documents well, professional with customers.
5
Excellent
Shows consistent flight and application logs, early-season readiness, and candid ownership of an error including how the grower was informed.
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