Is the Comm Multi and a Pulse Really Going on?

I've seen talk at APC about AirTran talking to ERAU about a bridge program to hire grads into the right seat at 450 hours. Apparently, one of the head chief pilot guys at AirTran is German and wants to mirror the European hiring practise.

My opinion is this would be a great way for management to continue the supply of F/O's, newbies into the pilot group, that are just happy to be there, won't rock the boat, and will not fight to raise the bar with pilot pay.

Disclaimer: It's not April 1st anymore...
 
DE727UPS said:
My opinion is this would be a great way for management to continue the supply of F/O's, newbies into the pilot group, that are just happy to be there, won't rock the boat, and will not fight to raise the bar with pilot pay.
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Tell us how you really feel Don! Let it all out!:yar:
 
DE727UPS said:
I've seen talk at APC about AirTran talking to ERAU about a bridge program to hire grads into the right seat at 450 hours. Apparently, one of the head chief pilot guys at AirTran is German and wants to mirror the European hiring practise.

My opinion is this would be a great way for management to continue the supply of F/O's, newbies into the pilot group, that are just happy to be there, won't rock the boat, and will not fight to raise the bar with pilot pay.

Disclaimer: It's not April 1st anymore...
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I'm sure the highly qualified regional CAs looking to move on to AirTran would LOVE for that to happen. I'm hoping the starry-eyed newbie syndrom stays at the regional level for now.
 
I got hired into the April 9 class with ASA with 595 TT and 51 ME. The mins were reduced for me because I did a CRJ class at a certain university. I dont know of their TT, but I know that a few ex ASA interns were hired with close to 20 ME.
 
ChinookDriver said:
This has probably been covered before, but out of curiosity - does it really take four years to get 230-ish hours at places like UND?
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yes. when you have a flight school in a god forsaken hell hole where you can only fly 5 days per month.

*fuel on fire*
Theres talk here that Piedmont is coming to hire UND SJS fodder with comm/multi and a diploma. No time requirement at all.
 
The hiring practices that are happening leaves me with disgust.

With all this new blood just happy to fly a jet I honestly see no reason why pay will improve. At the end of the day, flying is a still a job. Benefits and compensation do matter. Pilots need to start taking back what was theirs pre 9/11.

Flight schools are going to be much very very desperate for instructors. Much more then regionals are. I think flight schools may very well have to increase pay to attract people away from just jumping to the airlines.

How is UND going to have instructors when there entire student body can just get hired right out of school? It makes me sick.
 
Like it or not there is *some* instruction going on in the cockpits of regional jets. I would venture to say you find the same thing going on at the majors who have newhires (actually, I've witnessed it going on there). Not instruction on basic instrument skills, but you definitely find yourself teaching quite a bit of technique that the check airmen didn't have time to cover in IOE. It's a fine line between trying to offer useful advice and trying not to come off like an overbearing, up tight, anal, jerk. I would be a hypocrite if I complained about it, because I wasn't exactly chuck yeager when I found myself in the right seat with 800 hours, and I'm still pretty low time in the left seat with under 3000.

The newhire FO's have been very good so far in my experience....they will help keep you out trouble and are an asset. With that said, as the PIC you should be fully capable and comfortable operating the aircraft in a single pilot environment if need be, and the upgrade training is geared toward that concept rather than emphasizing CRM. Even so, simply having someone sitting over there twisting the heading bug and setting the altitudes really alleviates the workload when things get hairy with abnormals or bad weather. Although experience is a definite plus, I think the there are far more important factors concerning an FO's utility in the cockpit than number of hours spent flying a cessna or seminole.
 
Alchemy said:
Like it or not there is *some* instruction going on in the cockpits of regional jets.
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Oh no doubt. I'm sure I scared the hell out of some of my CAs. Took me a while to get the landing picture of the lawndart known as the CRJ down. The problem I have is guys coming in lacking basic instrument skills, lack of decision making skills and getting caught up in the "cool" factor. In the past month I've flown with CAs that had FOs that had ZERO actual time before they hit the right seat of a CRJ, FOs that locked up on an instrument approach, and FOs that almost slammed the nose wheel into the ground. The CA I'm flying with this month was telling me yesterday about an FO that he said "I really like the guy, but he has NO business being in the right seat."

Filling in the gaps left from IOE is fine, it's filling in the gaps that were missed during PPL, IR and CSEL/CMEL that I have a problem with.
 
ZUKO said:
Flight schools are going to be much very very desperate for instructors. Much more then regionals are. I think flight schools may very well have to increase pay to attract people away from just jumping to the airlines.
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You know, this is a good thing in a way. When I first started learning about flying, I was blown away that a Flight Instructor was someone who just got their ratings and was still learning themselves.

Before that, I thought (and most of the public currently thinks this) that flight instructors were people who had decades of experience and moved on from being an airline pilot and took that next step in their careers.

Maybe this is the future of aviation? Could be a good thing and could lead to some really good students in the future.
 
There is always people that will instruct with no intention of going to the airlines due to any number of reasons whether its family time, medical issues, or quality of the lifestyle.
 
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