jrh
Well-Known Member
I'm hoping to gain some wisdom from the masses here. What types of training, mentoring, programs, or other processes have you seen implemented in your operations to develop SICs/FOs into competent captains?
In my operation, historically we've hired pilots as SICs in Citations, assuming they do well we then promote them to PIC in King Airs, then after 6-12 months of King Air flying move them to a PIC role in a Citation. At each transition the pilot works with an IOE captain on each trip to ensure they are following SOPs, etc.
This progression has consistently developed very competent Citation captains. They simply handle things well. Weather decisions, maintenance issues, dealing with pax, etc. There is a maturity we see in these captains that we don't see in even our most experienced Citation SICs.
The problem I'm running into is that growth in our Citation fleet has far outpaced our King Air fleet. We need more Citation captains than what our King Air pilot group can provide.
Therefore, I'm looking for ways to promote directly from Citation SIC to PIC. Obviously lots of operations do this successfully. It's not like NetJets has a fleet of King Airs their pilots go through. I know it can be done, but looking for specific processes to put in place.
In my operation, historically we've hired pilots as SICs in Citations, assuming they do well we then promote them to PIC in King Airs, then after 6-12 months of King Air flying move them to a PIC role in a Citation. At each transition the pilot works with an IOE captain on each trip to ensure they are following SOPs, etc.
This progression has consistently developed very competent Citation captains. They simply handle things well. Weather decisions, maintenance issues, dealing with pax, etc. There is a maturity we see in these captains that we don't see in even our most experienced Citation SICs.
The problem I'm running into is that growth in our Citation fleet has far outpaced our King Air fleet. We need more Citation captains than what our King Air pilot group can provide.
Therefore, I'm looking for ways to promote directly from Citation SIC to PIC. Obviously lots of operations do this successfully. It's not like NetJets has a fleet of King Airs their pilots go through. I know it can be done, but looking for specific processes to put in place.