How many regional pilots can REALLY meet this requirement?

A-300F4-622R

A-300F4-622R

Well-Known Member
Here is one of the hiring requirements taken from Flight Express, a 135 freight operator flying 210s and some Barons. They claim that their pilots are successful in moving to the regional airlines to fly RJs, but how many RJ pilots could do a role reversal and successfully do their type of flying?

All applicants MUST be PROFICIENTnot just legally current on single-pilot cross-country IFR-PIC operations - using VOR and NDB navigation - in a complex, high-performance, single-engine airplane with no autopilot, no GPS and no airborne weather radar. Pilots who are not comfortable with this kind of flying are strongly discouraged from applying.
 
Ummm...why would they *need* to?

I'm not proficient at doing North Atlantic crossings using celestial navigation. I also suck at dog fighting in an F-16. Thankfully, those skills have no relation to my present job duties.
 
jrh said:
Ummm...why would they *need* to?

I'm not proficient at doing North Atlantic crossings using celestial navigation. I also suck at dog fighting in an F-16. Thankfully, those skills have no relation to my present job duties.
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Exactly. Different skill sets. Transferable but a tad different in a few respects.

If 300 hour wonders are sitting in the right seat getting their job done, all the power to em.
 
jrh said:
Ummm...why would they *need* to?

I'm not proficient at doing North Atlantic crossings using celestial navigation. I also suck at dog fighting in an F-16. Thankfully, those skills have no relation to my present job duties.
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Lose your FMCs, A/P, F/D. You can be dispatched without those. I've flown with many glass cockpit pilots who would be truly dangerous if they had to hand fly a steam gauge airplane with just basis avionics in IMC and concluding with an approach to minimums.

I try and fly de-automated on a frequent basis to stay competent if the need ever arises.
 
A-300F4-622R said:
Lose your FMCs, A/P, F/D. You can be dispatched without those. I've flown with many glass cockpit pilots who would be truly dangerous if they had to hand fly a steam gauge airplane with just basis avionics in IMC and concluding with an approach to minimums.
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I doubt anything I say will change your mind. But a few thoughts popped into my head:

How often is a flight dispatched into low IMC with all of those things deferred?

How many of these incapable pilots you know would accept an aircraft under those conditions?

How many crashes have resulted from airline pilots with poor basic instrument skills?

I honestly don't know the answers. I've never worked for a "real" airline flying RJs. I'm probably closer to the FLX pilots than RJ drivers, in regards to flying skills (I have HUGE balls, too), but to me, it sounds like you're seeing a problem that doesn't exist. If the problem did exist, we'd have RJs falling out of the sky on a more frequent basis.
 
A-300F4-622R said:
Here is one of the hiring requirements taken from Flight Express, a 135 freight operator flying 210s and some Barons. They claim that their pilots are successful in moving to the regional airlines to fly RJs, but how many RJ pilots could do a role reversal and successfully do their type of flying?

All applicants MUST be PROFICIENTnot just legally current on single-pilot cross-country IFR-PIC operations - using VOR and NDB navigation - in a complex, high-performance, single-engine airplane with no autopilot, no GPS and no airborne weather radar. Pilots who are not comfortable with this kind of flying are strongly discouraged from applying.
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I did it. Was furloughed from a 121 job flying glass jets, went and flew for Cape Air in beater 402s for a couple years. Checked out without a problem and left there incident-free.

To add, everyone in that class was furloughed 121, most from RJs. Couple didn't make it, most had no trouble.
 
dasleben said:
I did it. Was furloughed from a 121 job flying glass jets, went and flew for Cape Air in beater 402s for a couple years. Checked out without a problem and left there incident-free.

To add, everyone in that class was furloughed 121, most from RJs. Couple didn't make it, most had no trouble.
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I'd venture a guess that your 402s were better equipped than FLXs 210s.
 
A-300F4-622R said:
Here is one of the hiring requirements taken from Flight Express, a 135 freight operator flying 210s and some Barons. They claim that their pilots are successful in moving to the regional airlines to fly RJs, but how many RJ pilots could do a role reversal and successfully do their type of flying?

All applicants MUST be PROFICIENTnot just legally current on single-pilot cross-country IFR-PIC operations - using VOR and NDB navigation - in a complex, high-performance, single-engine airplane with no autopilot, no GPS and no airborne weather radar. Pilots who are not comfortable with this kind of flying are strongly discouraged from applying.
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Me.

Now stop questioning my and my coworkers' competence.
 
A-300F4-622R said:
Here is one of the hiring requirements taken from Flight Express, a 135 freight operator flying 210s and some Barons. They claim that their pilots are successful in moving to the regional airlines to fly RJs, but how many RJ pilots could do a role reversal and successfully do their type of flying?

All applicants MUST be PROFICIENTnot just legally current on single-pilot cross-country IFR-PIC operations - using VOR and NDB navigation - in a complex, high-performance, single-engine airplane with no autopilot, no GPS and no airborne weather radar. Pilots who are not comfortable with this kind of flying are strongly discouraged from applying.
Click to expand...

I don't get it... Of course most RJ pilots could do this... Flying is not *that* hard no matter what kind of operation it is...
 
A-300F4-622R said:
I'd venture a guess that your 402s were better equipped than FLXs 210s.
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This made me LOL.

Is this really where you're going to draw the line? Really? "Sure, you know, you can handle a 402 fine, but get in a 210....might be dangerous."

Is it the second engine, the radar, or the crappy autopilot from the 1980s that makes the 402 so much easier? Aside from those details, I'm not sure what the 402 is better equipped with.
 
I was chatting with Bob (everybody in the South knows Bob) in PNF one day a few years ago. The door was open to the FLX Baron he was in that day. I peaked in and the first thing I noticed was the piece of cardboard covering the hole in the panel where the radar used to be. Someone had drawn a picture of a radar screen on the cardboard. :).
 
skydisaster said:
I was chatting with Bob (everybody in the South knows Bob) in PNF one day a few years ago. The door was open to the FLX Baron he was in that day. I peaked in and the first thing I noticed was the piece of cardboard covering the hole in the panel where the radar used to be. Someone had drawn a picture of a radar screen on the cardboard. :).
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I've seen oh sh..crap(g rated) meters in a couple of ours.
 
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