After having flown with guys from all 3 lists, I can tell you that there is definitely precedent to the top 500 thing. The top 500 at original Pinnacle - lifers, DUIs, busts, you name it. XJ and 9L guys have been vastly superior in every way. No wonder our previously crap training program is turning around - they put guys who worked for a much more fair, non-punitive system in place. It's embarassing to go into our crew rooms and hear 9E CAs laughing and wildly throwing out accusations of Colgan people causing stick shakers - apparently we FOs have to do OE for these guys?!

I am not kidding when I say that the old 9E culture was cowboy. It is refreshing to have standard CAs (XJ/9L) at the helm.

I think it's funny to get laughed at by a 9E CA when I call "airspeed" when he is 15+ knots over assigned speed or Vref and I get a hearty laugh and "are you serious??"

I had one guy who I debriefed instead of calling for a go around on an unstabilized approach (when our visual approach criteria had just changed) tell me that he would have ignored my go-around call and continued the landing. Yup "original Pinnacle".