Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
Yes Sir, trying to understand your point of view.
Would you rather have a 9,500 hour former RJ Captain in your right seat who has seen most of the airports you fly to and who has experience with weather and things going not quite right ... or would you rather have a Delta scholarship winning 250 hour Multi Pilot License Certificate holder who logged 210 of those hours in a sim, having learned most of what they know from a DVD.
Those are probably your choices if you remain a 717A for the next five years. What is your preference?
As for me, I would prefer to fly with an experienced First Officer who was mentored through his express flying days by a Captain executing the responsibilities of his flight deck as directed by Delta Air Lines. A pilot who's training was based on a scientific approach which incorporates the lessons learned by ALPA's safety and training experts.
I'll fly with whoever Delta hires. Its not the quality of the pilot that most concerns me. That is not a big issue at our company. It's the idea of mergers, SLI's, shortcuts, and lawsuits that raise concern.
I'm not a big fan of mergers of any kind, so I'd rather Delta hire pilots in the same way I was hired. That is, compete with every qualified applicant in the market (including those from the military, which you are pretty much leaving out) and hire the best pilot.