Originally Posted by
Da40Pilot
....a VERY long time ago. The CFI who got me through my solo got hired at Skywest in 2006 with 650 hours and is now a Captain. He only instructed for a few months. He did pass the training, and that's what matters. You're there to learn and you learn quick. Europe puts you in the right seat of a 737 at 250 hours and so does South America. Undermining CFIs is pretty low. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Not undermining, just putting things in context when CFI's whine about having to get 1500 hours. Once they get there, they have their choice of regionals. Historically 1500 was the earliest you *might* get a call, and even then you'd be waiting many months for a class date. Things are still better now than they were for most of the civilian track pilots in the past.
And SKW was not hiring 650 hour pilots in 2006 (unless maybe they were a close relative of somebody in SGU).