Originally Posted by
shyflyguy
Hey all, I need some advice on how to handle a hiccup on my PRIA in the interview.
I have been flying for 20 years professionally, averaging about 1000 hours a year. Lots of flight instructing (about 10k hours), little corporate flying (1k hours), a bit of airline 121 flying (about 500 hours PIC, 2.5k SIC) and some 135 flying (about 6k). I have a couple of type ratings and lots of crew experience in both the 121 and 135 arenas.
I am considering going back to the regionals (I feel like the smudge is an immediate disqualifier from the majors, unfortunately), and I need to know how to handle what I know will come up during the interview.
Both issues happened with the same 135 company within the past year. It is a cargo company that runs a pretty tight schedule, has dispatch, and a fantastic maintenance department.
#1. Dispatch had me swap into an aircraft to fly back to maintenance base with a few non-MEL'd issues. I met the departing crew as the aircraft was being loaded and they didn't mention anything about the issues (nosewheel tire out of limits), and the FO had performed a walk-around and didn't say anything.
About a week after the flight, I got a phone call from the CP asking why I flew with an open write-up. It was news to me that the crew I swapped planes with had written it up before departing their outstation, and had also flown with the same open write-up. CP had the crew "correct" the write-up to show that it was done after they landed but before I got the aircraft. It was caught by maintenance and I told him we ought to report it to the FAA and I'd fill out a NASA form ASAP.
Result: Written up by CP and letter of warning from FSDO.
#2. Fed walking up to the airplane and FO freaks out. Says his EFB is not up-to-date and is older guy trying to make it to the airlines before his time is up. I've been there, done that, and at the time didn't care to move from the company, so I handed him mine. Ramp inspection, naturally, showed an out-of-date EFB and found that an MEL sticker had fallen off of our #2 transponder.
Result: Written up by CP, letter of warning from FSDO, and termination from company.
Dude, that hurt. I have a young family (wife and 4, 2.5, and 1 year-old), no insurance, and little income. Now considering the regionals, but I want to bring this up in the interview rather than pray it doesn't and risk them firing me once their PRIA paperwork comes back.
How do I handle this at the interview? Anyone think this is going to be a disqualifier? I have 20 years of clean flying, then two in a row within 9 months of each other!
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
ShyFlyGuy