Originally Posted by
hawk21
No it's not. Training contract should be a red flag to anybody. It means high turnover rate.
Not necessarily. The company spends three weeks and ~10 hours of actual flight time to get you proficient in the PC-12. It's not unreasonable to want to protect that investment considering the time it takes to hire and screen pilots (think fingerprinting, background checks, PRIA, uniforms, etc), train them, and then replace them when they move on.
Street captains could bounce at 1500 TT after 3-4 months without a training contract, which would be the biggest reason for high turnover. Pilots can also buy out of the contract, and I haven't heard of any contract enforcement if you decide to be that guy (which you shouldn't). First officers are likely not affected much by the contract because most of them will take a year to hit 1200-1500 TT anyway.
Boutique knows it's a stepping stone, and that the majority that come here to fly are going to move on at some point. That doesn't make a 1 year contract a red flag automatically. It is something to take into consideration before you sign it, but the implications it has on most pilots are not too significant in the grand scheme.