Originally Posted by
HB Pilot
While it shouldn't be a blanket statement, there is evidence on why you'll hear that from hiring departments. I left for a major at the end of last year and in both my class and the class ahead of me, the two that struggled with training the most were the two most senior pilots in each class with one of them not completing training. Again - certainly doesn't apply to everyone but training centers have seen trends with RJ pilots who have been in the same seat of the same airplane flying to the same airports under the same ops specs for a couple of decades and know those pilots can be a bit behind the learning curve when it comes to a totally different airplane and company. It just is what it is for some people in that situation that when you've done the same thing for so long, change doesn't come as easy. I think if you know you're not that person who will struggle though, you just have to embrace the stereotype in the interview and be up front that while you've done the same thing from the same seat for a long time, you're completely confident you're ready for change and will breeze through training because it's what you want to do right now more than any point in your career.
I don’t quite buy that. It’s not the age or the hours, it’s the character and caliber of pilot that matters. Swa, ups and fedex hire many high time (read, older) pilots and have great success.
In real estate and other sectors it’s called disparate discrimination. IOW, per HUD regulations, landlords can no longer do a credit check or criminal background check because there is a social and racial disparity between those that do and don’t qualify; So it’s considered disparate discrimination. Leaving out applicants with over 8000 hours is just a disparate means of ruling out older applicants.
There are plenty of pilots at the big three that had disciplinary problems, even being fired, or struggled through training only to continue to struggle at their new job.
There’s a difference between hiring excellent pilots that have the personality that fits the company culture, and hiring someone based on a personality profile that happens to have a pilot certificate also... and age has nothing to do with it.