Originally Posted by
Idontevenfly
Why should it be? Aren't you supposed to know about that stuff before you even get to a regional airline in general?
And herein lies the problem.
After Colgan 3407, the question everyone was asking was, 'are there two levels of safety allowed by the FAA - one level for majors, and one for regionals?' Anyone who's flown for certain regionals can easily attest to the two levels.
Mesa's upgrade - at least on the CRJ side - should last longer and cover a lot more details. As it is now, they push you through as fast as they can get away with. When a typical FO upgrades at a major/legacy, they have a lot more hours than an FO upgrading at a regional. A LOT more - in most cases.
So why do we make blanket statements like the one above, blaming the pilot's possible ignorance, and not the system? Face it - the system sucks. We have AA or UA plastered all over our fuselage, so based solely on optics - we are AA or UA. Wouldn't it behoove either of these legacies to spend time and effort making sure our training department isn't so anemic that they ignore critical subjects during initial, recurrent AQP, and upgrade?
To put it bluntly, they're saving a king's ransom by paying us peanuts when we perform the exact same job - in the exact same conditions - as their own legacy pilots? Don't try telling me they can't afford this.
This incident in COU (which I'll admit I know very little about) probably had the potential to be a lot worse than it was. Given the platform of social media nowadays, the images of badly-damaged aircraft (and an evacuation in heavy snow and ice) would have sprouted legs and run on its own. All preventable, of course, if they would just invest in training a cadre of (regional) pilots whose experience pales in comparison to an upgrading legacy pilot. Yes, I realize Southwest has skated off of a couple of runways in the past month or so - but I don't think either of them ignored a PIREP that said braking was 'nil.'
I've sat in both the left and right seat throughout my career. I've seen the weak links pass training time and again. I've heard the excuses from various training departments as to why they keep passing individuals who have no business in a cockpit. I've watched management lie through their teeth after an accident with fatalities.
Colgan will happen again - it's just a matter of time