Originally Posted by
fenix1
What you said about 135 in a similar type as great prep for 121 Initial makes all the sense in the world. With this in mind, why do most (all?) regionals seem to value those with a CFI background over folks who have flown 135 (or other similar ‘real-world’/risk management centric flying)? All the regional cadet programs (except Mesa whose cadet program includes an option to fly 135) either target or are exclusively for CFI’s - why don’t the regionals put that same focus & opportunity out there to folks flying 135 single-pilot multi-engine night IFR? Seems like AMF’s pilot group should be getting more opportunities at regionals than R-ATP CFI’s...but that’s not the case for some reason.
Access I would guess.
135 operators have no interest or incentive (quite the opposite in fact) to enable their pilots to leave for a regional.
Also 135 ops are mostly small, hard to track them all down to reach out to their pilots, especially if they don't want you to.
Flight schools (while maybe hurting for CFI's) are in the business of pushing pilots up the ladder. So it's in their interest to establish relationships with airlines and help their students (and CFI's) move on.
But any 135 pilot can easily get hired at almost any regional if they want to. And they will chose it for specific reasons (domiciles, upgrade, pay), not a cadet program.