Originally Posted by
Freightpuppy
Because regional pilots should have a shot at a decent job too. They are not retards (well....at least not all of them). I guarantee you most of the pilots hired at UPS in 2000 and 2001 came from the regionals. They are flying all over the world now. How scary is that?
How are you supposed to get experience if noone will give you a job? Newsflash! Noone was born with international experience....everyone got it somewhere and everyone was new to it at sometime.
FP,
I'm in agreement with you that regional pilots make good pilots and should have a shot at UPS. Six legs a day into busy terminals, followed by crappy eight hour layovers than back at it, are the norm of most regional pilots.
I do offer that a regional pilot would have an uphill transition to flying let's say the MD11 or the -400 for UPS. Here's my humble opinion.
First, they would have to learn UPS procedures...not rocket science but that's the first task.
Second, they would transition from a 40,000 lb jet to a 600,000 or 900,000 lb jet. Again, not chinese arithmetic, but certaintly a different perspective from sitting 4 or 5 feet off the ground to 40 feet off the ground.
Third, would be learning Int'l operations. I totally agree with you that none of us were born with Intl experience so at some point we were "new" to overseas flying. IMHO, this area would be the biggest challenge because of its vast scope, ever changing rules, and language challenges. This is just my opinion, but Int'l ops are better learned while doing it, as opposed to in a classroom. Put in other terms, there is more hands-on learning than book learning. This obstacle is surrmountable, but in my opinion the one that would be the most challenging.
In summary, I agree with you that regional pilots would make good UPS pilots. I only listed three areas of concern, but culminate these three and present them to a regional pilot and you are really presenting them with a tall order out in the Int'l arena.
See ya,
FF