Originally Posted by
DryClutch
(See bold).
Isn't that still a pretty small minority of folks though? I spent a lot of time at the regional's, and occasionally you would hear about a no PIC time FO getting snapped up, and everyone would come unglued about it (And I guess I kinda understand, I went out and earned my PIC time too, so to see a much less experienced candidate get the chance but you havent yet). But in my experience it was still a relative rarity. Or maybe I just wasn't paying hard enough attention.
I think it depends on the regional and the time period. My regional had 10+ year upgrade times and when hiring really started picking up 5-6 years ago some regionals had many FOs with 5,6,7 or even 8000+ hours, lots of other quals, but no PIC time and presumably the airlines understood why they had no PIC. In fact, many of my friends got hired without any PIC (UA and DL), however each one had put in serious work to get the interview.
Maybe it's different now with the return to quick upgrade times at many regionals in the last few years. I can't imagine there are many FOs accumulating that much right seat time anymore.