Originally Posted by
Corned Beef
We lose out on good candidates because we require PIC time. There are folks who get called to legacies and fly wide bodies there with no pic time.
There are airlines that groom zero pic captains all over the industry and create fantastic captains. We can do the same here, it’s all up to our training department.
Also, I’m not saying let’s open the doors and hire everyone and their mother without PIC time, but there are candidates out there who have more than just a type rating on their resume that make up for no PIC time. We aren’t hiring massive amounts without a degree now, same difference with PIC time.
We’re one of the last to hold on to the PIC requirement, it’s time to adjust to the market and it go.
No.
Part of being a good candidate is having PIC experience. The last thing you want to do as a 777 or MD-11 CA is head to the bunk to take a nap when you have two new-hire FOs sitting in the window seats with 0 PIC time and maybe 1000hrs of SIC time in a turbine aircraft but got hired because they got a PE from their parents or brother or whatever and the rest of their resume checks a bunch of boxes for HR. A good training department can't completely make up for a lack of experience.
The problem with getting rid of the requirement is that once you do, the doors *do* open to hiring everyone and their mother without PIC time whether you like that or not.
With PIC experience being so abundant right now at the regional level, if FedEx is someone's number one, there's no reason why they can't get it within 6-8 months. And if someone would rather go to Delta instead of grab some PIC, I'm not sure if we're missing out by not hiring them since their actions say that they don't actually want to be here anyway.
Let's let the legacies scrape the bottom of the barrel and we can continue pick off the experienced pilots we like from them. And let's fight hard to make sure we get the contract that we deserve so we can continue to do that.