Originally Posted by
planejoe
So why is the company saying the quality level of candidates has drastically improved?
People fly RJs at 1000 hours all the time nowadays.
Because those hired on at 1000 hours have just come out of very regimented programs and they haven't had time to develope bad habits or issues yet. Even when I had brand new 500 hour pilots in the right seat at the regional, they could all fly the airplane and train wonderfully- they have a very high pass rate for training. That said, the lack of real world experience with weather and at busy airports takes some extra attention for the PIC while they learn the ropes. At least they tend to learn fast and don't have a bunch of bad habits to break. I personally prefer pilots that do have a wealth of experience, but it isn't for me to decide and it will probably benefit me more that we have to hire these candidates and that many will probably end up bailing out relatively quickly for the airlines, leading to a better contract and more money for me sooner.