Originally Posted by
saab2000
Another thing to think about is that occasionally some less experienced pilots have a hard time with 121 training. That is not to say they can't be good pilots, but are just having a hard time keeping up with things if they only have a few hundred hours of experience.
I hear about pilots from time to time at my own company who wash out. We have a solid training dept and they are big on attitude. But attitude will only get you so far and washing out of a training program would be terrible for you own morale and also might make it more difficult to secure another interview later.
I agree 1000%.
In my job, I instruct and evaluate these 'low experience' folks. I just did the recheck on a young guy who had busted his FO PC. While he passed the recheck, it was painfully obvious that he lacked some significant basic instrument flying skills, and his complete lack of any 121 experience will be a major problem in IOE. His background...cropdusting and a little time in a piston twin. Great attitude...I wish him well, but the wolf is waiting for him in IOE.
I suggest you young folks get out of non-121 ops as soon as you can. Please do not confuse accumulation with experience...lots of hours doing the same thing is not experience in the sense that we are looking for here on the training end. Sitting in a small piston single engine aircraft as an instructor is a great way to learn the basics of flying...but those kind of basics is not what we look for in airline training.
We take basic stick and rudder skills for granted...our program is not pilot training...we expect our students to know how to fly. This expectation sometimes is misplaced, and the result is a pink slip...and even if the applicant gets past the recheck, too often he doesn't get past IOE.
In a nutshell, here is what we think is important...good instrument flying skills, familiarity with FMS and flight directors, time in swept wing jet aircraft, familiarity with typical airline operations, proficiency in CRM...and the ability to think at 400kts, not 100.