Originally Posted by
BE19Pilot
I hate to burst your bubble about putting the "less-experienced" pilot in the 340 with this ab-intitio deal, but there are probably some mainline pilots that have NEVER landed an airplane on a runway that is less than 6000', at an uncontrolled field or really had to deal with the kind of conditions that us "bush-league" 340 pilots do. Not a battle of egos for with this issue, I am merely stating the facts. In fact, some of these mainline guys with A LOT of experience have later struggled when going back to King Airs, old-school Citations and the like, because they just can't think outside the narrow box of mainline carrier mentality...So, flame away oh gods of the "big jets".
There may be a FEW but the majority of the pilots at the mainline carrier do have strong backgrounds. I won't judge the entire regional pilot population on the Colgan pilots at BUF.
I never called the 340 pilots bush league. But you don't get too many pilots coming from the military or other carriers at Colgan. You get entry level employees fresh out of training/instructing. What is the bad idea of the mainline controlling who it puts into aircraft with its logo on the side? The screening and ab initio programs would be beneficial to the young folks that tend to wind up at carriers like Colgan.
Sure some of the old guys going back to corporate after retirement have struggled. No doubt about it. They have had flown with single and double augmented crews in a structured environment for 20+ years. What is the saying about old dogs, new tricks? Proof that you don't get better with age, but don't tell ALPA that.
Short runways? Give me a break, look at SNA, SAN, DCA RWY31 or 1/19 for that matter and tell me that the major carrier pilot doesn't operate in a challenging environment. You can throw in foreign ATC, backside of the clock flying and many other challenges that are not experienced by the TP guys. It is the same job with different challenges.
You guys want to make this about who has the longest johnson and I want to make this about creating mainline jobs at the regional. If you spend years at colgan wouldn't you like to have that time applied toward your seniority at the mainline carrier? As it is now when you leave that company for a another you bring zero longevity to the party.
Good luck.
L