PotatoChip

300 hour pilots fly C-17s all over the world.
It’s all about good training and quality pilots with aptitude.

Bgood

Agreed.

Filler

Excargodog

Yeah. Pilots who put in a year of full time flying in UPT, most of that in multi engine jets, and then went to RTU.

How many people ever showed up at Altus for C-17 training with only 1500 hours of T-41 time from the aero club? Or less than 30 hours of multi engine time?

Damn few. In fact, none.

PosRateGearUp

So...yeah or no? Lol

Point is moot anyway. Most, if not all, regionals will hire with 25 multi. It’s legal and gets pilots in the door sooner. A favorable loophole in the knee jerk legislation for most pilots.

Excargodog

I'll certainly agree about the knee-jerk legislation. It has had ONE of its intended effects - to increase regional pilot pay - but it's effect on aviation safety appears at best to be mixed.

As for the statement about C-17 flying, it's very much an apples to oranges comparison when someone is equating 1500 hours of CFI touch and goes with a solid year of UPT training that set the taxpayer back at least $6 million (not counting the cost of maintaining the whole base which has no other purpose) followed by three - four months of C-17 RTU that likely added another couple million to the bill.

As for how much multi engine is "enough" for going to the next airframe, the old Air Force guys will tell you about the Jimmy Carter era when managers got medals for figuring out how to cut 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there out of the UPT syllabus. What they eventually found out was that the money saved by these compromises in their basic training was more than offset b the loss of equipment and lives out in the operational units and - after Carter lost to Reagan - many of these training "efficiencies" were eliminated.

Now does that mean that it RAINED F-4s, F-15s, and F-16s back in that era? No. But the Air Force had the ability through their safety center and the statistics showed the effect of the reduced UPT flying time was very real.

But airline flying - even in a regional - is a different animal from military flying. You have a lot of people in back who are paying for a degree of safety that no military person receives or even expects. You hold their lives in your hands, not just your own. And right now the minimums are being set more by what the experience is of the people AVAILABLE to fill the seat rather than what experience is most appropriate for the upgrade.

ENY86

Seriously? Your defense is “THERE MIGHT BE HOPE YET” and you are asking why someone shouldn’t come? You need a reality check buddy

MikeC5

Latest ALPA email sums up how this pilot group has become.
Literally an email telling us that there have been so many pilots caught with out of date revisions during ramp checks/line checks that the FAA will now start taking enforcement action against those caught with out of date manuals. Way to go.
I’m submitting applications to other regionals at this point. This is embarrassing.

JediCheese

That's what gets you apply elsewhere?

I foresee the wave of pilots complaining about the company trying to violate pilots to keep them here instead of moving on. I'm not going to buy it for a second.

MGMTiswatchingU

Guess it's not only mgmt that can be ****ty here huh?

JediCheese

Yes, but the pilots get violated/disciplined for being idiots and doing boneheaded stuff. Management, not so much...