Freight pilots are less likely to stall the plane turning base in LAX. Anyone who defends low experience doesn't see the big picture. Can a 200 hr pilot learn normal procedures just as well if not better than the guy with experience? Sure, but that's not the point. Colgan anyone?

 

Yet I find myself scratching my head at some of these guys trying their best to stall in that turn going, "you came from Ameriflight??" Experience may be king, but bad pilots are bad pilots whether they have 300hrs, 3000hrs, or 30,000 hrs.

 

What about flying freight in a Single? 10hr vs 1000hr the same thing if nothing bad ever happens?

All i'm saying is complacency is the enemy. All that experience is moot if the pilot becomes too comfortable.

 

I said less likely. There are mediocre pilots in freight as well.

 

12 more upgrades

 

Or helicopters with dynamite on a 50 ft. line..

 

When hiring is booming, the regionals have hired low timers for the right seat since the regionals were invented. United hired pilots with 300 hrs in the sixties when available pilots were hard to come by. All these companies rely on the CAs to keep the plane out of trouble.
When I was a CA at Mesa, 90% of their new-hires came from their training program in Farmington. Those pilots had about 350hrs total. I flew with a different one every month. Some were great, better than FOs with 2 years on the line, others not so great. What I learned from them was that it does not matter how many hrs you have in your log book. It is what you have learned during that time.

 

I also haven't heard anything about such changes. And it's not about the ATP CTP course either. I personally came through in the fall with 26.2 hrs. multi and having gone through ATP CTP. The combination of the ATP CTP and Compass training sim time exceeded 25 hours, fulfilling the requirements of the FARs for the ATP (50 AMEL, 25 max in a sim). Now, during my interview I was told by the pilot recruiter that because I don't have 50 hrs. multi he'll need to get a special OK from the Chief Pilot. He left the room, came back in 5 minutes and said he got the OK So perhaps the company policy just changed and we don't know about it. But it's not an external authorization.

On a separate note, I found the ATP CTP program surprisingly useful and not a waste of time I expected. Anyone else cares to chime in? Just for fun.

 

As others have already said, it's not. Compare two scenarios:

1. A 50 hour AMEL fresh ATP in the right seat of a modern twin turbojet, with outstanding reliability of modern turbofans, dramatic excess performance, and an experienced Captain in the left seat.

2. The same 50 hour ATP alone in the left seat of an ancient 150 HP Apache on a hot day, trying to clear that proverbial fence at the end of the runway relying on equally ancient O-320s that may or may not be way past TBO because the 134.5 operation he flies for views maintenance as a drain on profit.

Which situation provides greater overall safety? And that's even before we start talking about recurrent training. In Scenario 1, in 6 months the now 400 AMEL hour ATP will come back to the sims where the instructors will beat the crap out of him. Repeat every 6 months. (May be 9 months, but the point is still the same). In Scenario 2, he'll keep flying the same airplane if he's still alive.

 

Hey man...I think the only disadvantage to coming in with the low ME time is the lack of understanding or knowledge behind single-engine aerodynamics in a multi-engine airplane, specifically the muscle memory an MEI acquires as he will feather either sides during training flights with students. I don't think 25 hours of ME gets you anywhere close to understanding what the airplane would do if it accidentally went below Vmc beyond rote memorization (most people get their ME in 7 hours).

So, I think the question is more about.....should Ameriflight hire someone with 25 hours of ME to go fly Beech 1900 or a Metroliner with substantially bigger props that'll give you a work out if you have an engine failure? (The answer is probably NOT, but Yes they still do).

In regards to ME mattering in modern airliners like the E175 where 99.99% of engine failures happen in the sim, I think most people will be alright - as long as they take the time to absorb and constantly learn.

Otherwise, the most "action" you see at Compass with multi-engine situations is when the CA pulls into the Eagle's nest after having asked the FO to shut down Number 2, and right before he's about to make that tight left turn into one of the gates with only Number 1 on, he goes "oh crap".