I elect to exercise my previously reserved right, since upon review I realize I misunderstood the i, ii, and iii requirements to be required in sim world only. What it really says is ‘when using a simulator, paragraph C must be met’, which is a completely separate set of requirements to satisfy. So now I need to go check company ops specs to see if there’s been a deviation granted by the FAA before I email the training department with unwarranted concern.

Thanks for posing the question, though. It’s always good to learn.

 

Critically, they have a large enough cadre of lifers many of whom serve as line check airmen. The smaller players do not so OE is where the largest bottleneck occurs. They lose line check airmen as fast as they make them. I suspect Republic is the only other regional in a similar position as Skywest in that regard but not quite to the same level.

 

Yes, this makes sense in terms of logistics and seems to be what’s happening. GoJet lost a lot of LCAs when the new hiring wave began earlier this year. MGMT assures us they are doing what they can to resolve the issue.

Interestingly, we had someone very recently try to tell us they were interviewing pilots from other outfits and that this problem was everywhere, not just GoJet. A second person joined in to claim that someone they knew at Skywest was waiting for IOE and that it had been a month. From what I’ve heard, the wait at Skywest is only for a class date, so I’d be interested to know if there’s any truth to the rumor. For the record, I’m doubtful of this third party claim, at this point.

If anyone was following the previous topic re: landing currency issues, we got our answer from the IOE coordinator; pilots who have lost currency waiting on IOE are immediately ‘de-qualified’ for IOE and have to go back to SIM world to meet the requirements of 121.439. This will certainly be a huge wrench in the works for us. In case you don’t want to calculate this yourselves, I’ll summarize: FOs with just 30 days left on the initial consolidation timer now have to go back to training for at least a V1 cut (plus maybe a single engine landing?) ILS to mins with a landing, and a regular full stop landing. Must be signed off on those items to become eligible for IOE again, and then must complete IOE in time to get a check airman to approve the consolidation extension, which then allows 30 more days to get whatever is needed to meet the 100 hr req.

 

I’m assuming any of the sim instructors can sign off on this landing currency? As in it doesn’t have to be one of the DPEs?

 

It has to be observed and certified by a Check Airman. I don’t think any of the sim instructors will work here. It reads like it’s a proficiency check.

 

skywest has a 6 week wait for OE, They also have the longest wait for a class date and some of the lowest hiring numbers relative to their size.

 

I doubt you have a clue what the wait time is at OO from Checkride to IOE (neither do I, but I won’t pretend to know). Second, I’m not giving out too much credit to OO management, but do you realize what it takes to push through 250 new hires a month? For example all 3 legacy’s on their best years have pushed closer to 100-120 a month with a much larger operation and pilot group. So saying “lowest hiring numbers relative to their size” tells me you know enough, and have decided to use that information to deceive your audience.

From friends still at OO, they told me SkyWest lost 150 pilots last month (potential record), but gained 100 (hired 250). Most in the group chat weren’t thrilled about that “accomplishment” because it just proves their management doesn’t have to do a thing to recruit pilots, other than show they hold a strong business (that could change as the available pilots dry up, which they will eventually).

 

OO lost 146 last month and gained 117. So 265 new hires in October.

 

One of my good friends is currently waiting for OE, while at the sim center yesterday the Skywest guys were *****ing about how they would have to wait till after Christmas for OE. I get that hiring 250 pilots a month is huge, but look at smaller airlines. Air Wisconsin is hiring 40-50 per month with a seniority list of 550. That’s 10% of the seniority list every month. Sky west is hiring 250 for 5500 or under 5%. Air Wisconsin has a large delay for the sims but almost no delay for classes.

 

AW also has a single type fleet.
OO has to have instructors for 2 types, and then within the CRJ, there is an additional 700-900 training event that has to happen.
LCA groups have to exist for CRJ2 CRJ7 CRJ9 & ERJ175.
This means there are more training events and more line checks in order to fly the line than a company like AW.

It’s simply not an apples to apples comparison.