We are the only regional I am aware of that doesn’t use line pilots as their instructors, and instead uses several contract instructor on the Ejet. My buddy at SkyWest makes $200k per year as a SIM instructor. So, we underpay and we get what we pay for. Instead of the best line pilots, that are formerly instructors, becoming instructors that like to instruct and are good at it; many times, we get the line pilots that can’t do, so they teach. Even worse, these guys even become line check airman.

I have spoken to enough new FO’s and observers, I think some changes would make major improvements on the Ejet side. Pay the sim instructors so you get the best. Use only Captains for instructors that have instructing experience in their background. Hire pilots that have flown an airplane to check ride standards in the last 5 years, instead of guys that have flown a 172 on Saturdays in VFR conditions for the past 20 years. Send new hires home after Indoc and wait on systems and FPT and their oral until the new hires have been scheduled for the SIM. Use the idle CAE IPT trainer in DFW for the check out of FPT training. Fix sim scheduling.

Unfortunately, management does not understand and really doesn’t care to understand.

 

As for training, history has proven as the training department goes so goes the airline. However, Mesa can’t, and won’t learn this lesson. Cheapen the training department and you get cheap pilots. Fail to provide adequate training tools and you get pilots always looking for shortcuts. Rely on foul mouthed, lazy, unprofessional instructors and you get profane, non-professional, indolent pilots. At some point the continual deviations from standards become the norm, attracts deviations from the norm (e.g., criminal records, multiple checkride failures, Part 121 terminations, etc.), and thereafter, every pilot is the “exception”.

The “training” department remains a farce at Mesa and continues to rely on the Senior League at the Scottsdale Golf Club. These are “instructors” who haven’t flown for Mesa and, in fact, haven’t flown an airplane in decades. These are also “instructors” who we understand show up with a huge chip on their shoulder wailing about their multiple furloughs, pension losses, and bankrupt former employers. So much for Mesa’s 2017 recruitment BS ~ “line pilots training line pilots”. In any event, calmwinds makes the correct point; Mesa needs professional instructors not pilots forced out of the cockpit to fill the front seat in the classroom. But alas, Mesa won’t pay for that.

In any event, the problem is also demographic. For the first time in remembered history, airlines are not only losing Captains because of movement to the majors, age, retirements, disability, loss of medical, or death, but also FO’s, and for the same reasons. This is because the average age of a regional FO is, and has been, steadily increasing and the automatic flow, CPP, and other incentive programs. All in all, these programs are nothing more than a shifting of the Major’s HR department, and their initial protocols, to the Regionals, disguised as upgrades, move-ups, and the like. While keeping the Major’s relatively fully-staffed, it eviscerates the Regionals, but also allows the Majors to play one regional against another. At some point, the human capital economics will dictate they all be wholly-owned.

This is clearly evident with the demographics of new hires at all regionals. However, this coupled with the complete failure of the “training” department at Mesa, and Management’s refusal to address the coming convergence of the debilitating factors will ultimately force Mesa to merge with, or be bought by an airline who can operate a proper training department and successfully integrate it with HR. Management by absurd edict, proclamations from above, and thoughtless policy making simply won’t work but Mesa will learn this the hard way, as will its pilots who bought into the growth and expansion BS, which can't happen in the current environment.

Many of us aviation consulting folks believe the "going public" was NOT to acquire cash to go shopping for another airline [there simply wasn't enough raised to curtail debt AND go shopping]. Rather, it was to make Mesa attractive to a suitor, finally open the books to incentivize an acquirer, and put Mesa on the public auction block, and let someone else fix the mess.

 

Just flew with an FO that left Mesa. Was shocked to hear the stories he told about training there. It's definitely part of the culture there he said!

 

I was always under the impression that the IPO was to let JO cash out. And, he did to a tune of $4mm but that was not his entire holdings by far.

Mesa is using the cash to purchase CRJ’s at the end of lease, to pay down some debt. Not much else. Management isn’t necessarily conserving the cash to purchase another regional - just refinancing to improve the profitability picture.

In this industry, I always expect a “shoe” to drop. With the anti-takeover provisions of the state of Nevada where Mesa is incorporated, a hostile takeover won’t come out of the blue (American is the only airline that currently qualifies under Nevada law).

 

This is a shame, in 2013, Mesa had an awesome training department with excellent instructors. They forced Dave out, drove the other one to take a job at CAE, and upheaved many of the Sr. instructors back to the line to be replaced by volunteers looking to pad their resume. They even gutted the FA training department? #LAMA

 

Was told by a pilot recruiter today that the average training footprint for the E175 is 119 days from day 1 till IOE complete. Is this true? Trying to decide between Mesa & Republic. IAH based would help me a lot, and it takes about a year to get there with Republic.

Cheers!

 

Not a chance. 180 days is more like it.

 

Lies.


Carefully worded "average" though, so there's plausible deniability when you challenge the recruiter 8 months from now.



Maybe 119 "training days" spread over 6-8 months, but the feedback we're getting is at least 6 months (180 days), and up to 8 months for the E-Jet, from "show-up in Phoenix date" to IOE completion.


If training is a biggie for you or you are NOT a learn-it-all-on-my-own pilot (and have money to spend on peripheral training aids, etc.), stay away from this cluster-f.

 

It is only 8 months on the Ejet if you include IOE. 6 months from doh to IOE is where we are.

 

I put this on another thread a month or two ago, but I'll repost it here.

My conversation with an APD I know well went something like this:

Me - "What's new in the training department?"

Him - "Ugly - REAL ugly."

Me - "Why's that?

Him - "Mesa has been hiring retirees from other airlines as instructors. They're signing off pilots to take their checkrides who aren't even close to being ready, so I'm failing nearly half of the students because of this. I feel bad - I mean, I feel terrible about it because I know it stays on their record forever. But once the checkride has started, I have no other choice. Even though I know why they're sub-par, I can't send them back for more training without unsat-ing them first. It really sucks. I can tell within the first few minutes of the checkride if they weren't trained by a Mesa instructor."

I'm paraphrasing, but that's almost verbatim what I was told. It was pretty recent. This is pathetic - no airline should ever put their pilots in this situation. Just another day at Mesa.