Hard in which way? My time at the regionals was some of the most fun I ever had, but my difficulties were centered around crew interactions every once in a while or holding my tongue in front of a passenger which I often failed to do.
20 years of flying a CRJ doesn't prepare you for international charter work, going to places that a typical DL/UA/AA pilot will never see. There's a ton more to learn. However, learning that stuff isn't the issue. I can tell you at 39, I am no where near as sharp as I was when I was in flight school, or even a newhire at Mesa. My experience helps make up for where my brain is starting to fail me, and it ****es me off.

Hard work as in 4+ legs per day, long days, short nights, little pay, dealing with brand new pilots on their first jet and having to play flight instructor, the whipsaw........ Speaking as an older guy (50), I don’t really see any different in ability in people my age, what I see is a difference in give a s#!t. The older pilots are mostly tired of this and don’t want to deal with another school. I think that those who have trouble, regardless of age, is more related to the individual level of effort, rather than ability. Since this is about the United CCP, the training here is extremely spoon fed. We have people come from all backgrounds and all ages. The vast majority do fine if they have a good attitude and put in the hours. Those who wash out result from a lack of personal input and effort. I’ll admit that the thought process slows as you age, but not enough to present an obstacle to completing training. Not here.

My buddy is upgrading at Mesa and says that as of today you’re getting flow to UA? I take everything he says with two grains of salt.

Not even close. It's the CPP with more hoops. It's worse.

United:

"What is the selection process?
 If you meet all the eligibility requirements described above, you can apply to Aviate
via AirlineApps.com and via the United portal. Both a profile in AirlineApps.com
and United are required to be completed to continue in the selection process.
 Once your application is submitted, the United hiring team will complete an initial
screening. If selected to continue in the screening process, United will invite to you
interview at the Denver Training Center (or other location, as determined by
United).
 You will spend half a day onsite for the interview, which includes the following four
sections: 1. a panel interview consisting of behavioral-based questions; 2. a
technical interview consisting of aviation-specific topics; 3. a computer-based Leadership Inventory and 4. a computer-based Becoming United cultural
assessment
 Finally, a Board of Review will evaluate your overall application and extend an offer to join Aviate if all screening criteria are met.



American Wholly Owned:

-Complete Initial Interview successfully with carrier and pass training
-Don't be a dirtbag

Well he is kind of an idiot, so it makes sense that he got it wrong. This sounds a lot like the Propel program at Delta. Now kids coming out of college are going to come fly UA Express planes then jump over the captains in the left seat because UA has already vetted them. Meanwhile captains with thousands of hours can’t get a call.

Not sure why they claimed industry leading. It’s the CPP but less vague. Looks like it’s open to all Mesa pilots now nothing said you have to be on the united side. From my understanding of it.

Your buddy is an idiot. United never had a “flow”, and they never will.

Captains at Mesa are still in the running assuming they didn't fail the CPP twice or a combination of CPP and off the street.

What major is flying Boeing's from half a century ago?

I've never seen a regional captain struggle in training. ever.

Oh, you've never heard of Canadian North flying those 737-200's up to BFE Canada? They've had a bunch of people fail out with thousands of hours on those CRJ's.... They can't hack those steam gauges and those archaic turbojet engines with no FADEC's...

This dude is probably some crusty old guy who hates RJ pilots..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_North

Really has nothing to do with being an RJ pilot. Older you get, the slower the learner you become. You can argue all you want, the proof is in the data. The FAA won't hire some one off the street to be an Air Traffic Controller if they won't finish their training by the age of 33? I am 39 and I don't pretend to hang with the 20 year olds. Getting old sucks.

Because government practices are the gold standard. . .

Where's this data that regional old guys going to the majors have issues?

Just FYI, the 737-200 still had turbofan engines.

That is more to due with their very early mandatory retirement age of 56 and pension rules worked out with their labor contracts than anything else.

Never said the older guys fail out. Need to ask friends in the training departments. Often more sims are needed, more prep. Like I said earlier, ultimately it is the training environment that guarantees success, and the majors seem to be of the mindset of obtaining success with everyone they select.

I never said you said they fail out;) However, I keep hearing anecdotal knowledge that older pilots are hard to train. I've heard it too. I've also seen where some young people are difficult too. Just curious if they're is actually any real data.

And I get it, people pass off fact on APC all the time with no actual real knowledge, just hearsay and rumor. Some of the "facts" here are worth as much as I'm paying for.

Well I stand corrected. The JT8D was an improved design on the earlier turbojet engine. Look like a turbojet and smokes like one but is not. Thanks

There's turbofans and there's high bypass turbofans which everyone views as just turbofans these days. Look up the engines used on Convair 880's and 990's if you want some interesting reading.

It’s not just “being older” that makes the former regional lifer CA a difficult pilot to train. He/she is a difficult EMPLOYEE to train. 20+years, most of them as a CA....and now they’re gonna just adapt to being the most junior First Officer on the list. That’s where a lot of the difficulty comes from.

That Aviate call was painful. They answered the same question about 10 times.

That's because each pilots situation is "unique" and couldn't possibly be similar to another pilots....Kinda bummed the webex wasn't working so I couldn't get mine answered...but instead all we heard was the same answer RE: CPP rejects.

I felt bad for the guy that had two fails that called. I thought the call was about to go south. But same I downloaded the app and nothing.

With the attendance look back being full career now I think they just eliminated a bunch of people.

What was his question

I can’t remember exactly but he failed panel interview his first try and hogan his second. He was hoping he could try again through Aviate but he can’t.

I missed it but could someone clarify you need 2000 SIC and PIC? So you need 2000 SIC and another 2000 as PIC or SIC alone is fine? I keep getting conflicted info.

2000 sic is fine. It’s 2000 total. If you upgrade you need to stay at your regional another 6 months. They also said not upgrading doesn’t hurt you.

Sounds like this CPP is more of a hindrance than being an OTS hire. OTS doesn't have to worry about a full career look back!

Yup they made it harder to get hired in exchange for transparency that should have existed the first time.

We have a winner. This is exactly the real issue. It is true that your thinking slows down as you age, but experience is a big help in compensating for that. Training at a legacy is still a ton of work, but these days it is extremely spoon fed compared to what we went through when you showed up cold to 727 systems training. The bottom line is that even though you may not be as quick as you were, it isn’t enough of a hindrance to prevent a person from doing well in training.

Any word on Aviate Success rates from Mesa pilots? Looks low reading the ExpressJet thread