Are you serious? This is why, we are in the pickle we are currently in. WhyThe F would messa, raise anything, just offer a shiny 175 and a few sheckles for a bonus and moron pilots will be jumping from regional to regional chasing an elusive rainbow. Checkers vs 4 D chess.

 

Calm down man. Mesa contract requires vacancies to be filled by the senior qualified, eligible pilot. I believe the company is concerned there are a bunch of junior FOs whose seniority may be able to hold CA, but are not FAR qualified to be PIC. This has happened before at Mesa and I don't know of any significant numbers of "bypassed" FOs that left. There is no bypass pay for unqualified FOs. As soon as they become qualified, they upgrade in seniority order and slide in ahead of the people that were junior to them but upgraded before they did.

Nothing to see here...move along.

 

Street captains maybe and I tell you why. If they are qualified captains with experience and the mental capacity to make intelligent decisions. I'm fine with that. This is why, of the FO's I have been flying with. 20% I would send a recomendation letter in for upgrade. Mostly previous Q-400 or jet 121 people. Another 20% percent need at least one more year on top of what they have flown now. 30% percent need at least 2 more years from now. And about 30% need more than 2 or possibly should never be allowed in the left seat of a airliner. This is just as far as making captain decisions and handling the aircraft in adverse weather with no autopilot. Now some will slip through. But if the numbers of capable captains as far as what I'm seeing are company wide. We will need qualified captains off the street. BUT NO ONE's SENIORITY SHOULD GET BYPASSED!

 

I just question how water tight the contract is at Mesa. If it includes strong bypass pay and seniority protection then all is good I guess.

I just have a crash pad filled with Mesa new hires that the only reason they are there is Mesa quoting 18 month upgrades. Street Captains would blow that up for sure.

 

I would think that everyone's seniority would stay the same. The street captain would face reserve for a very long time. But would receive captain pay.

 

How about instead of street captains, the company hires more prior 121 guys who have the 1000 or close to 1000 hours, and as the need arises for captains, go down the seniority list for qualified captains. If street captains were truly needed, then brand new to mesa prior 121 FOs would then be eligible for upgrade assuming they get 2 letters of Rec. Basically what Mesa is doing now. What if some crappy FO with 2k hours from another carrier, who shouldn't be a captain, applied for the street captain program and became a street captain at Mesa with no real screening process or time at Mesa on the line, carrying over another airlines way of doing things and questionable decision making, or at least unchecked. Instead, if mesa had a 3-6 month upgrade time, prior 121 guy comes over, goes thru initial with all other new hires, does IOE, gets some letters of Rec, then bids to upgrade. I think that would work out better for everyone, and I don't know of any FOs that would be upset with that. Speculation on my part is we don't have any carrots left to dangle other than rumors. Bad contract, no new flying announced, quick upgrade music stopped. And what better rumor than the ever present more flying and now possible street captains to get more people in the applicant pool.

With the high number of prior 121 guys hired over the spring of 14 (maybe earlier?) thru now, I seriously doubt we are lacking enough FOs with 1000 121 hours to fill the left seat. And in the next 6 months we will have hundreds of people hired in 2013 and 2014 who have 1000 hours at Mesa alone. I think filling the right seat will be the problem. And rumors of a shortage of left seaters is a good way to solve that.

 

You need letters of Rec to Upgrade?

 

I can't wait to take my street Captainship and lord over all ya all in the mighty RJ.

 

Does mesa rehire people who previously washed out? If so, you can be my captain anytime.

 

Blah blah blah! You're silly if you think your going time it just right and pick the perfect regional to go to. Every single new hire who is hired before you, beat you. Yes you need letters of rec, there's some who just will not upgrade.
Don't stand on the sidelines too long and think, it's called paralysis from over analysis. Throw your hat into the ring and get on with the show if your serious. There's plenty of others who are saying yes and getting in ahead of you.
I wouldn't worry about street captains, perhaps some Skywest or Envoy people who are sick of being on the 8 to 10 year upgrade path will jump ship to get a 1000 tpic and bail out as quickly as they can.
We will get more flying, key is, you want to be at the airline before they announce it.
I'll say it again, everything is **** luck.