If you want to travel out of the country you cannot jumpseat.

 

Well, and the not so advertised company requirement for 1000me PIC thing in addition to 1000 SIC hours, with SIC time counting for .5 hour for every hr of SIC...making the upgrade 2-3 years by default for anyone hired with low multi time. Oh, the fine print that is buried behind the quick upgrade rhetoric and advertising...

 

The qual worksheet was made pre far117. The Only thing you need is 1000 121 sic (per far 117) which satisfies the worksheet total of 1000 anyway.

 

How's the reserve grid look like in dfw for February? Phx is red/black about 1/3 of the time.

 

Either you need to recheck the captain qual worksheet or the company needs to change the worksheet on pilot lounge if it's outdated bc your info is inconsistent with what's on there. And no 1000sic doesn't satisfy the " (3) Total PIC: Must be equal to or greater than 1,000 per Mesa CBA" requirement when it clearly says .5 credit for SIC hours towards that requirement. Pilot lounge/bidding hub/captain qual worksheet. What am I missing? If it's a CBA thing it's not something that can just be arbitrarily dropped, right?

 

You're missing the actual contract language:

"7. The provisions of E.1. above may be waived at the discretion of the Company as long as the requirements of B.1., of this section are met."

Although the company CAN waive everything but the FAR requirements, it is not currently doing so, therefore the captain qualification worksheet on the pilot lounge. The worksheet was obviously updated after the new rules because it references them.

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I wouldn't be surprised if they stop giving AA benefits to EJet pilots, as they are solely devoted to the UAX operation, and there is no way for Mesa to justify that to AA/Airways (unless we ever get EJets for AA/Airways).

In the CRJ bases, it's easy to justify having all pilots on both systems, since reserves frequently cover flying in both systems.

If you're on the EJet (or going to it) don't be surprised if this happens--airlines do stuff like this all the time, and mainline mergers almost never result in better deals for any regional.

 

Yes and no. You can't cockpit jumpseat, but you can cabin-only jumpseat on any US airline Mesa has a reciprocal jumpseat agreement with, subject to the appropriate taxes/fees.

If you encounter the wrong gate agent, UAL/Airways might give you a hard time about why you aren't in the non-rev system. And foreign gate agents are notoriously bad at even comprehending what "jumpseat" means, but it's doable if you know what you're doing and how to explain it.

Additionally, some of our jumpseat agreements are restricted to "number of cabin jumpseaters limited to number of cockpit jumpseats installed in a/c." So, for example, if it's a 757 w/2 cockpit jumpseats, they might only allow 2 cabin jumpseaters total from all airlines.

I've ridden in the back on Polar/Atlas, Delta, Continental, and even an NWA cargo 747 in the past--if there is a "cabin" separated by the cockpit by a secure door (with the exception of FDX/UPS, due to their policies), you can jumpseat in the cabin internationally.

 

^^^exactly

Sample calculation--let's say you came in with:

250 hrs multi-PIC
0 hours prior 121 SIC
0 hours 135(k) turbine PIC or military PIC

...then, you fly 1,000 hours SIC for Mesa.

Per the bare minimum updated FARs (121.436), you essentially just need your ATP + 1,000 hours SIC/PIC in 121 ops. Military turb PIC & 135(k) turbine PIC (>19 seats) counts towards your 1,000 hours.

However, per Mesa's CBA (as currently enforced by mgmt/union) you need 250 more hours PIC (or 500 more hours SIC).

I for one am overwhelmingly in favor of this requirement, and I think they should be way more restrictive (Mesa's reqs are less restrictive than any regional I am aware of). You have absolutely zero business being in command of an airliner with only 1,000 hours of 121 time and nothing else but 1,500 hours in a prop plane/CFIing. You haven't had your ass handed to you enough times, and you haven't had enough time to really, truly develop the instincts/self-knowledge required to be in that seat.

And honestly, if you think you're ready to be a Captain on an EJet/700/900 after 1 year of flying 121--with no other similar experience whatsoever--you're just going to hurt your career in the long-run. Taking command at that level of experience puts you at a much higher risk of accidents, incidents, and violations. How are you going to take the controls from a new hire FO when the plane slips over to the edge of the runway in a 35 knot xwind gust--with any authority--when you're basically still a new hire yourself? And have never landed in a 35 knot crosswind in a jet yourself?

Put a guy on reserve in PHX for 1-year (ppl are holding it out of new hire now), throw him in a left seat exactly 1,000 hours later, and he's done what? Maybe 1 landing on a contaminated runway? Maybe 3-5 approaches at the end of a max FDP in blowing snow at 1600 RVR at night? Maybe a handful of diversions/holds where he actually had to pay attention to his fuel status? How many go-arounds/real emergency situations has he ecountered? One? Zero?

I'm terrified of the current experience level at which Mesa allows people to upgrade--let's not go any lower.

 

Yeah. That will bite a lot of unsuspecting quick upgrade types. Especially those, like me, with low multi time when hired. But if street captains are true, I see the company relaxing this requirement before they hire street captains.