I was hired at Pinnacle with 260.4 hours--I was fine...as an FO.

But I'll argue til I'm blue in the face that no one has any business even trying to upgrade with only 1,000 hours 121 SIC and no other relevant turbine experience--you just have no idea how little you actually know and how fast you can get yourself in a bad situation at that point--you have no business touching a left seat at that level of experience...you're just going to get yourself violated/failed.

I feel very sorry for anyone upgrading at Mesa with 1-1.5 years on the line here and zero other experience flying a jet in the conditions we're expected to operate in safely--you can and will be putting your long-term career at risk if you aren't ready for what that seat entails.

 

TSA will get you turb PIC the fastest, b/c of CQFO.

PSA will prob get you upgraded the fastest, if they don't jeopardize the CLT operation and get too understaffed to cover their committments to Airways (I keep hearing rumors Parker is telling Mesa "don't pull out completely yet, we don't know if PSA can make this happen").

Compass would be my choice in your shoes--built in attrition as long as DAL is hiring, West Coast base options, no stench from the Eagle/Envoy undercutting, great equipment, flying mostly with people who made lateral transfers from other dying regionals over the last 5-8 years. Only regional I'd leave Mesa for if I were stuck as an FO here for more than a year, for my own reasons.

For Mesa, I'd give you a 30% shot at a 1 year upgrade if you were in new hire right now, with your hours and no further deliveries announced. Maybe 50/50 shot of 18 month upgrade.

If we get the second 30 EJets for UAL, you're golden and Mesa is an obvious choice. No idea if or when that'll happen.

It's a crapshoot at any of the above mentioned companies--just the nature of the game. Our CPs at the moment are great, stand-up guys, and life on reserve as an FO or CA is better than my last airline by magnitudes and magnitudes.

 

You speak words of wisdom, and have valid points on the matter. I however can only think about WW2 when kids who barely learned to fly at the private pilot level were thrown into B17's to fly in combat. Obviously different circumstances, but not all doom and gloom as you fear.
Many of the Mesa captains we fly with today upgraded much quicker than 18 months, some almost immediately on the 1900's, was it doom and gloom back then? Before my time, I wouldn't know.

 

Seriously? This is obnoxious for so many reasons.

 

As obnoxious as 23 year old kids flying single seat f22s with 200 hrs total time? Right.

 

ELOHEL, there's the point --------->. and you missed it. Get on my level sport.

 

kids with less time than is required for an FAA commercial can fly 200 mil dollar jets at Mach 2 single pilot IFR. Yet a ready to upgrade FO with 2500 hrs total time and 1000 121 isn't capable of safely flying with another ATP pilot who has at least 1500 hrs, probably more, even if the company and FAA says he can upgrade, and he passes upgrade training and checkride. Your argument is invalid. All has to do with the training and abilities. Hence colgan. How many years and thousands of hours did they have together? Don't be jealous bc you are still an FO after all these years and tying to justify how everyone needs as much right seat time as you to be safe enough to upgrade.

Cue the tl:dr response you use when you can't give a rebuttal.

 

And please tell me how reading ice and cold weather policies, looking at a deicing holdover table, and following checklists for deice procedures necessitates multiple winters in the northeast to understand, and how flipping three switches to turn ice protection on when the ice warning comes on is so difficult. Shooting approaches down to mins, going missed, and doing it again or diverting isn't very difficult. Basic instrument students do it. We do it in sims and on the line. Sorry it took you so long to learn to feel comfortable doing...I feel for you.

 

Are you really trying to compare F22 pilots to the caliber of person hired at Mesa within the last year? ELOHEL. Get off it broseph. You keep this up and I might have to rip off an ROTFLMAO.

Pro Tip- Replying twice to the same post is basically admitting you've been pwned.

I really do feel for Mesa Captains. This guy is barely off IOE and knows it all.

 

Says the guy who has near zero time flying in winter icing conditions. Summarizing flying in a winter storm as "read your manuals and turn your ice on--it's that easy" is EXACTLY why you shouldn't be a 121 Captain at this stage in the game. You're immaturity is dangerous.

Secondly, comparing a military pilot to you is irresponsible. First, an F22 pilot isn't flying passengers around. The military pilots that do fly pax have to go through a right seat program just like you and, unlike you, get intensive training once they reach their operational unit. Most of the flying they do has some kind of training objective. When's the last time you flew with an instructor who actually provided instruction? It happens frequently in the military world. It has happened less than a handful of times since I've started flying.

A military pilots at 250 hours has better airmanship than a civilian pilots with 1000 hours. You shouldn't be comparing yourself to them. You aren't even close to half they pilot an F22 driver is.