Just like any 121 new hire training, expect to study your butt off. My roommate and sim partner made it a point to study till about 9pm every night after class and one full day on the weekend. We gave ourselves one weekend day to unwind and do whatever. Overall I think the training was pretty decent. If you come prepared, especially for sim, they are more willing to work with you a little extra. Also, since class sizes are pretty small, it's very easy to get one-on-one assistance. Everybody wants to see you succeed.

 

Pilots are focused like tunnel vision on jet PIC. Some guys have 5, some have 500, some have 5000. If this was all that the airlines cared about, the effects would be obvious and known. If you are the one that has sacrificed everything to get 5000 without branching out, bringing in experience from other areas, improving your education (and experience), and so on, you can expect more difficulty in getting hired, despite having "x" amount of turbine PIC. HR groups do not have tunnel-vision anywhere near this bad. Otherwise, they wouldn't hire military pilots that have so many fewer hours. I know you said "all other things being equal", but suppose for a few seconds that they are not, and you are a check airman for a turboprop vs. someone that became a "jet FO" at all costs, or any one of many scenarios that would play out in your favor.

 

Awesome! Glad to see it has finally been updated. I submitted an update for that almost a month ago

To answer the other question about training, I thought the training was excellent. Everyone is friendly and really wants you to make it through. Now that the pay rates have improved I really think CommutAir will be more competitive in attracting pilots

 

I agree except I don't think FMS or glass time is too important. Although I have no idea if they consider EFIS glass time, I would suspect not. People that say you need pure jet time are largely RJ FO's that want to justify why they are still in the right seat at a regional IMO.

 

Although jet time is always demanding and valuable. Just because you have a prop background will not eliminate you from getting a job with the legacy or any major. I have a very good friend with Delta who is a check airmen on the 767 and he has been with Delta for 25 plus yrs and is coming close to retirement. The number one advise he has given me is to get the PIC turbine time whether its on a jet or prop will not matter. He said when you have a 5000/6000 hr candidate with no 121 PIC vs a 3000-4000 hr Prop guy with 1000plus PIC, more than likely he will get the offer unless other credentials of the jet guy are impressive. I have a very good friend who just got on with United and his background was with 2 regionals flying the Dash 8 and Beech 1900D and he just finished his IOE with United on 737. So i dont think the type matters its the quality of time and experience that matters.

 

Blah, I've seen many,many jet FOs with 0 pic time hired into LCC's and majors recently.... Your friend is out of touch with the current hiring trend.
Hiring doesn't soley depend on flight time either.... Network, network, network, that's the game nowadays.

 

True but those Jet FOs have been warming the right seat of a RJ or some jet for 6-8 years guaranteed before even being considered for a interview. Now unless they know someone from the hiring board in that case yes network is the key, but many legacy carriers who hire on merit STILL prefer 121 PIC TIME over jet and my friend is not the only source, I have lists of various people from the majors to support my point. Maybe carriers like Jetblue, Spirit or VX hire from right seat and that is true as some of my friends who were RJ FOs did go on to these carriers but if your aiming for a legacy like Delta, United or American than PIC time is almost guaranteed to be required to meet the competitive applications my friend.

 

Ultimately it probably boils down to competitive qualifications in the group of people interviewing that day (not withstanding the other details that go into choosing a candidate).

Let's say 12 people interview that day. All the interviewers might get together at the end of the day in a round table fashion and discuss the candidates. They might decide that 10 out of every 12 will make it through, 2 will receive a no thank you. They repeat this process every day.

 

Company memo out yesterday, closure of Cleveland base effective in July. All flying out of EWR and IAD with possible ALB base. All MX to ALB.

 

I can think of a few guys that would be very happy with an ALB base.