evrbodysmugglin

I actually sincerely applaud all of our pilots that move on. I wouldn’t wish a long stint here for anyone. Including you.

I will still mentor new pilots. I will still bend over backwards to advise on a better path than I took. I will still tell them what it’s like when the door slams shut in a downturn hoping they may never have to feel that sting. I will still buy coffee and lunch for new FOs.

Your personal insults don’t affect me in the least. I know where I stand at this airline and my friends here are many.

Facts are facts. Even if it hurts your feelings. Rotor guys take more time in the system on average. Do most of them make it? Of course they do. This program rewards good attitude over aptitude. I agree with that philosophy.

Duffman

I don't think the issue has anything to do with work ethic or natural talent, it's just a totally different flying environment with different challenges that you're not gonna learn from a book. You can read the AOM and do your flows all day long, but it takes a few flights to figure out the pacing, the significance of things that aren't made obvious from the book, etc, and whenever you discover a hole in your knowledge, it's going to be a distraction and have a cascading effect, so it takes experience to iron everything out. I can't imagine Army rotor guys frequently do SIDs to J routes to STARs to IAPs into Class B airports in hard IFR (basically, the airline profile), now throw in all the distractions of learning to fly a passenger jet vs a tactical helicopter (after thousands of hours in said helicopter) and I can see where it's a firehose to get proficient in 12ish sims

sokolcela

Keep driving on RTP dudes, the industry has taken notice of the skillset and work ethic you bring to the table. RTPs are growing at all regionals. A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinion of sheep.

AZFlyer

More like the (regional) industry has become so desperate for butts in seats that a subset of aviators that would have never otherwise been considered for the job are now being given a crack at it.

phrogfella

everybodysmugglin, armypilot1981, AZFlyer, and sokolcela aren’t speaking for us all and seem to be forgetting that on the line it’s “us” not “we” or “them”. I’ve been fortunate that every pilot that I’ve flown with, regardless of training source, has been a great person to share a flightdeck with. We need to keep this RTP debate silliness out of our pilot group and keep our eye on the prize, which is enjoying work and staying safe until it’s our time to move on to bigger and better things.

PDTFlyer

RTP and MTP guys are great, everybdysmugglin is simply saying they require more attention for a bit. I agree, I also believe they’ve absolutely earned it considering the blank check they wrote for this country up to and including their life. I have zero issues helping them out or coaching them a bit if it’s needed. They all have had great humble attitudes and are a pleasure to be around. That far outweighs the additional supervision and assistance they sometimes require.

AZFlyer

You're misunderstanding the argument. No one dislikes the RTP guys as people. Everyone of them that I have met and flown with have all been good guys, professional, and with good attitudes. However, every single one of them that I've flown with have also displayed flying skills that are where I would expect someone to be at with a majority of helo time and only ~250-300 hours of light-piston fixed wing experience (and many of them had their fixed wing flying logged a number of years ago).

The market for pilots has gotten to a point that pilots with a considerable lack of relevant experience to jet 121 flying are being recruited because not enough pilots with a more desirable flying background are applying for the job. That's the point here. The airlines didn't just have a sudden epiphany about the outstanding attitudes and trainability of military aviators...the airlines have known that for decades.

This comes at a very real and tangible cost to the airlines in the form of greater time spent on average in the training pipeline for the RTP guys compared to most candidates with a more traditional flying background. It's naive to believe that the airlines (regionals in particular) are choosing to spend more money than they would have otherwise had to for the purpose of attracting pilots with a largely dissimilar flying background.

SunnyFL

Does anyone have an email for recruiting? I went through the website and the email listed defaulted to a us airways email and I never got a response back from a recruiter. (Starting to wonder if the domain name is defunct since it was us airways)

I'm essentially seeing how long out from mins they will interview.

Thanks!

PeteyT

No kidding. Why would anyone come to PDT in 2019? Slow time building, low pay rates AND fewer hours credited/month, terrible schedules, old beat up jet, no planned growth so seniority is slowing to a crawl, better airlines at the same domiciles, upgrade time will go up by several years if they don't start growing again...

Piedmont doesn't have anything that better airlines don't have.

But if you're a masochist, or just a little slow, the email address is on their recruiting page. Click "Schedule an Interview".

Otterbox

Used to be six months for civilian track and three months for MTP probably hasn’t changed too much.