DO NOT use the Will Fly List. By volunteering your time on your days off to fly, you are preventing the company from junior manning in reverse seniority order from a draft list, thus possibly harming other pilots by preventing a trigger of critical coverage.

 

Yup. You are hurting other pilots and yourself by doing this.

 

This is how I read it also, but there are people that were not PIC at another airline that are currently upgrading before they get 100 hours SIC at PSA. That is what I do not understand.

 

Well they will probably just get the 100 hours as PIC right? You still have to do IOE etc.. as Captain.

 

There is no regulatory requirement to consolidate as a First Officer before upgrading. The clock will reset with your upgrade PC and you will have to get 100 hours in 120 days as a Captain.

 

I personally got my 100 hours in the right seat before being awarded CA. I was told those that do not get their 100 as SIC can get their consolidation hours as CA, but OE hours will not be counted.

 

first 3 days of May went critical whats up with that?

 

Feels like PSA is stirring up a perfect storm with all the backlog in training, the constant stream of new aircraft, and its inability to keep up with the growth. They are just not graduating enough FOs to keep up with the airframes because of their training department.

Two months ago, when I interviewed, the wait from DOH to IOE was about 4 months, which was about 1 month more than average. At that point, we heard they were going to be adding a ton of new check airmen and more instructors.

2 months have passed and I hear that DOH to IOE is getting upwards towards 5-6 months. This is quite a waste of money to be shelling out for pilots to just sit around and do nothing waiting for their turn, not to mention how much you forget of the material since you're not constantly keeping yourself current during those long breaks.

I also got an E-mail from the training department telling me they had switched our class from the CRJ 700/900 to the CRJ 200. So, I just spent a ton of time learning the limitations for the 700, only to now have to re-learn new numbers again for the 200. I don't mind it, cause I'd be flying all 3.....but....it's confusing to have to go back and forth, especially now in the beginning.

 

They are adding check airmen as fast as they can, but it is still backed up. If they had planned ahead, this problem would not be occurring. It is simply a failure to plan type of problem. I do think the time will start coming down again, and would expect it to plateau at about 6 weeks from sims to IOE.

Right now, pilots are worth a lot of money to a company, and they don't seem to mind paying you to sit at home for 2 months waiting for IOE. Yes, you do forget some things, but the LCA's understand this and are patient (at least the majority of them) for the first few flights.

I actually enjoyed the first month off. I knew I wasn't going to get called and traveled freely.

 

You left out one very important paragraph -- in order to be able to take advantage of Option B (hours logged at other airlines), you must have a bid on file for a captain vacancy prior to the next award.

Those impacted the most are pilots with previous 121 experience who are currently in training -- they might have 3,000 hours PIC, but if they aren't eligible to put in a bid for an upgrade, they will have to fly the 300 hours before they are.