Well said. rswitz comments shows his inexperience with this industry. Sadly, he's a soon-to-be ERJ CA too.

A lot of new regional CAs coming online never experienced this industry prior to 117/1500hr rule and it's unfortunate.

Not really. If you get a seniority number at a major, you can reliably predict where you'll end up.

CFI can be ponzi-esque, but in the dark days after 9/11 I still found plenty of work with non-career oriented students. You might have to hustle, as opposed to hanging around the lounge at the puppy mill picking your nose and hoping they put you on the schedule.

This industry is best approached with lots of hustle... once you finish probation at your career destination airline, then you can relax and enjoy.

From firsthand anecdotal experience, I disagree. I do believe there are some stick and rudder, hand-eye-coordination skills from flying 1500 hours ASEL, but 121 is a totally different world. If anything, I'd say there's negative transfer from a Cessna to a jet (the ol' chop and drop, for example, that has wrecked airplanes). Even the SA gained from flying VFR everywhere with students is totally different from 121 IFR. I think there are much better ways to ensure high-quality airline pilots and the FAA should redesign a separate training pipeline for people who want to be career airline pilots. The current system of piling high-interest pilot training debt on student loan debt, then taking a barely liveable wage for a few years to time build, is just not that enticing to most 19 year olds.

Does anyone remember the 1990's? Regionals wouldn't look at you unless you had 1500TT/250 Multi and then you had to fork over $10,000 to pay for your training.

Didn't have $10,000 for an $18,000/yr job? That's okay. Eagle would hire you without pay-for-training, but now you needed 2,000TT and 500 multi.

Kids these days.

And get off my lawn, too.

It's probably more about being the PIC and command mentality than it is about stick-and-rudder skills, although both matter.

If the economics don't work, then the airlines can pay for time-building. They're pursuing waivers for the 1500 rule simply because it's cheaper than time building.

Our system in the US is very safe, and is not comparable to most foriegn systems. Look at accident stats over the last 10-20 years, especially the last decade... those numbers paint a stark picture, way too stark to write off as statistical anomalies. I can count on the fingers of one hand the foriegn carriers who I would consider to be equivalent to US safety. And our regionals are our soft under-belly as it is.

forums.flightinto.com

may it Rest In Peace

You just made me go look.....

It's just flightinfo.com btw.

I get the feeling 1500 hours was an arbitrary number and most guys learn more about being an airline pilot from sims and OE than all of their 1500 hours combined, so there must be a faster way to condense that experience. But you make a good point that our safety record is significantly better than most overseas airlines and everybody I fly with uses autopilot because they're lazy, not because they have to, so the process is working.

Reminds me of the Ethiopian 737Max crash. The FO had, if I recall, 250 hours. None of that was as a GA pilot, no decision making. How much of the minimal number of hours at Ethiopian was “Keep you ideas to yourself. Keep your hands in your lap. Just operate the radio.”

Hehehehehe, excellent post.