Mesa Upgrade Time
 

It's getting very very scary at Mesa. The latest upgrade was awarded to a 09/25/07 hire date. Considering it is taking about 5 months to get through the training at Mesa, this means that this person has probaly been online for a month. I talked to a pilot in the crew room yesterday who was awarded upgrade. I asked him what his times were on the CRJ and he said he had about 300 hours in the right seat. I asked him what he flew before this and he said a CESSNA 182! I think I am going to upgrade just so I don't have to fly with these people. Oh, and the latest rumor mill is that negotiations on the new contract went well and the union will make an announcement today that we have a TA to vote on. We shall see.

Yea, these 300 hour wonder captains are going to be a real hoot. I was petrified with 1300 in the jet and 2 years at the company.

They say you get 2 buckets when you upgrade- 1 is full and labeled "LUCK", the other is empty and labeled "EXPERIENCE". You hope the empty one fills up before the other one goes dry.

Let's see if the 3rd bucket that Mesa hand you (the one you bleed your life into) goes away in a few hours. I am still skeptical, but it sure would be nice to get the pressure off.

I cannot believe that Mesa is already hiring street captains. I'm glad I work and a better regional with an industry leading contract. Yes, while I'm sitting here in the right seat building valuable SIC time, I'll be laughing at all those mesa guys who are now sitting left seat building worthless PIC time. Sure, they will get to a Legacy Airline sooner than most, but I'm sure glad at the end of the day I can say that I worked for a better regional than they did...even though they will now be making more than me at their new airline.:rolleyes:

"My regional is better than yours":D

Heck, seeing as how most legacy carriers don't require PIC right now, it don't really matter do it? Go to a good regional and stop hating life... that's my .02
:cool:

WOW. I can't believe people are still going there.

I'm not usually a big doom and gloom guy, but it would seem that if they are rolling the dice this way, something bad is going to happen. And soon.

2006 Comair accident....something bad like that?

Not sticking up for Mesa, or agree with having super low time Capt, but BAD things can and do happen to any sized airline, regardless of status.

I hope you are not suggesting that 5191 had anything to do with experience. Both were very experienced pilots. It just goes to show that accidents can happen to anyone at anytime and anywhere, no matter what your experience level may be. Between human fators, environmental factors, fatigue, stress, etc... many things can add up to be an unfortunate set of circumstances and sometimes experience can only help so much.

I think that was his point.

If they beat you to the majors they win and you lose... bottom line.

Secondly if they lose more planes I bet we'll see these wonder upgrades stop.