Mesa is staffing up their Dash 8 operations right now. There's a very good chance you will end up on that. Educated guess: next most likely piece of equipment would be the CRJ, followed by the ERJ. ERJ operations in Orlando are very well-staffed at this point.

 

Thats the funniest thing I've read on here in a while. I guess if your business plan is to hitch your wagon to the sinking ship with the red tail and be used as a tool to whipsaw the "other" NWA regional, then yes, they have that down solid....
I interviewed with Pinnacle back in January and I can honestly say I was NOT impressed by the company. Got the runaround from HR twice regarding interview date and location. I gave plenty of notice and moved my interview date up a week due to schedule and convenience issues and then a week later, AFTER I had interviewed, I got an angry call from Paola (head of HR) because I was not there to interview. I could only laugh because I had talked to her and her assistant several times in the previous weeks regarding the interview date. After the fact, someone familiar with Pinnacle told me their HR department was a bit of a cluster. Made me glad that I avoided that whole mess all together.

 

They probably send you all to PHX for Indoc since that's pretty much the same regardless of where and what you fly. Might even do systems in PHX too. Depending on what airplane you get and sim availability, you will probably be shipped to where the sims are located.

 

No 1900, that would be in Kansas.

Jungle drums say most likely D-8, maybe ERJ, possibly CRJ.

You may have a split class in which case you will have an opportunity to request a certain airplane (no guarantees).

 

Interviewed on Wednesday, offered a seat in class starting monday. Talk about hard up! Anyway, I was told the staffing is for the Dash 8 and my upgrade to captain would be in conjunction with my training. I've spoken to a few guys that have done this, and it seems that as long as you perform through IOE, the captain spot is yours.

I seem to be catching the tail end of the captain hiring? Anyone know how many more capts they still need? I'm unable to survive on what they pay the F/O's. Like to know how sure the reality of getting Cpt is.

Who else has been through this route? Dash 8 Capt from the street? Any words of recent experience and wisdom? Besides that fact that it's Mesa, how has it worked out for you?

Thanks

 

Ronin, don't know about that airline but at ASA back around.... 1999 we were in a bind for captains because we switched to the ICAO capt mins (3,000 total + some other crap) and there was an "off the street" captain new hire in the upgrage class I was in. This was on the EMB 120 at the time and our director of trng was a ball buster. One of those how many rivets are on the hot section kind of guys......
The captain newhire was a very sharp guy with previous 121 experience and he struggled. It is an enormous undertaking to learn a pain in the butt aircraft all the time you are being preped to have a captain level knowledge of the SP (standard practice) company regs, policy, etc.

So, if you have 121 experience and the program is not too much of a ball buster, you can do it. If it is a difficult aircraft or tough program... maybe not.

The other thing to consider is, if they are hireing off the street captains, that should mean they have exhausted their current FO's who qualify to upgradge. Consider the right seat for trng, do the IOE maybe a month on line then, put in for the upgrade. Rumor has it at ASA, when we had our off the street program this is what most of them ended up doing.

Bonne Chance

 

I don't know if I'd leave a stable job for that...

Normal attrition on the dash training program is VERY high, like 30%+. No good reason, they are just tools. Street CA attrition I assume would be higher still...

 

I'm guessing it is a cost issue, but Mesa should probably utilize a sim eval as part of their interview process. That would likely lower their washout rate.

 

I like your way of thinking.

Here is my take.....if you want to move on from the regionals, you need PIC turbine. If Mesa offers a quick upgrade I would go there. Suck it up.....get at least 1500-2000 PIC turbine before you make a move anywhere. You will never lose that time once you have it and you definitely won't get anywhere decent without it. Unless you plan on making Eagle a career, I would steer clear. PIC Turbine is the key. Good Luck.

 

STEP AWAY FROM THE KOOL AID!

That's the same thing you hear the Mesa interviewees saying post interview on aviationinterviews.com too...neither is a place to hang your hat.