GA Flying TO Regional Transition
 

I read on another thread that many guys in new regional classes have prior 135 or military, with the military guys only at the regional to get recency before moving on. My question is how are the 1500-hour GA-only guys in class doing? How can these guys best get ready for their first 121 job?

My new hire class was a class of 15 CFIs. We didn't have a single pilot in the class who had logged any turbine time. The ground school instructors said that it was the first time they remember having a class where no one had any turbine experience. All 15 passed on the first try with no one having to retake any of the tests and no one needing extra time on IOE.

To some extent people with prior 121 time actually do worse in interviews and training at least when it comes to lateral moves. They're overconfident and don't study enough. CFIs who have never flown a jet are nervous and study like crazy to make sure they don't screw it up.

To best get ready for a 121 job put 50 of the dumbest people you know in a room and give them a simple task, then micromanage them until they manage to get it done.

Same way everyone did it before the 1500 rule...show up like you want to learn and you'll be fine.

The guys who suck are the ones with tons of time who think they know it all...

Do CFI's who have primarily taught only primary (as opposed to Instrument or multi) have a harder time, or is 172 flying to RJ flying a big enough change that it doesn't matter?

Regionals are taking anyone with a pulse, Mesa is hiring you over the phone, there is nothing to worry about. Go to class and don't be a ********, you'll be fine.

Instrument and multi will make it easier, but it is all relative. Just be ready to learn, be open, honest and humble and you should do fine. Show up with a cocky attitude and you will have 7 weeks of misery.

Last I heard, more applicants fail than pass SkyWest interview.

No problems at all. Easy to teach a new person

That's probably true for a lot of non-bottom feeder regionals. I've heard from quite a few people that even the Great Lakes interview and training process is very difficult and has a lot of washouts. I've heard from people in hiring at a few different regionals that lately a lot of people have showed up to interviews with attitude problems. They said it seems like people are going into the interview thinking that since there's a shortage no one will turn them down.

FWIW I was turned down by two regionals before interviewing with Skywest and passing the interview. I don't think the Skywest interview is really that much harder than most other regional interviews. I do think they have less of a tolerance for arrogance in the interview than some other regionals though. That might be the reason for their failure rate.

Coming exclusively from round dials, I had a hard time absorbing or even noticing the 150 pieces of info displayed on just one of the MFD's.

Some instructors love to bust your ballz over knowing what every little * and carat means on the display. That said, I think it would help to familiarize yourself with the display you are going to use. Likewise, familiarizing yourself with the generalities of how Pressurization-Aircon. systems work, and turbine theory would be just a little less you would have to learn from zero. I know a lot of airlines now just give you a DVD to self-study from, so that may be all that's necessary.