Progress check:

What is this stage of the thunderstorm known as?

A. Mature
B. Cumulative
C. Dissipating
D. Dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a weatherman

Maybe I read it wrong, but I don't think he was being sarcastic. I thought your explanation was spot on. My timing was absolutely horrible and I got hit with 9/11, 2008 recession and age 65. I think it is pretty exciting that someone getting in the industry right now won't have to deal with all of that, but there most likely will be something that comes up in their career. Someone with 1,500 hours looking for a job right now will definitely have a different experience that what I had coming in. And hopefully they have empathy and will listen to the more veteran folks when we don't want to sell out scope or QOL for a few extra dollars and promises from management.

I'm absolutely with ya and hit everything at the worst possible time. Five furloughs and six airlines later I'm starting again. Guys coming out of school now have it made, and I'm glad for them...obviously we don't have any control over when we are born. I'm just hoping for a shot this time around at making it end as I had envisioned. These are indeed exciting times!

I applaud all of you who stuck with it, through (mostly) thin. The upheavals, hard times, stress, uncertainty; all of it must have taken quite a toll on many families. I feel so lucky to be getting into this career today, but will always remember that it wasn't so good, for so many, for so long. Congrats on sticking it out, and may the rest of your years in this industry be much easier than the past has been.

True, but the point I'm trying to make is that there are "newly minted CFIs " . There are enough of them to go to Skywest and there are enough of them to go to XJT and stagnate. I might believe there was a pilot shortage if those 78 new hires were dispersed amongst all the regionals. But 78 for ONE regional? Lots of pilots out there.

I tend to agree with you. I guess we would have to look into the data ie number of student starts, number of cfi's issued, number of new people added to seniority lists each month etc..

Validation, need much?

And 63 seniority list members went to different pastures. 12 were training departures, so when you get hired for your ability to fog a mirror and get to the training facility on the right day don't think that it's in the bag, you got your assigned sims and a maximum of 10 additional hours of sim to get it to type ride standards. Don't forget the additional risk of IOE, every thing you do and touch is being notated for posterity. 10% are going home without an ID. And no, the panic at the corporate level is palpable, and the training department is getting very astute at deciding when to cut the losses and buy you a ticket home. In my class 1 of 6 new hires went home without an ID.
Assuming you make it through IOE you still have the luxury of probation and working for at an at will company. The deal is never truly sealed. PRIA is not your friend either.....

This might be the most depressing write up of the first year at a regional I've ever heard....

Whaaaaa......these are definitive verifiable facts.
Reality bites?
Anybody that thinks that any airline, even a regional, is going to incur the liability of putting a marginally qualified pilot in a turbojet aircraft, filled with paying passengers, is delusional. It might get away for a while, but ask where Colgan, Comair and Pinchanickle are today. This fogging a mirror hiring policy will come to a screeching halt once the first 175 hits a mountainside, or goes off the end of the runway and burns. The next legislation will make 117 look like unicorn hair and rainbows, combined with Korean soft core porn. And it won't be written by the industry, it will be written by legislators who's feet are being roasted by the victims families, and history.
Simple economics:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/bu...fe&st=cse&_r=0
Take all the seats, multiply by a number of your liking, and at 175 levels it comes closer to Trump money than Ghandi numbers.