No they may not be violating an FAR, however, any POI that allows this must be.........Anyways, at Focus Air Cargo we had ERAU cadets that were going to work administrative jobs for a year and then get hired as 747 F/Es. Our POI took a look at that and said the 747 F/E position is not an entry level position. It's just my humble opinion that the RJ is not an entry level airplane either.
Makes me wonder.....

 

I agree with you philosophically, but the law is crystal clear and a POI doesn't have the authority to add experience reqirements over what the FAR's specify.

Our current commercial license requirements came out of a by-gone era...that level of experience should be limited to what it was originally developed for: smallish, unpressurized, recip airplanes.

Turbine and 121 pilots should have an ATP, period.

 

[COLOR=black]I agree that the FAA CPL course standards and requirements are ridiculously low. I think modern times call for different approaches. For example; the JAA has recently changed the CPL license knowledge requirements to ATPL standards. This means that you have to take a 6-12 month theoretical course before you can even start to fly. I think the professional pilot education should be MUCH more academic than it is now, possibly changing it into a University like program. How many "fresh" commercial pilots really know how their plane works? Increasing the demands on pilot students would also root out some of the plonkers that shouldn’t be there in the first place and resolve the later trainability issue. This would mean that the airlines would no longer require a 4-year degree to ensure trainable people. It is ridiculous that you need to be a dentist or speach pathologist to become a pilot! Flying is for pilots! Raise the CPL standards so we can focus on flying, get fewer but better pilots and increased wages. I have no quarrels with the stick portion of the FAA CPL test though.

 

Wait a minute, 200 hours with inst commercial? Who the hell is going to spend 50k on their ab initio program now?? Seems like the PACE program is the only option that makes any sense in what they offer.

 

The sad thing about MAPD's is that they paid the money and Mesa is taking 250 hour comm guys who didn't. about 2 months ago half the new hire class was 250 hour guys that just went to regular flight schools like ALL of you did. does that make them bad for taking the job? I'll let you guys fight about that one, but almost half of them failed the new hire class so I guess the #'s still speak for themselves.

I will say that I have flown with a couple of MAPD's that have been with the company for over a year and did an excellent job as far as I was concerned but I guess it's those first few months that everyone is worried about right

 

This is a serious question. NOT trying to start an argument, or new thread. But, how many hours does a "new" military pilot have (or HAVE to have) to do a "mission" (or whatever it's called) in the cockpit alone? (not solo the aircraft)

 

The problem is, unlike other professions where unions have set standards to enter the industry, the pilots unions have done nothing. Plumbers and Electricians have set standards, and professions like teachers doctors lawyers all have education requirements, what then of being a pilot? If the pilot profession is to be saved there needs to be standards high enough to weed out the everyday guy from entering it. Only then may you demand more for being a pilot. Until then, the profession will disintegrate into an uneducated bus driving like job. The time to do something has past and these are the results. Instead of rolling eyes and watching whats happening you should all fire your unions and demand a legitimate union that will prevent these things from happening and put the pilot career on the right path.
You can train almost anyone to be a pilot. It is not about whether the training program will work or not, because obviously it does. The goal is to place other barriers to entering the profession. Anyone do plumbing and electric by reading a book, its the 5 year apprenticeship that acts as a barrier to prevent joe blow from opening his own shop next to yours.

 

You know what, times are changing, if Mesa was the only one that had this offer I would be furious about it. However look around, there are rumors of industry wide 250 hour minimums. As much as we like to put blame on MESA, it's not them. Companies just can't find pilots so they have to lower mins. You can't blame them and pilots taking these deals. Back then it was 2500 now it's 250, we just have to deal with it.

 

It's funny how airlines will lower standards instead of raising pay.

 

Like I said, I am not a grad but around 70% of my classmates came from MAPD. They are great people, they all interviewed, and were hired b/c they are good pilots with a strong ability to learn.

The good news is, they fly with captains with plenty of flight time who help them aclimate to the job. True, it takes them 2-4 years to meet upgrade requirements, but by the time they do, they are very good at what they do.

Most of the MAPD guys are sent to the CRJ, an airplane that all of them have taken the systems class for, and have roughly 40 hours of sim time in, from the right and left seat. They have already completed a mock oral exam, and taken different versions of the written tests that the rest of us hadn't seen before.