Piedmont does still have best flow ratio wise so def great place to come, out of the wholly owned.. In my opinion.

While not the best possible outcome for those anticipating a September or October flow, I'm pretty sure any rational person would agree that their training department will find a way to adapt rather than spiral into oblivion.....


Pilots are so dramatic. Crack open a beer, and enjoy higher seniority and triple premium while you have it rather than worrying about American Airlines training department's decent into chaos.....

So you guys have a little more clarity about the cause of no NH classes at mainline and therefore no AA flow for a few months:

Primarily due to the reduction in airframes in the 767 and S80 fleets, the November and December vacancy bids (what you guys would call a permanent bid) have contained significant displacements of the following pilot groups: MIA 767 CA & FO, ORD 767 CA & FO, STL S80 CA & FO and DFW S80 CA. As these pilots are redistributed into their new positions, it most likely will require about 4 weeks in the schoolhouse for Qualification Training (Systems Ground School and Simulator Lessons) before they return to the line to start flying OE on the new equipment.
It doesn't have as much to do with the retirements as you might have been lead to believe. They could run the NH classes, keep the flow going, and get the NH through the couple weeks of Basic Indoc. But then further progress would come to an abrupt halt for any NH, as there wouldn't be any space in the ground school classes or the simulators, because of all the guys who are already on property and have been recently displaced.

On the PDT side of the house, we had 3 new ground school instructors working to get qualified and almost every simulator period, we had a new sim instructor sitting in on the period for training.

When are we going to two classes per month? If we have a new sim and instructors we should be able to do two classes per month if we have the room in CLT.

Do you realize what the backup is at SOE? Do you have a clue the backup between indoc and ground? Obviously you don't if you are asking that question. Two classes per month for NH won't even be a consideration until the backlog that is in the system now is cleared out.

I'm not trying to be a party pooper but systems classes are not really catching up that much. March guys wait was pretty much 3 months, it looks like June guys waits are still about 3 months. sure once we get past July class we skip to September but the pool between indoc and ground isn't shrinking that much yet.

Also it looks like since the delay between ground and sims has been essentially eliminated, the pool after LOE waiting on SOE is growing not shrinking. Yes they got new SOE captains but they are mostly replacing guys that are flowing etc. From what was told, there is a limit to the number of SOE captains and check airmen that the FAA will allow, its a number that is a percentage of the pilot base. If that information is accurate then this isn't a matter of just adding another class and instantly doubling the capacity to get numbers through SOE.

Do I mind? heck no! I am enjoying the time to travel, etc. Just trying to keep expectations real here.

It's simply amazing how much the FAA slows the training process down. They have this airline's growth handicapped. It shouldn't take a year to get up to speed, when money isn't a concern. If I was AA, I'd be raising hell with PDT management and the FAA that this is all taking way too long. What's a reasonable amount of time? 1 year, 2 year, 3?

and I assume you are a transition or upgrade. New hire FOs are in a 4-6 week holding pattern at least.

How do you figure this is the FAA's fault? I was under the impression this was an infrastructure issue and the amount of training that needs to be completed is simply larger than the capacity we are able to train at the current moment.