I’m curious as to where you’re drawing your perspective on new hires here...do you fly with many of them?

I agree that not everyone can be God’s gift to aviation, I’m just a line puke so what do I know.

Move the goalposts in this thread all ya want. If a new hire makes a Captain work WAY more than they should, maybe in fact, they shouldn’t be here. I agree that it’s not a line captain’s role to make that decision. A probationary report is a way to either make that Captain look like a tool, or more appropriately paint a picture for future suitability.

Anecdotally, there’s no one-strike policy for probationary pilots. You’re not torpedoing a career with a critique on a sheet and if that individual has a steady stream of repeat issues they are doing it to themselves and that’s got to represent a minuscule number. To think that Captains should be silent or that they lack the capacity to observe and critique personal or professional issues in probationary pilots shows a pretty low regard for them. Mentor, provide in-person feedback - like we’re all required to do after every flight - and if needed, take additional steps. The problems are probably fixable if they get attention but only if they get that attention. Or we just ignore it because hey it’s just our families riding in the back right?

Maybe fill out the report and instead of sending it to the boss hand it to the FO. Some people are oblivious and as a 3 year reserve I can tell you, many captains are in that group, as well.

Ironically, my 6 month CP sit down mostly focused on how I survived flying with three “known” captains. Haha.

That’s just another way of sweeping it under the carpet, and will probably have little impact.

Anecdotally? Do you spend a lot of your time in the CPO?

Nothing prevents a Captain from making a quick call to Professional Standards before firing off an unsat probationary report on a pilot with little if any protection. He or she now has the benefit of input from Professional Standards.

Looking at it another way, how would one feel if the shoe was on the other foot?

Anecdotally, meaning I’m familiar with a small number of specific examples. One that we should all be thankful is no longer here and one who had a negative experience with an individual CA, had no issues with the CPO, and is successful and fully deserving of wearing the uniform.

It’s a probationary period for a reason and I’m glad we have it and we all go through it. I’d love to see an example of an airline that foregoes that period and why that’s the preferred method.

My history has always taught me to go to Alpa first in regards to another pilot. I'm not insinuating that we should mask the issue. If truly needed, the company will be involved.

Pretty much 100% agree here so we’re all probably just splitting hairs. Thanks for your perspective.

In previous life I flew with lots of new hires with any where from 100's of hours to 1,000s of hours. I've flown with cadet pilots, people that failed upgrade training 3 times, and people that were once Captains but downgraded for various reasons. In a few months I will once again be flying with new hires, but now at United. So maybe my perspective is different, but like most things it's just an opinion.