‘That why I said airport elevation.. but yes, terrain is to taken into consideration… A lot of these airports that Skywest flies into, the 3 to 1 rule really can’t be used for it due to terrain. That’s when pilot stuff need to be done.

Except for record upcoming retirements at the legacies, and that’s AFTER they finish hiring to replace those they early retired due to COVID. And seniority doesn’t help if your regional folds altogether. Just ask former Compass pilots.

Correct, which is why it’s common to request an IAF off an RNAV approach to the runway you intend on landing. That sets you up well for a VNAV decent. Surprisingly the difficult part is not the decent planing into mountainous terrain, it’s receiving a clearance for the RNAV on a visual day with an approach controller who’s lazy and wants to just clear you for a vector to a short final visual approach with 8000ft MSL mountains surrounding the valley so they can go back to watching “South Park”.

Every CA from Compass that I was a CFI with is at a major now. To some degree I think the premise of this thread holds water.