With these career fairs HR can fill the pool with qualified applicants and avoid the 300 hour wonders they were stuck with last year.

No offense to 300 hour pilots. We've all been there, we just didn't get to fly a jet full of people in every weather situation to airports big and small. While some people will tell you the military does it, I trained those guys and had nothing to teach them after 5 hours. The military finds the best prospects and goes from there. Civilians find the highest bidder.

I'm civilian from the ground up, never flew military. Either you're good pilot from the start or you're not. I firmly believe there is something to be gained by flying a single engine prop in and out of a pattern. When I commuted and a 300 hour guy was landing the crosswind technique just wasn't there. People crash into the ground, not the sky and crosswind technique isn't taught in a sim or a book.

This is very true. When you get to training its no longer flight school. Either you know it (hopefully) or you don't. Nobody has the time to teach you or reteach you how to do a crosswind landing or how to fly an airplane. Its go time when you walk into that sim and you need to be able to handle it.

Flying in and out of the pattern is fun...even more fun in an ATR.

It is scary to talk with some of the IOE Capt's and hear how many times they have had to take the plane away from these 300 hour wonders they have been hiring the past year and a half... incorrect basic airmanship being a leading cause. So, does adding another 500 hours doing touch and goes do anything? Obviously it does... talk a few minutes and ask some of your airlines IOE guys/gals what they have been dealing with this past year as opposed to previous years.

Amen to that!

I've heard stories of major IOE Ca's that have had to take controls away on IOE on the count of no flying skills, not just for regionals. It doesn't mean the 300 hour can't land a toy jet in a crosswind, it just means they've never had to land it before. While I agree that on paper 1000 hour is a whole lot better than 300 hours but in the real world it all has to do with the individual. I've seen many cases where low timers put high timers to shame, after all, this is the MS flight sim generation...

I believe that there are low time pilots that can out fly higher time pilots any day - I don't think that is in doubt at all. It is, however, the exception rather than the rule. They are few and far between. Experience does matter for the other 99%...and even the low time guys, when the *stuff* hits the turbofan, experience is going to win out over them every time. You can be a poor stick and still manage to do things at 15,000 hours that no 300 hour pilot could dream of. Experience and wisdom do count for a lot. But again, there are exceptions to every rule.

I do think the times of low timers getting hired is at least over for the next year.

I don't think I would want to be an IOE CA. I'm not sure my nerves could handle it!

I have been to this career fair in the past...the organizers set up rooms for the airlines' HR departments and then advertise that they will be there. When I went, there were many empty rooms. I think GoJet was the only regional that attended the one I went to (this was about 6 months ago.)

Spoke with Claudette from HR today about this newest rumor. She has not heard of any movement in the hiring side of things. However, she admitted that could change at anytime. She advised that those of us in the pool will be notified immediately of available class dates when they come up. However she said they are looking at July right now. My guess is do to the atrittion rate July will be the time they'll need people. But if new planes pop up things could move faster. Who knows...

The most accepted number on attrition is about 25 - 30 pilots a month...usually. So you can assume in the span of a year they will lose 300 to 360 pilots. So eventually, yes, they will have to start hiring if they intend to keep airplanes in the air!!! They can't go on forever without new people coming in.

See, I'm not all negative and doom and gloom about the hiring potential!

My airline had about the same but this has dropped by half over the last several months due to unemployment at other airlines. Basically, our pilots had no place to go.

Eagle must really suck if you are still losing so many these days.