... any idea if an incident on my pilot record will disqualify me from getting hired at an airline?

Depends on the situation. If it's something that was accidental and you live up to it and can show that you learned something, then no biggie. However if it is something tied to negligence/stupidity, then that's another story altogether.

I have a friend that taxiied into a truck while training towards their commercial pilot certificate. He's now a Captain at Mesaba and was just hired at FedEx. No Biggie.

Care to elaborate on your situation?

Hi FlyerJosh... thanks for the help... here's what the FAA put into my records verbatim:

"PILOT STATED THAT AFTER LANDING ON RUNWAY 33 AT
OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, HE WAS INSTRUCTED TO
BACK TAXI TO TAXIWAY CHARLIE. WHILE TAXIING ON CHARLIE
HE SAW A VEHICLE CROSSING THE TAXIWAY FROM RIGHT TO
LEFT. PILOT TURNED OFF TAXI LIGHTS AS TO NOT BLIND THE
DRIVER. PILOT STATED THAT HE SAW TAXIWAY "C" AND
STARTED TO TURN ONTO UNLIT AREA, WHICH APPEARED TO BE
A TAXIWAY. PILOT FELT GROUND BECOME ROUGH AND HE
REALIZED HE WAS OFF THE TAXIWAY. POWER WAS PULLED TO
IDLE AND BRAKES APPLIED. THE AIRCRAFT NOSE TILTED DOWN
ABOUT 8 INCHES CAUSING THE PROPELLER TO STRIKE THE
GROUND. TOP OF ENGINE COWL WAS PUNCTURED BY ENGINE
BAFFLES' BRACKET."

It was way back in 2001, right after I got my Commercial ticket. ATC had me land on an unfamiliar runway, with weird taxi instructions. On top of it, there was a disabled FedEx 727 on a crossing runway with vehicles attending to it... whose drivers I did not want to blind with my 172RG taxi & landing lights. I did learn a whole heck of alot from it, I'll tell ya that.

I've got an interview at Pinnacle next week, and I'm terrified about telling them of this. Oh well..... what do you think?

Be upfront about it if it comes up during the interview and it shouldnt be a problem.

Dont be terrified.

Tell it like it is.

Tell 'em what you learned from it.

Don't blame anyone else for it.

And pass the interview..... Good Luck !!!

That should not be a big deal. I agree with the other posts. Just tell it like it is.

Thanks guys!!! For the first time in a few weeks, i've been able to relax a bit about this thing now!

CL65,

All of the advice here is good. In addition to the above posts, be prepared to answer the following question:

"Having experienced what you have with this incident, what would you do given a similar situation, or how would you have changed your actions the night of?"

Also,

"Who and what circumstances do you blame for this incident?"

The truth is that there are a lot of folks out there that have little blemishes on their record. No biggie as long as they have a good attitude about the incident. I know of a pilot that managed to flip a 152 onto its back on their first solo landing (doh!). That person now is working as a first officer at regional airline flying out of ORD.

FlyerJosh, thank you so very much for the positive encouragement. Would you reccomend that I bring the copy of my FAA record to my interview just in case that question comes up?

BTW. I was checking out your website, you're into OddTodd too, eh? Gotta love that "Unemployed" series!

Good luck with the interview, I have one with them too in a couple of weeks. let me know how it goes...