jimpix89

13 weeks since CRJ LOE.
People that took their LOE rides 2-3 weeks after me are being scheduled for IOE.
Told expect 8 weeks in training.. managed expectations and instead anticipated 10 or 11 with at least an update or some kind of transparency by then. Instead, calls to training coordinators have resulted in responses of "sorry, wait until later in April."

Sorry but this is completely unacceptable.

Excargodog

Well don’t accept it then. Quit.

Seriously, do you think Skywest enjoys paying you money to sit home and wait for IOE?

Hint: THEY DONT!

But a bunch of LCA and other training personnel gave two weeks notice 4-6 weeks ago and are now in intro at a major somewhere themselves so it’s necessary to train new ones which (even if they don’t get job offers at a major before their training is complete and wind up giving their two weeks notice TAKES TIME.

Cowboy (or cow pronoun of your choice anyway) up.

Even a two year old understands an empty cookie jar.

Hawker445

Are you a newhire?
If so, that sucks. But the company is short on captains. THey are losing LCAs at an unsustainable rate.
With that being said, they are prioritizing Captains. Sorry you have to wait. It could be worse, it would be unwise to think it would be better somewhere else.

jimpix89

Um.. yeah, thats what IOE means... initial operating experience, for new hires.
And really they should have prioritizED line check airmen, to train both new captains and first officers.
But oh yeah, proactive thinking isn't an airline mentality. At least on the operational side. Shareholders don't care about that as much, thats supplemental to the leasing side which is where the real money is made.

jimpix89

Again, proactive business decision making i.e. (training more LCA's in anticipation of massive ATTRITION) doesn't exist in airline operations management because the operation headed by the COO (that stands for chief operating officer, who controlls all OPERATIONS) reports to the CEO who reports tho the board who reports to the shareholders. The shareholders are the bosses and don't like opertaing costs because that means less money's them, and proactively training LCA's cost more money THIS QUARTER.

So the rest of us have to suffer. See the common theme here?

Hence the need to for REAL worker's unions.

Utah6SD

Captain’s undergoing upgrade must complete IOE as well…hence the question.

OO can’t simply “train” new LCAs and throw them out on the line. They must complete an observation flight with the FAA. This is not the only bottleneck but it’s part of the problem considering the FAA is a large bureaucratic agency also suffering from staffing shortfalls.

Quit and see that it’s not any different at any other regional. Every regional…and I mean every single one…is suffering the same problem. This isn’t exclusive to skywest.

Unless you have the time to move on to a ULCC (I assume you don’t considering you don’t know exactly who must undergo IOE) then waiting a little while longer is likely still your fastest route to flying a jet.

It sucks and it’s easy to blame others for an overall crappy situation that nobody likes (including management). That said, it’s a little early in your career to be carrying a chip on your shoulder or thinking a union would have solved this issue. A union would have never been able to prevent qualified pilots from moving on to better paying jobs.

There are a lot of bitter people on this forum with crap attitudes. Not having any experience with SkyWest other than training, it’s easy to think that this small group is representative of the entire pilot group. It’s not. Be patient, go do some observation flights, and be thankful that your not one of the unfortunate individuals who haven’t even started training yet.

My $.02

NeverHome

Welcome to the exciting world of 121 airlines!! Now for the disillusionment. You will find most if not all of your expectations will be unmet. Unfortunately that’s the fact of life. Even when everything is going great in the industry you will find that as a flight crew member, you are going to get screwed. WX, ATC, MX, etc- you are gonna draw the short stick. Seriously get used to that now. The faster you accept your new role as a Vaseline bottom the easier this game becomes.

However there is good news!! It’s a pilots market. You are in an excellent position. My $.02, enjoy the paid vacation. And the fact that regionals are handing out money in greater quantities then even imaginable 10 years ago. So relax, enjoy the nuances, make friends, learn lots, and remember- YOU are the bottom in this game.

JohnnyBekkestad

This statement is so wrong in many ways... You don't think OO wants to train more LCAs? Before i left i was waiting for a class for almost 2 years. The FAA will only allow OO to train a certain amount of LCAs, and then once the training is done they have to have a FAA linecheck, this one is severely delayed. Hence the problem. I know of people who did their LCA training last year and still waiting to get signed of by the FAA.

Excargodog

I love it when someone on their 11th posting on APC, while still awaiting their IOE as a regional FO, starts lecturing to everyone how the place OUGHT to work. Right now the regionals are in serious trouble, some have already died and others soon will.

The current problems really are not within the span of control of anyone at the regional level, having to do with the mass early retirements some of the majors offered to their most senior people early on in a once in a century pandemic despite the fact they were coming into a time of unparalleled retirements.

Now I could describe how taking about three years worth of their upcoming attrition and cramming it into one year affected their own training departments or how - most of them being multi-type fleets with differing pay scales (and bases) for each fleet - that caused a domino effect of required new type ratings and upgrades but I doubt you have the patience to listen or the background to understand.

Suffice it to say that those domino effects ripple through the whole 121 industry and affect everyone and the cheapest place to take those unavoidable ripple effects right now seem to be delaying upgrades for a newly typed but not yet operational regional FO who feels they are somehow having to “suffer” because they happen right now to be the least expensive way to take the hit.

So if the “suffering” you are going through now is too much for you, bail out now. You are in the wrong industry.

Simpsons

Take a vacation and chill out.