FAR121

Skywest Update:

Citing a “Captain imbalance” Skywest will now junior man First Officers into Captain upgrades.

It was recommended that those who will be impacted submit a bid demonstrating base and type preferences.

Source: Memo forwarded to ACN.

Sounds like a failed check ride for some poor souls who are not ready for PIC.

Excargodog

If a thousand hours isn’t enough time for them to get ready for upgrade, perhaps they are in the wrong business?

But seriously, with the majors hiring away CAs at the current rate, eligible people NEED to upgrade. Otherwise they are just soaking up SIC hours other FOs need to upgrade. That isn’t some sort of punishment, it’s simply math. Nobody can fly with just two FOs in the cockpit. If there isn’t a CA in the cockpit, the plane just sits there. And the US is running out of people qualified and willing to be DECs. If you can’t grow your own CAs the organization can only contract.

LAXtoDEN

This contains facts only.

domino

who has time for facts. This is an entertainment site.

WheelInTheBack

They could always do SOMETHING to just try to retain their highly qualified captains and FOs. The regionals should be bending over backwards to keep you right now instead of forcing an upgrade, and your new agreement shows exactly what many have preached: give just enough for it to be accepted. Management doesn’t give a rats ass about you guys. Some don’t want to upgrade for personal reasons, not just because of lackluster skills. That being said, aviation has always taught personal mins…and forcing an upgrade when someone maybe wants to zero in on perfecting themselves in some areas is exactly that. Doesn’t mean they’re in the wrong profession. In fact, I’d prefer to fly with some of those guys. I flew with a few captains there that probably should have waited.

JohnBurke

Becoming a captain is't about monkey skills and control manipulation. It's about judgement. A thousand hours of flying time doesn't instill judgement. It adds a few pages to a logbook. there's a difference.

The issue of available direct-entry captains is facetious, given that few locations allow or have a mechanism for a direct entry captain.

The regional pilot upgrading is going for upgrade in nearly all cases, for the first time. That is, a person who has never been a captain before. The view from the right seat looking at an upgrade for the first time is quite different than other places where one may have been a captain several times before. The mere fact of having logged a thousand hours, which for some, if not many, is little more than having logged the same hour and thousand times, does not mean that one is prepared to make that first time leap and pop one's stem-hung reddened, pitted fruit.

There is further a difference between upgrading at a location occupied with highly experienced people with years of industry and flight experience, vs. an entry level job, and the regionals, despite gains in pay, are now and will always be entry level jobs.

One can only hope that by mandating upgrades, the airline is quite willing to fail any who are not fully ready, and will not be adjusting their sights to admit to the left seat the weak or those who ought not sit there. The only thing worse than flying with a first officer who thinks he's captain, is flying with a captain who thinks he's a captain, but it not.

aviator1998

Has there been any official word how many junior mans to expect?

Excargodog

None of which changes the FACTS in my posting. Some people won’t work hard enough or have the innate skills to upgrade at 1000 hours, and they might get worse than a PRIA hit. Enough CAs to fly the line and give FOs the thousand hours they need to be upgrade eligible is an existential issue for all entry level 121 organizations.

In the military if you can’t meet training expectations you meet a flying evaluation board - possibly even lose your wings altogether. It’s not that they don’t want you to succeed, but resources are finite. They can’t keep pumping flight hours into you to the detriment of others who are more capable. It isn’t punishment, it isn’t cruelty. It’s just math

v1rotatay

Well I think there's like 11 people in the current CRJ upgrade class.. and around 91 vacancies.

Ozymandias

Just throwing this out there. Right now, the ACMI's (ABX, ATI, Omni, Atlas, Kalitta, etc.) have FO's that can easily clear 200k their second year. Might want to consider moving on from the regionals.