tom11011

I didn't realize there were so many super pilots in this thread wow. I especially liked the one about the guy who puts his life on the line everyday to fly with students, well done sir.

saturn

I taught the SkyWest interview prep for the Frasca 142. It is garbage and it should be done away with. The best way of knowing who will be succesful is who had experience in a frasca sim, not so much as an IFR experienced aviator. The sim is so pitch sensitive, you can hardly brief an approach or tune a radio. Guys fail for leveling, triming, looking away at a chart for 1 second and it just decided to pitch 10 degrees down. A lot of good pilots fail because they don't know what to expect with that unrealistic kooky sim. The retardation of that sim gave me a job as a prep instructor.

Sim checks are great, but they should get a redbird.

DroopsN10

hey 302 that was mostly directed at Da40 pilot who I'm guessing is a young gun da40 pilot with a tomcat patch on his jacket.. I know there are a lot good folks who just got hired with the mins who do deserve to be here that aren't only looking for the money! I hit 2nd year tomorrow myself, you should be counting down man! 👍

deltajuliet

I'm not making any statement about what's deserved, but I will say that where I instructed was some of the busiest GA airspace in the world. Every year saw one or two midairs and their resulting fatalities. My least favorite part of the job was the nearby uncontrolled airports where Grandpas flew their Piper Cubs and had zero understanding of a basic traffic pattern. Radios were optional to these guys.

Closest call I ever had was one of those clowns flying under me at a 90 degree angle from my student's side; he was a wing span away. Never made a radio call.

It wasn't my students I was afraid of.

tinman1

While I don't care for DA40pilot's attitude, if more young CFIs were willing to hold out and not run to the first airline that hires them the day after they meet the mins then we might see some progress on raising the bar in terms of pay, specifically first year pay. I'm not defending this guy but let's cut him some slack for christ's sake. I don't think that this is necessarily entitlement either. Let's put the past behind us for a second and forget about the way things used to be in the regional world. Entitlement is graduating from college and wanting an $80k/year job with weekends off. Most CFI types instruct for 2-3 years after college to get the mins. I'm not saying they're "all that" because as they will learn firsthand that 121 training can be a very humbling experience during your first rodeo. But there is nothing wrong with wanting to make enough to pay the bills and put a roof over your head. And you cannot reasonably do that on less than $30k/year.

Come on guys, I see a lot of the same usernames in this thread posting over in the Mesa/GoJet/RAH threads, scolding other regional candidates for wanting to work there and chastising them for lowering the bar for everyone else. Now all of you are getting riled up because someone is trying to raise the bar and demand more for first year pay. Seriously, think about the message you're sending.

Da40Pilot

My immature attitude in some threads was directed to those who were ganging up on CFIs with a condescending attitude making us feel like we were worth less because we didn't have their experience - when the issue at hand, and I said it from the beginning, had nothing to do with entitlement, or experience, it had to do with me as an upcoming regional airline pilot feeling like I too, had the right to a sign on bonus from any regional, NOT because of my "lack of experience", but because I have a family I'd love to feed on a below than average wage. That is all.

I have never had a student try to kill me, and I do not consider myself a super pilot at all...I was merely using two extremes from those two sides.

I have absolutely no sense of entitlement besides trying to make it through first year....and I am not in my twenties, I am in my 30s....so living with the parents is not something the wife and I are up to at this stage....

lgaflyer

Why do you need luck to stay alive? I know human lives might not be at stake, but if I pay to ship a box from A to B, I expect my box to get there, and not crashed and burned in a swamp somewhere

Check Complete

I haven't heard anything about a signing bonus, however, we are hurting for pilots so who knows?

I also heard they have done away with the sim portion for the interview, which I also heard is why Camielle is gone. She insisted on it and the top dog said no, that's the way it goes.

We do have a short course for those already typed, it's basically the upgrade curriculum with a week of intro.

But the only reason why SkyWest or any other airline for that matter, offer a signing bonus is so they don't have to go and negotiate a raise for the rest of the pilot group. Once your on the property and in the seat, management could give a s__t about you.

BTW we have the worst reserve rules in the industry.

kfahmi

In my interview group of 6, 4 of us were asked to do the sim. (I was excused from it.) All 4 busted the Frasca and were sent home. I got a chance to observe that steam-powered piece of junk, and I have to say, there've got to be better sims with which to judge someone's instrument proficiency. As others have said, it's ludicrously pitch-sensitive...it's extremely, extremely difficult to divert your attention away from the panel for more than a second or two, without the sim going on its own unplanned pitch excursion. I did 10 hrs of Frasca prep in advance of the interview, and it was an irritating experience.

I second the other comment about getting a Redbird or something similar. Anything but that wheezy Frasca.

trip

I flew the Frasca years ago at my interview. I seriously was wondering if it was turned on because I was running out of things to do and had time on my hands.
I did have current experience, I had been flying a J31 jet stream steam gauges with no auto or yaw dampers all winter. I will probably never be that good at flying instruments again.