Trans States Emergency Meeting
#41
Flight Time
trans states has had a rep for hiring some low time guys, but they do not budge at all for performance. Its actually a good way to hire because the difference between 500 hours and 1500 hours could be a simple difference of how many landings you have saved in the pattern. Until there is quite a bit of IFR cross country experience, most instructing is just adding hours into your logbook. So I think its a relatively good thing to hire people and give them a shot, if they cant cut it, so be it. I definatley think TSAs training was very thorough and fair. If you didnt make it, probably a good thing. Thats one thing I will give TSA props for is the training department, most every captain I flew with was very knowledgeable, professional with the door open, and all in all a damn good pilot.
SkyHigh
#42
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2006
Position: B727
Posts: 194
I dont think if you dont have a degree you are some how not as good of a pilot. In fact I know thats not true. However if minimum flight time for hiring was higher and a degree was required for employment then more than likely pay would go up. The degree will continue to become less and less important This is just another way for MGMT to "Dumb" down the job. They can justify paying less and less if qualifications aren't important. Just my thoughts. So do you think i have a degree or not? worth 20 points!!!
#43
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,888
I dont think if you dont have a degree you are some how not as good of a pilot. In fact I know thats not true. However if minimum flight time for hiring was higher and a degree was required for employment then more than likely pay would go up. The degree will continue to become less and less important This is just another way for MGMT to "Dumb" down the job. They can justify paying less and less if qualifications aren't important. Just my thoughts. So do you think i have a degree or not? worth 20 points!!!
2. The above applies to aerobatic teams as well. When the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds interview, flying skills are only one of the many discriminators they use. I experienced the same while being interviewed in the Army for the special operations aviation unit. A big part of the assessment was the check ride, but it was only PART of the assessment, and a pilot could still make it in if he busted the check ride. (BTW, I busted. I was 45 seconds late to the target- an unlit, grass strip that I had to find at night, +- 30 seconds).
3. When screening and hiring pilots, it is not an "either/or" proposition between flying experience and education or demonstrated problem solving skills. Usually you can find people with skills in both areas, and normally these people are better aviators. Maybe the bush pilot is more precise at putting a C-180 down in a stream bed, but that is not airline flying. Airline flying is precisely flying an ILS; diagnosing problems that arise; the correct use of the resources at your disposal. One of the things I HATE to read in an incident summary at my airline is a captain writing, "I immediately took the controls from the FO and performed the _______ immediate action items." Worst thing a captain can do, and statistically leads to more accidents, but it is what most pilots used to a single pilot environment do. Heck, 99.9% of the time a monkey could do my job. It is that .1%, however, that I get paid for. Every emergency I have had has involved much more than just wiggling controls- they have been more about system analysis and problem solving.
Again, I am not writing a pilot without a college degree has no chance of getting the skills needed to be a professional pilot. Nor that pilots with college degrees or military experience possess these skills. Just that the odds are greater.
Enough of high jacking this thread. Wasn't it about TSA or something??
Last edited by Blackhawk; 03-30-2007 at 02:20 PM.
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