Brahma Fear

Reading Skyw’s posts has become like listening to my wife nag. I can hear a faint annoying noise but no one is listening...

John Carr

But he had his app in THREE WHOLE YEARS and a daddy that worked there............

For right and here and right now, there's STILL too many experienced pilots that are EXACTLY what they say we're looking for that can't even get a first look.

Floyd

To say we are interviewing the most qualified is absurd. Who they interview and hire is their call. It becomes the Captain's problem when paired with someone with little to no experience.

The -900er is one of the most challenging and unforgiving jets we fly. A sterile simulator environment is one thing, a Chicago winter or a nighttime Expressway 31 visual with a 20-30 kt westerly is another.

Good luck to that Captain. He or she better plan the landings accordingly or have the presence to say I'm taking this leg.

An intern with a year or two of regional experience is far ahead of a CFI and there is no comparison.

MasterOfPuppets

Huh the regionals used to hire 250hr commercial pilots straight into CRJs and ERJs. They flew the expressway visual to 31 into LGA everyday.

What is the difference? I’ll tell you one difference, the CA at the regional was FAR less experienced than the UA Captain. I don’t get where the heartburn is? There are two options they pass the checkride and IOE or they don’t. To me it just looks like people are jealous.

E6-B

People aren’t jealous they’re concerned. There’s plenty of well qualified pilots out there with actual jet time that should be hired that would be far safer pilots and less of a burden to their captain because they’ve actually worked at a 121 operation before.

crflyer

We wouldn’t be hiring CFIs straight to the 737 if it weren’t for this program. That’s the difference. United has hired straight from the CFI ranks in the past, but not now aside from this program... except for maybe some extreme outlier with some really good connection.

Those in this program are given an opportunity that everyone with more experience is trying to get based on their qualifications. Qualifications that are, for the vast majority, greater than those of a CFI. That’s the issue most people have with this, I would assume.

I don’t blame the people in the program. Who wouldn’t take advantage of that? Everyone else with the same CFI quals aren’t getting Hogan emails because their qualifications simply are not competitive. Just like the quals of those in this program aren’t competitive; they just have the path. It’s perfctly reasonable for this to be bothering people. People who work here and people trying like hell to get here.

Aquaticus

That regional pilot would also have to keep their nose clean in an airline environment for years before being competitive for a dream job. You might be able to pull off the circle to 29 but when you bust a PC, a letter of warning or two, have a reputation for not working well with other crewmembers, and a logbook that shows you only flew 400 hours with constant sick calls that dream job just went poof. These are untested applicants with no real life experience, no chance to refine interpersonal skills between crewmembers, and bring nothing to the flight deck other than their luck.

This just proves that United doesn't want the best pilots. They want meat in the seat that will put up with constant management BS.

Floyd

You essentially made my point. They are hiring inexperienced pilots and then place them in the lap of the Captain. Even the best of Captains can get taxed if he finds himself single pilot in an extremely high workload environment.

We haven't begun to scrape the bottom of the pilot supply pool. So tell my why are we hiring CFI's and to whose benefit does it serve? The traveling public, the fellow pilots that share the cockpit or the airline? Something well beyond qualifications is driving the hiring metrics if this occurs.

MasterOfPuppets

That’s where I don’t get the concern.....what is the difference between a 1000 hr pilot at the majors or at the regionals? Same airports same engines, same people.

My first trip as a CA I had an FO who had 115 hours on the plane and came from a CFI job in Cessnas. The first leg was into EGE in the snow at night, So I flew it and he did fine as the PM. The next morning he flew it out full IMC and flew the departure procedure perfectly. I assure you he would have performed the same way in an A320 leaving EGE.

MasterOfPuppets

Good argument and I agree with what you said. Never looked at it that way.