I couldn’t speak intelligently about that. I was in the military on 9/11. Perhaps someone else could. The tools and systems we have at our disposal now would seem to make the job easier than it was back then.

 

Agreed, but it also seems like the scope of flying is a bit different and its not simple shuttle flying anymore, but that's just my impression. So while easier with an iPad, wifi, etc.. maybe it's harder given the type of flying- as you said red eyes into CR in the weather..

 

What’s a bigger jump, the minimum time guy going from a Cessna to a RJ looking at quick upgrade flying multiple legs into our biggest airports in bad weather, or that same pilot years later upgrading here quickly with lots of jet experience? We’re so spoon fed here and we have such a large amount of resources at our disposal that simply using the tools that we are provided significantly reduce the risk.

 

THIS^^^. I didn’t come from the RJ world, but I can’t imagine anything being easier flying-wise than what we do here with the resources we’re given.

 

I agree as well. I flew for an ACMI before coming here and after i upgraded it was pretty much entirely on me to figure out how to operate into some of the weird places we operated. Our resources here are incredible compared to my past life!

 

I was ACMI as well and flew for some real winners. I don’t miss the days of having crew scheduling assigning you a trip and saying that it’s somewhere in the Middle East. Here’s a map, flight plan, and keys to the jet. Oh, by the way, you’re hauling 200,000 lbs of military explosives so your divert options are extremely limited. Spoon fed is good.

 

I can tell what my experience was from back then, in 1997 in my class and the surrounding classes the low time guys were without exception fighter pilots. That’s not meant to be trashing on single seat or two seat guys at all, the fact of the matter was they tended to be the low time pilots. In my class of 21 there were 11 military with 5 or 6 being fighter/attack guys, the remainder were either previous major guys, TWA, UPS, AWA some ACMI and a couple of commuter, turbo prop folks with 5,000 plus hours and a good amount of PIC. The regional jet was just getting started back then so most were turbo prop pilots. I’d say the average experience level not counting fighter pilots was somewhere north of 5,000 hours with the high end being 10,000 plus and the fighter guys somewhere around 2,000 plus or minus.

Until fairly recently most of the RJ folks being hired were very experienced, and the average experience levels are currently dropping due to high demand. The issues that I’ve encountered are not RJ pilots with only several years experience, it’s the few that have been hired with next to zero real world flying time. We should not be hiring anyone who’s background is instructing in single engine pistons in perfect weather with less than 100 hours multi time and no turbine time. I’d much rather see a pilot who’s been flying in a situation where they’ve had to make go no go decisions, where they’ve had to decide to divert or continue, they’ve had some real world weather, ATC or mechanical issues to deal with etc etc, even if that pilot is flying slower piston equipment only.

Yes I agree that the resources we have available today make the job easier, however there is a certain level of background experience needed to develop critical decision making skills. No matter what kind of support or resources you’ve got available.

 

It's been a long while, but I'm pretty sure we had people upgrading to the left seat in less than 3 years pre-911.

 

for one thing they wouldn’t know where to find the Blue Iguana

 

Late 90’s and 2000/2001 pre 9/11 we definitely did.