Military guys will definitely have less time in most cases.

 

I think commuter guys make great candidates (not that anyone is asking my opinion)

It's obviously a lot easier to get hired at a regional than it is at a major, and some guys simply won't make the transition. We've had a few guys come over to UAL who keep saying "yeah....I was an RJ Captain, I know what I'm doing". Some of these dudes were great, some of them were really weak.

Humility and willingness to learn will be really important to any newhires. The most junior F/O's at legacy UAL have about 15,000 hours and have been flying for over 25 years. We won't be too impressed with a 25 year old RJ Captain who thinks he's "all that".

 

Lets put this issue to rest for the "uninformed" about the interns.
Having personally worked in the DENEV (former UAL hiring dept) across from DENTK, I spoke personally with Nancy Stuke and her predecessor Roger Vesely about intern hiring. They BOTH stated unequivocally that they wished every UAL pilot could go through the vetting precess the interns go through. Each of them compete with thousands of other college students for only a few slots every semester in which they delay their graduation a semester and come to UAL at their own expense. Once at their assigned office of internship they go through a 4 month evaluation process including personality, work ethic, flying skills...etc. All one has to do is say the wrong thing to someone, make a sarcastic remark that is overheard by a secretary and you are blackballed! Think it hasn't happened? Think again! Its a huge gamble these guys take and it may or may not pay off in the end.

Now, as far as United regretting ever hiring any intern, total B.S. I've flown with many interns in both left and right seats and they've all been excellent pilots. So lets put the rumors and fairy tales about these guys to rest!

 

Why hire an intern when several THOUSAND pilots are looking for work and paying the dues the old fashioned way?

Sorry, I don't care about some college kid who worked for free for four months and was "vetted" by HR folks.

I'll take the commuter guy with 1000's of PIC time ANYDAY of the week.....

Or the non-sked supplemental guy who has 1000's of heavy time flying all over the world......

Or the Military guy who served his country.....

JMHO

 

Interns are sharp people, but there is no reason to hire them too soon.

There's a big difference between pushing papers for 4 months and flying a jet. There is valuable experience to be gained by flight instructing and flying for the regionals. Once you skip those steps, you can't go back and often something is missing from your skill set.

Some interns were hired with virtually no time, and then they were 737 Captains 2.5 years later. That was a major problem for some (not all) of them.

I could care less what the HR people had to say. They're not pilots.

Everybody needs to pay their dues...

 

I am sure we have plenty of interns waiting for an interview that have +1000 of jet PIC time. Intern with 6000 hours or someone else with 6000 hours. I would hope we give the interns first shot in this case.

 

Everybody needs to pay their dues...[/QUOTE]

Agreed, what is not stated about the the intern group is that the days of being hired with 350 hours TT ended in the mid 90's. Starting around '95, interns had to have an unwritten minimum of approximately 2000 hours at a commuter airline or equivalent experience. Most far exceeded those qualifications.

Remember, UAL hired Zero time guys in the 60's who went on to become excellent airline captains. These guys are often referred to as the "last generation of real airline pilots" according to experts in the field of aviation. Now how did all those guys manage to become so good without "paying their dues" before arriving at United?

Just asking....

 

Some of these people are interns...

 

Imho, interns or any low timers have no business at a major. Too many qualified applicants.out there. As a capt. I want the best qualified pilot, not what some HR weenie thinks is a good employee. There is a huge difference. I want a FO that has the experience to catch my f'ups. Low timers don't have the experience to know when things are heading down a bad path. HR should have a role, but a revolving group of pilots should have more sway. Maybe 2-3 pilots and 1 HR person with a majority vote.

 

Nancy Stuke didn't have to fly with any of the interns, the rest of us did. While a did fly with a couple good ones, over half were in the "other" category. This didn't really have anything to do with flying ability, mostly attitude.

Experienced pilot interns, OK. 300 hour "heroes", no way when there are 10,000 - 15,000 RJ guys with thousands of hours of multi-jet time.

Most of the world takes guys from zero to hero in 1 year now and puts them in the right seat of an airliner. I just flew 4 years doing this. I was never an instructor. I should be given an honorary instructor rating now. LOL

Now I know what they meant when I heard instructors saying "they are trying to kill me".