Mesa hires 300TT pilots now? WTF?

[kailuaboy]

Date of interview (year, month, day): 2006-02-02
Date interview was submitted (year, month, day, time): 2006-02-19 22:50:38
Were you hired as a result of this interview? yes
Total flight time: 300
PIC flight time: 81
PIC TURBINE flight time: 0
Total multi engine flight time: 23
Did someone walk in your application/ resume? no
How many letters of recommendation did you bring? 0
Are you a CFI? no
Are you a CFII? no
Are you a MEI? no
Are you an ATP? no
Did you complete the ATP written? no
Are you an FE? no
Did you complete the FE written? no
How long after you sent your resume were you called? 1 weeks
Do you have a college degree? 2 year
Do you have a military background? no
What is your current job? 121
What is your age? 41
What aircraft were you assigned? ERJ
If you were hired what is your training date? 2006-02-13

Interview experience:
They flew me out from Dallas. There were 22 of us. First, we were given 50 ATP questions, none with diagrams or involving math. We then waited around a bit while the papers were graded. All of us passed. Chris Bender, nice lady, brought in four pilots who were to do the interviewing. One by one, we were called in. I was asked to read a METAR, PIREP and TAF and discuss whether or not alternates were needed in different scenarios. I was asked questions on Jeppesen plates and a low altitude enroute chart. The interviewer stumped me a few times, but I was still offered the job. The actual interview portion of the day lasted about 30 minutes. I was called back in two days.

 

[captain caveman]

This is a good thing. This may be an indication that they can not attract well qualified pilots. Supply meets demand.

 

[taloft]

Why even hold the interview? Just hand them their windbreaker and Jepps as they walk through the door.

 

[be-400xpdriver]

Met a mesa pilot chick out in rapid city last year. my fo knew her from an fbo a few years back. she made a comment about 350 hours. i said "you have 350 hours in the airplane?" she said "no i have 350 hours total, only 30 in the airplane." She had gone to the mesa pilot factory in FMN.


Thats when I made the decision NEVER to book my family on a mesa flight.

 

[DirkkDiggler]

With all due respect, I believe your biases are getting in the way of your common sense. A larger number of European airlines including British Airways, Sabena, Lufthansa, and KLM get their pilots from schools almost exactly like the MPD program. Their pilots start with zero hours and a year later they're in the right seat of 737's and 747's. Their safety record is no worse than ours here. Your problems with Mesa's program is that you (and I) had to work several years before we were hired by FAR 121 airlines flying RJ's or the equivalent. You probably have a problem that these guys and girls didn't have to take the same route as you. The truth is, it's probably no more unsafe to fly Mesa than any other airline that hires much higher time pilots. Let's face it, they fly with a captain and the captain most likely has at least 1,000 hours in the aircraft. Perhaps not a whole lot of time, but enough to stay out of trouble. I happily don't work for Mesa, but I'm certainly not going to refuse to fly them for such a bigoted and unvalid reason. Check your head to see if you're being biased because you're jealous that you had to work harder to get to the same spot. I think you may find that your really don't have a problem with ab initio airline pilot training.

 

[Slice121]

quote]

I'd say the thread you started is a little over dramatic since the program was started over 10 years ago...maybe you should do a little research before you post.

 

[captain caveman]

Dirk, You're right. The thing is the quality of training of some of these new hires is not the same as the military or the foreign carriers. No heavy screenings, aptitude tests, grade requirements, aviation degree, etc... If you look at my profile it's not difficult to figure out that I started in 121 world with low time too. But from day 1, it was oriented towards 121 and as a result, I did better in training than my counter parts with far more experience. I was lucky enough in IOE to have cat 1 minimums which made it easy because that's all I saw in training. It was the visuals after IOE that took some getting used too.
Point is, Mesa is getting low timers that may not have the other training and compitancy that make low timers safe and compitent in day to day ops as SICs. This is good, as they will experience difficulty in training and may have to increase incentives to attract more qualified applicants.

 

[geardown]

Hey Diggler,

I don't think safety or lack of experience is an invalid reason to avoid a particular company. 350tt is extremely low time for a 121 operation and 1000 hrs in type does not gaurentee anything. Before you go and tell someone else they should go check their head maybe you should step back from your crack pipe and reevalute the overall situation. I don't know your background because you put no info on your post, but I have to fly with some low time pilots on a daily basis, and while they may be great individuals, often they increase the workload under normal ops and may even be a detriment under any abnormal much less a true emergency.

 

[Slice121]

Caveman, No 300 hr SIC is safe in 121 ops, not even you with your 'above average' training history. I'm no fan of low timers in a 121 cockpit, but you come across as arrogant considering you took the same path from a different source.

 

[Q400 Gear Bitch]

PIC flight time: 81
PIC TURBINE flight time: 0

Better keep that CFI job on the side. When it comes time to upgrade you won't be able to get your ATP with that pic time.