Mesa hires 300TT pilots now? WTF?

[Bringupthebird]

If everything comes easily, then there is little hope that the type of discipline necessary to become a good high-time pilot will develop. With what authority will a 300 hour pilot tell a captain that he's screwing up? And how much respect will that captain have for a 300hr newbie that he's had to spoon-feed everything to when said newbie does speak up? Will maintenance control or the chief pilot have respect for the opinion of a 300 hr pilot, or will they be all-too happy to bring a willing yes-man on who doesn't even know he's being used? No, I don't think keeping one's family off the 300hr pilot's airplane is just as smart as keeping them off a single-pilot one.

 

[de727ups]

"what authority will a 300 hour pilot tell a captain that he's screwing up? And how much respect will that captain have for a 300hr newbie that he's had to spoon-feed everything to when said newbie does speak up"

Very good points. The capts a baby sitter and he knows it.

Does it surprise anyone that JO has a program that brings inexperienced, happy to be there, newbies into his jets? It's part of his plan.

 

[jbDC9]

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.

You beat me to it, I was about to say the same thing. Waay back in the Stone Age, 1995 to be more specific, I flew with a few of these shiny new 300 hour wonder dudes in the right seat of the 1900. For the most part they did okay, although from the ABQ hub, bad weather wasn't much of a problem; that might've been a bit scary methinks. I remember one guy in particular, talking big, large ego and all that, but couldn't land in a crosswind to save his life. After I had to salvage a landing or two from him, I asked how much time he had. "Around 300 hours..." says he. I wasn't impressed... lotsa babysitting involved.

 

[duc driver]

you know its bad when you tell an FO to go get some dual!

 

[JumpCaptain]

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

Classic! Just tell them they're gonna interview and when they show up, put them in a room and start indoc. Don't even give them a chance to turn the job down. If you give them a chance to talk to people in the industry, they might runaway.

Hopefully they at least have their PPL's. If you have to solo them they may be behind the learning curve a little.

 

[TrailerTrash]

Mesa Airlines

Mesa stands for minimal experienced standards airline.

 

[Slice121]

Mesa stands for minimal experienced standards airline.

Wow, pretty clever! You make that up yourself sitting in your double-wide?

 

[Palerider957]

None of this will change unless Mesa planes start falling out of the sky. The FAA is perfectly happy to let zero-hero types fly right seat.

This is what 121 aviation is now.

 

[Salty Pirate]

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 don't 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.

I know that I couldn't find my a$$ with both hands at 300 hrs. Nor have I met any pilots that could. I also know that the amount of stupid things that I have done in an airplane has greatly reduced with time and experience. Experience matters, IT'S A FACT, DEAL WITH IT. The only tools that say they don't need it are the ones that don't have it.

 

[Slice121]

None of this will change unless Mesa planes start falling out of the sky. The FAA is perfectly happy to let zero-hero types fly right seat.

This is what 121 aviation is now.

...or CHQ, Eagle, AWAC, XJT, TSA, Comair, ASA, etc. Am I missing anyone else where DCA or RAA claims to put you in their zero to hero programs?