You sure sound to like one of those 7-year Saab FOs who either couldn’t make it through the 900 upgrade training and was sent back to being an FO on Saab, or opted to stay on the Saab as a captain when you could easily hold 900 captain (of course after hearing about how tough some of you - seven-year Saab FO hotshots - found the 900 upgrade training was). I have flown with 3 former Saab Hotshots/turboprops/know-it-alls and I have to use your own quote: “…forced to hire some idiots.” Remember, the ‘release from freeze’ clause so XJ can get 900 captains whether they are ready or not?
You talk about a new-hire 900 pilot, I talk about a 7-year Saab FO who just upgraded and you just wonder. LCAs let them lose on the line just as they did a brand new FO with whom you feel so much jealousy. I have been on the 900 for a while and have never heard any LCA or any captain ever mentioning about backwards ‘epaulettes’, but you sure found out about it somehow.
You talk about long IOE so I sure believe you know how long some the hotshot Saab FOs took on the 900 upgrade IOE. How about the three who were sent back to Saab FO position. Why not name them here. You sure know them, don’t ya? When you do that, also post the name of brand new, hotshot, 900 shell-shocked FOs who failed IOE. You can’t, because there are NONE! [But it doesn’t mean at all that there won’t be any in future].
Now let’s talk about attitudes of new hires and those who have been at any given airline for some time. What dictates how one behaves does not have much do with whether they fly a piston, twin piston, turboprop, jet; whether they are new-hire or a seasoned captain; whether they are young or old; whether they fly a 747 for a major Int’l airline or a 900 FO for Mesaba; it depends on their ‘Personality’ and ‘Attitude’. No one pilot group is better or worst than the other. The only way you can ever prove that you were, as s new hire, and are now, better than these new hires is to provide a detailed video, voice-recording, and extensive paperwork of your own hiring, training, and IOE and subsequent years of flying the Saab for XJ. Believe me that the only way you guys can prove you were and are better then the new hires of today. We have no way of knowing how long you took on the IOE and how many times you failed your oral/check rides and PCs. No way!
So, I suggest that you let it go and accept everyone as your new colleague knowing full well that today’s new hires are just as good (or bad) as the ones that were hired at any given time before. You talk about wearing an epaulette backwards, I talk about this 900 captain who doesn’t change his shirt on a four day trip and proudly tells everyone. You talk about attitudes of new hire, I talk about attitudes of seasoned 900 captains; you talk about new hires wearing iPods, I talk about NW747 captain seen by your truly at the gate waiting for Tokyo flight wearing an iPod; you talk about spiked hair, I talk about senior 900 captains who don’t shave or comb their hair and show up in shabby, un-ironed uniforms. The list goes on.
To be fair though, there are indeed new hires in our 900 program that are downright arrogant and there are arrogant, stuck-up seasoned pilots on the 900/200/Saab along with nice, polite, professional, competent, knowledgeable, skilled new hire pilots and old captains.
Personally, you seem to ‘rant’ too much (pardon the redundancy) about the new hires. Next time, when you’re in the crew room, (Mesaba that is) just look around post some informative, unbiased observations about new/old/jet/prop pilots. Unfortunately, I have a feeling you’re quite incapable of doing so and that assumption is purely based on your behavior on this board (Personality + Attitude = Behavior).