By the summer bid those spring 2005 pilots should have their 1500 hours and be able to get their ATP with the upgrade.
Do I smell some jealousy on this thread by several pilots? Look I have been at CAL for twenty years (in three days), flown several different of the aircraft we have or had here (up to the 747), have 5000 hours PIC 737 and over 15,000 hours total time and I wouldn't get hired at CAL today because I never finished my four year degree. Thats the way it is in today's market and I don't take it personally.
Yes we have hired some low time pilots, so does just about every major (I mean Legacy) during every hiring period in the last thirty years. That doesn't mean the majority of those we have hired aren't very qualified pilots. I know I have flown with many of them.
At my former regional (called commuters back in the old days) Pilgrim Airlines I witnessed most of our pilots get hired by majors (we had 80% turn over in one year in 1985). We had pilots get hired by just about every airline AA (the first B scalers the ones who on paper were to never make more than 50% of A scalers), DAL, UAL (the infamous 570) NW, Republic, US AIR, Piedmont, Eastern, TWA ETC. You could see the personality "type" of pilots each airline hired, it was actually kind of funny. American hired for the most part those that fit through the cookie cutter profile, Eastern and TWA seemed to hire our best and most liked pilots, United was mixed etc etc.
Fact is this is the way it has always been and probably always will be. However at least Continental takes referrals from their pilots very seriously and thus we the Continental pilots do have a significant say in who gets hired. Not perfect but the process seems to work well. From my stand point the vast majority of the pilots hired at CAL over the last two years are outstanding. Are there some exceptions to the rule, you betcha but hey no process is perfect!
