Warning letters

[Dooker]

Does anyone know how heavily a warning letter weighs on the hiring process?

I got one about six months ago from my company's principal ops inspector. I was a chief pilot for a small Part 135 charter outfit, we were doing proving runs with four(!) gents from the FAA in back of our brand-new jet (I was acting as PIC), and we busted 250 below 10 by about ten or fifteen knots. Then we took off again with a dead standby gyro ("careless and wreckless operation of an aircraft").

I'm not proud of this, obviously. It was a bad, baad day.

Just about every app I fill out asks if I've ever received a warning letter. The day my POI called to announce he was shoving it in and breaking it off, he told me they were "no big deal" and they went out of your file in 2 years. He even told me he had gotten one himself, back before he decided to defect to the FAA.

I have no accidents or incidents. I have nothing else in my file at Oak City. I've got a clean driving record, have never botched any training or upgrade rides, have an honorable discharge and a DD214 to prove it, pay my taxes and help little old ladies across the street.

So, am I hosed?

 

[EMBATP]

no

no you are not hosed...got one as a new 121 captain....it was expunged 2 years later...got on with a major after that....they asked and i told them what happened and what i learned from it and they were ok with that

 

[Dooker]

Didn't happen to have a fed in the jumseat, didja?

 

[FlyMeSWA]

Tell them about it in HR, then tell them what you learned. You'll be fine. It's not a disqualifier.

 

[JediNein]

I hired a guy with a warning letter. I managed to snag him before several other operators on the field could get him. For many outfits it is who you are and how you handle the stressing questions the interviewer will ask about the letter.