bigscrillywilli

Maybe we should just board immediately and let the passengers do their own seat cushions. That'll fit in with Airways' a la Carte pricing....if you wanna sit there....fix the seat cushion and seat belt!!

Squawk2112

Heard from a buddy that 5 new hires were let go again in training. The training director was quoted as saying " the sim costs $3000 an hour to operate and we do not have the capital to move forward".

crabinow16

Five more were let go or were these the same 5 that were let go about a week and a half ago?

Squawk2112

A week and a half ago I guess. Not a frequent visitor to APC. Thought id share to those looking to come to PDT, maybe theybshould do research on the company and "teaching" department before making a career mistake. Look elswhere or get more experience before jumping to AQP. Not saying the program is bad but maybe they should be doing research on AQP and Keen and company before rolling the dice.

Dashtrasher

Roll of the dice? More like playing Russian roulette with a training department that has no clue how to handle new F.Os. Especially when they are releasing average of 5 per class. Something fishy about how high those numbers are, sounds like a numbers game at the unfortunate expense of many new pilots. Typical PDT.

skyxbomb

Letting go as in the new hires weren't doing well? Sounds like training dept is blaming the financial situation to let people go and yet they have money to bring another group of pilots in and let more people go. Btw I don't know any sim that costs 3000 to run per hour.

Squawk2112

Yeah, 3000 does seems high. You're better off taking the dash up for loops in the pattern. All i know is that contemporary companies(DHC-8) like commutair have only had 2 failures in the past year and PDT has had upwards of 25 and more. Doesnt that right there tell you about the agendas of both training departments! One teaches and one weeds.

frmrdashtrash

One has an in-house program, the other contracts.

bigscrillywilli

Maybe it's because we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Who would want to come work at this dump when you can go to any other regional?

FlyPurdue

This is really a shame - I was in the April class, and everyone whom made it to sim - passed with out any problems, granted many of us have since left for greener pastures...

AQP takes a lot of work, studying flows, procedures, call outs, and reading section 9! They expect you to show up to each sim and expect the ONLY thing you to struggle with is nuances of the dash, nothing procedurally, and especially nothing instrument related.

Unfortunately, there is no consistency between instructors, some are very laid back, others it is their way (not the Piedmont way) or its wrong.

I really enjoyed my tenure at Piedmont, but love being at ExpressJet! The training is not AQP, and if you show up with a great attitude - you will make it through. They have a lot of experience in getting lower time guys successfully through training, and IOE, and on to the line. My class had everyone from 700 hour CFI's, to a furloughed NetJets Captain The line captains do not expect you to be an expert at the -145, and will all help you feel comfortable. Some people from my class needed a few extra sim slots, or FTD sessions, and that was fine!

The Dash, is a very capable aircraft, and is the epitome of 1980's tech. But, it is 1980's tech - remember how user-friendly and state of the art 'DOS' was, think of that, but in an aircraft...

It really is a shame, that Piedmont has to go to the bottom of the barrel to find pilots to fly an aircraft such as the dash. It is defiantly the hardest aircraft I have ever flown, and that list included King/Queen Air's, Turbo Commanders, and now -145's. Piedmont has/had so much potential to become a great airline, just so poorly managed by both Salisbury, and Tempe. Good luck to all the new hires!

-FlyPurdue