Joliet

Seven pages for "SKW trying to swipe pilots from RAH"

Wait HR is doing their job? That should be the title.

rickair7777

I was explaining what I thought was the underlying reasoning, not trying to justify it.

SKW I think is more helo friendly than most airlines, and we have a few long-time helo guys in training and management. But even when other regionals were hiring wet commercials they never backed off much from their 1000-hour requirement (same helo credit as now).

Joliet

From what I have seen lately Skywest knows how to hire pilots. They hire good people who have potential. A lot of regionals are unable to do this, or think helo pilots and people who have been out of flying for awhile are not good enough.

YAKflyer

I did not and do not question your motives. However, your comment came across to me as a little condescending towards those who have a strong helicopter background. I'm usually more of a lurker, but I thought I through my post I could do a little educating by sharing my experiences.

I agree to their credit SKW has been able to keep their standards high in the past, but it makes no sense to me to bypass someone who meets FAA requirements while running classes with vacancies. Anyone who holds an ATP MEL and a jet type would be much more qualified than the 1000 hour instructors SKW used to put in the Bro regardless of how much total FW time he has. It seems to me in this case there needs to be a little more enlightenment exercised.

fastback

Agreed, based off of an hour of helo time. Most fun, and challenging experience I've had in aviation.

That said, it sounds like you carry a bit of a chip on your shoulder about your skills and experiences. If I'm way off, then my apologies, carry on and best of success. If not, then carry on and best of success.

E2CMaster

It's not so much a chip on my shoulder, as being told everywhere I went flying either in the Navy or after the Navy, that my "helo hours don't count" and "in no way prepares you to fly a turboprop/jet"

I found doing instruments and airway flights to be much, much easier in the jet than flying a TERF route in a helo. Yes, you are going 2-10x faster. But, you are also not making a turn every ten seconds, or trying to fly a COPTER approach in a jet either.

Stick and rudder in a helo, vs any transport-type turboprop flying I have done is much harder.

And I do get sick of being told, either via uninformed opinion, or policy that it counts for less than boring a hole in the sky in a C152, which as far as most airlines are concerned is true.

I'm pretty damn sure the reason I've had a pretty good BI scan is flying at night, unaided, in an aircraft 200 feet off the water with no moon. If you aren't good on the gauges, you will die flying 200 feet all night in bad weather, while doing some fairly aggressive maneuvering at times.

I'm not saying it's a jet. It's not.

But it has to count as least as well as a C152.

skiK2

EC2Master, why would you want to work for a company that doesn't want you? Chalk it up as their loss, not yours, and move on. I wouldn't recommend anyone coming here. You'll never upgrade and this place will soon be all senior captains and junior FO's that accept being a permaFO.

rickair7777

Not condescending, I have a little helo stick time so I have an appreciation, and rode plenty of them in the military.

Not my call. There's a guard helo unit at SLC and some of those guys are or have been SKW management so I wouldn't say RW is under-represented there.

What

What it's stick and rudder or a jet, you mean that thing that I rest my feet on while going down the runway and the thing I pull back before turning the autopilot on?

On a serious note, what is the outlook out here for rotor pilots, not in the airlines but flying helicopters. I know it's competitive and many mil guys with a whole lot of turbine time. But what is the outlook?

rickair7777

There might be some truth in this, depending on how things play out over the next couple years.