How are professional pilots scored?

[dmspilot]

So it’s harder for 1500hr guys to get picked up as an FO at a regional now?

Yes.

How does the demand look for the next few years for those folks?

Can't predict that far ahead. Not many people would have guessed that a pilot shortage would cause regionals to stop hiring, but that's what is happening. Lots of people on APC speculate regionals won't even exist anymore in a few years. On the bright side, the low-cost carriers have started to hire 1500 hour pilots.

 

[DavidWhite]

Checkrides are pass/fail. It’s not out of 100.

Smaller companies know who their strong pilots and weak pilots are. Airlines you’re just a seniority number, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

If you’re a bad pilot, congrats, you’ll probably upgrade eventually.

If you’re a good pilot, condolences, you run the real risk of swinging gear for a knuckledragger who only got upgraded because their number came up and barely squeaked through his/her training.

 

[Sluggo63]

I’d argue that the regionals (FOs at least) are harder to get on than the majors now, which is crazy. Regionals don’t need FOs, they need captains now so a lot of them aren’t hiring or just doing small classes. I don’t know anyone at a regional that hasn’t moved on to their destination airline. Delta just dropped their 1000 turbine requirement to preferred now. We are regularly hiring regional FOs with 2000-2500TT and no TPIC. It’s a great time to get hired by a major/legacy.

 

[Kritchlow]

I’d argue that the regionals (FOs at least) are harder to get on than the majors now, which is crazy. Regionals don’t need FOs, they need captains now so a lot of them aren’t hiring or just doing small classes. I don’t know anyone at a regional that hasn’t moved on to their destination airline. Delta just dropped their 1000 turbine requirement to preferred now. We are regularly hiring regional FOs with 2000-2500TT and no TPIC. It’s a great time to get hired by a major/legacy.

I don’t think they’re “harder to get on”, but rather most folks don’t need to get on with them before achieving their goal.

 

[Gilbert Buettner]

To be somewhat cynical, wouldn't flight schools want CFIs who are "good enough" to have excellent pass rates in a reasonable amount of hours, but not so good that students are passing with minimum hours? Sure, the customers would like that, but someone who flies 40 hours is bringing in less money than someone who flies 50 or 60. So the business owner "should" favor the slightly-less-great CFI.

We use a syllabus that requires more than the minimum number of hours. Most have 50-60 hours, and often many more, before the checkride. It doesn't have anything to do with CFI abilities, since all of our students fly with several different CFIs during the course of training. No one ever gets to take the checkride with 40 hours. Our goal is not to have minimum trained pilots, but to create superior pilots. We are not trying to maximize revenue (we make very little on instruction and rentals) but to create more pilots who will buy airplanes and buy fuel. Our top source of income is fuel sales.

I was very proud when one of my students went to the University of North Dakota and told me his CFI said he was the best prepared private pilot he had ever seen.

 

[luvflyin]

In all the professional roles I've been in there has been some kind of a subjective performance review that dictates a lot of your comp and upward mobility.

That's left me wondering, how are pilots judged/scored for performance in the corporate world (for airlines or corporate pilot, etc)? Are there subjective criteria for it? What makes one pilot more favored/eligible to move up compared to another? Is it purely based off hours and your ratings or is there more to it?

The formula is the number of times you score divided by the inverse of the average hotness of the scores.

 

[jordane93]

So it’s harder for 1500hr guys to get picked up as an FO at a regional now? How does the demand look for the next few years for those folks?

Yes. I believe the only regional that is hiring right away is Air Wisconsin. AFAIK, pretty much every regional will give you a class dates 6-8 months away unless you’re a direct entry captain which is who they need. I’m sure demand will go back up. It’s all cyclical. But who knows

 

[TCABM]

So it’s harder for 1500hr guys to get picked up as an FO at a regional now? How does the demand look for the next few years for those folks?

LCCs are the new regionals.

 

[kaiser]

Consulting: the managing director has an informal, salesy chat with your clients to find out how you're doing. They see how many of your accounts have cancelled/scaled down their purchase with you/etc. Your team-members discuss how much of a team player you are.

That’s interesting. In my experience it’s this… but on a project by project scale. Your annual review is just a consolidation of your best projects. Therefore unless you’ve been struggling all year, it’s a good review. Anything that comes up from memory that wasn’t written down at the time is hearsay and inadmissible.

 

[Groundpounder]

While I disagree with some of the above, it is true airlines work under a seniority system…. But you still have to meet standards.

On the other hand, many of the corporate world pilots are scored on… Getting the job done. At any cost.

I know which I prefer.

To be a good corporate pilot you need to have a poor gag reflex and know how to tickle the.....well, anyway.....