Has anyone heard anything on the merits of Mesa Airline's first officer training at San Juan College in New Mexico?

Yea the place is a scam, PFT outfit, Mesa has some of the worst rules in the industry. If you are that hard up to be a regional airline pilot apply to PSA or Skywway which I think one of them don't have any posted min's. Again look at the debt you will be in and the rewards arnt there. O yea all that experience you will get in cloudless sky's and 80 somthings degree sunny days.

Thanx ChicagoHeights. This isn't the first negative I've heard on Mesa. Advice well taken.
Pete Smalls

One a recent trip to the south I was amazed to see help wanted posters by regionals at several FBO's. They all pay a miserable wage, so at least get the training. No need to pay them to work.
20driver

We often operate through airports where Mesa flies (i.e. ORD) and ride the hotel shuttles with some of them.

Some CRJ pilots at other companies tell me that Mesa is still dragging the regional industry down, and Mesa pilots are forced to operate as if they had crossed a picket line-to put it as diplomatically as possible. The original choice of exact wording came from them.
Four days ago a fellow pilot here said that an entire class of prospective Mesa pilots were "no shows".
Even if that story is only half true, it really says something.:hmm:

The more willing pilots are to sacrifice professional working conditions and pay, in order to jump into a small jet, the fewer jobs they will later have at the majors. It is already a grim prospect. At one US major, a few hundred furloughed pilots might not ever return, due to the harsh, drastic overnight erosion of career pay and working conditions. For the first time ever, many pilots can be better paid in the active duty military than flying as FO in a mainline jet for a US major airline!

A decent-paying job with foreign airlines might be the only reasonable long-term career prospects for many younger pilots now-and the assumed benefit of a 4-year (US college) degree might be of much less benefit over there.

They turned the various pilot groups against each other and will continue to do so. These companies have turned exploitation and manipulation of the pilot ego into a finely honed weapon, and an art. They have decades of practice. They probably exchange quite valuable tips at ATA conferences. The attraction of flying 'my first jet!' makes it so much easier for Upper Mgmts. But where is the much higher increase in pay, in proportion to the large increase of the speed/payload factor?

US pilots with majors, except for SWA, UPS, FEDEX etc are now paid about 30-38 % less than what they were a few years ago.
The best of luck to all of you young pilots out there. I mean all of this with the utmost sincerity. Many might want to consider working overseas, as difficult as it can be on the personal life, even when things work out.

I'm a current Mesa pilot. Guys do get hired here at Mesa with 250 hours or so, but every bad thing you have ever heard about this place is true. My advice, skip the MAPD program, go get your flight time elsewhere, and go shopping at some of the other regionals with very low flight time (PSA, Trans States, etc). Mesa is the not the place to be.

Right now our attrition is 4% per month (75 pilots last month out of 1700). The worse the attrition, the worse the QOL, the worse the attrition....vicious cycle that they can't seem to stop. Everybody here has 1 foot out the door, just looking for any opportunity to leave, myself included.

If you have any further questions, PM me

Mesa Pilots Board - www.mesahub.com

Mesa is indeed a pretty nasty place to be, if any of the line pilots I know there are to be believed. Another problem with Mesa that a lot of pilots in our position don't consider is just how universally reviled the company is in this industry. We're all just trying to chase flight time here in the regionals, but if the guy on the interview board at "Goal Airline #1" has a problem with the company for which you used to work, you could be dead in the water. Just ask any of those poor bastards with "GoJets" on their resume.

I'd avoid PSA, but you really should take any other job over Mesa. If you've got a burning need to fly your ass off for virtually no compensation, GLA's hiring. Sure we're ghetto, but we fly the routes nobody else wants in equipment that's not even considered competitive with the new RJs, so it's hard to accuse us of "dragging down the industry" like some other companies. We're proud of our place at the bottom of the industry, and Mesa needs to get the Hell off our turf.

ThePotato23:
What an interesting description and sense of humour!

One more observation about the pilots who can survive the training on a high-performance airplane with only 150 (150 at Pinnacle, according to an FAA Inspector)-500 hours, they all must be excellent students. Let's hope those companies give all brand-new First Officers plenty of IOE.

What a transition-straight from a C-172, Cirrus or such, to a jet flying near all types of changing weather, traffic congestion and BOS, LGA, JFK, DCA, MIA and LAX, to name a few!
How about into winter-time MSO with no radar or tower?

I know several former Mesa guys. To a person, they all said it was a horrible experience. Many of them quit even without another job waiting because it was not worth to to put up with way Orenstien (sp/?) does business. Make no mistake, Measa is what it is by design. They are sure they will always get low timers to work for them at the scratch they offer, and pilot retention is not what they want. If they made it good enough to stay, then they would have to actually pay you a descent wage. Can't have that!

As an ex-Mesa, I can vouch for the previous statements. And it is not getting better. Just check-out the latest issue of ALPA magazine.

With an attrition rate of 75 pilots a month (I did some fact-checking with several ex-colleagues) they already are cancelling flights left-right and centre. They are now offering a $5000 signing bonus if you leave SkyWest, Republic or the likes to go to Mesa. How's that for pilot poaching?? They have lowered their minimums to 500 total and 100 multi even from non-Mesa training programme guys. That says a lot about their current status.

I will stop here because I have to be careful, Mesa is notorious to sue people for diffamation.

Cheers.

Well, the last guy they sued got the case thrown out of court, so I wouldn't be too worried.

Mesa sucks; go ANYWHERE else, even Burger King. It really is that bad.

Hey Hikoushi and Roadstar1,

Do you know anyone who got sued for no finishing their training agreement with Mesa?

Also about Mesahub.com, is it still running? I tried to get a login ID but no reply yet...

Mesa is threatening to sue me for 2 months left on my training agreement, are they serious??

Cheers