Airline Pilot Central Forums - SkyWest refusing to count certain PIC hours (2024)

I guess OP didn't have the bandwidth to figure that one out either.

I never said anything about union involvement.

My (and the affected parties') issue with this whole mess isn't so much what FAR 61.51 says about being a rated pilot and able to log PIC time, though that obviously matters if this goes to arbitration with the FAA via a ruling, letter of interpretation. etc. It doesn't affect me personally because I signed for military aircraft and flew enough on the side to well exceed the 250 PIC requirement either way.

The bigger problem is pilots corresponding with airline representatives about whether certain hours will count toward an important prerequisite, getting told yes, getting interviewed, going through indoc (by this point their logbook and hours have been reviewed multiple times), only to get to LOE and having the rug pulled out from under them. THAT'S what has folks up in arms and stinks of an ulterior motive.

I agree - that's a really poor position to put someone in, however I really doubt there is an ulterior motive. For many a regional is the first step into 121 and I think some people have more faith in some of those "representatives" than warranted - just out of not knowing any better and assuming certain people in certain positions actually have more experience than they actually have. Just a few examples I remember thinking were odd from my regional days were hearing that some people that would represent my regional at recruiting events hadn't even started training yet or learning that some of our seniority list sim instructors were hired directly into the position and had never flown the line.

There's a big lesson here.

There is no ulterior motive, why would they possibly want to pay somebody and pay for all of that training just to turn them away on checkride day? They don't.

This is not the first time that the HR ladies have had misconceptions about ATP aeronautical experience requirements and let somebody slip in, only to have it get caught by a Fed/APD on checkride day. I've seen at another regional too. Not aware of these issues at majors, but historically they mostly hire pilots who already hold an ATP.

It is possible that folks processed in the past slipped through the cracks and at some point either the CMO or a dilligent APD took a more rigorous read of the regs. They are entitled to hold folks to the letter of the rules.

Motives aside, it seems this issue has been resolved. New hire at SkyWest reported the following:

"I just had my IACRA logbook screening at Skywest and they are NOW accepting T-34 hours/T-6 hours after solo. Apparently there was a big back and forth with the FAA but they now have approval to accept these hours towards total PIC. This is airline specific but as of now our hours count again."

Original post: Aug 5

Above post: Aug 13

looks like someone with more brains got involved and resolved this.

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