Pilot Skill Made the Difference...
 

Report on President Obama's MidEx charter that diverted to STL for control problems specifically cites pilot skill as the reason the incident wasn't catastrophic.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...ampaign-plane/

Kudos to the pilot for doing a great job controlling the plane.
Hopefully this thread will not become a rehash of the mainline versus RJ pilots experience levels like we have had previously. Did I open the door already by suggesting it?

If your concern is genuine you could go back and edit your post down to just the first sentence. ;)

No
I like being the instigator!

He won't be coming back to Midwest/Republic
 

I flew with this guy a lot as an MD-80 FO at Midwest. He was one of the best guys to fly the "non scheduled" (sports charters, politicians, bands) trips with. He came from the corporate environment where you must be good at customer service. 35K a year at Republic won't bring these types back. He was hired by a Fortune 500 company to fly their execs around.

Interesting. Sounds like a great guy and an excellent pilot.

Welcome to FT by the way.

The JSOnline version...

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/50509072.html

I would rather have an inexpierenced Republic pilot fly me and save $2 on my ticket. Pilot expierence is not worth paying for.

Sure hope that's tongue in cheek, or "expierence" doesn't mean the same thing as experience...take it to the logical extreme and I won't get on a plane with some guy who's never flown before, even if it's free.

I'll bet you have flown on planes that it was the first time for the pilot to be the PIC, or the first officer to be the first time on that type plane as an FO. You never know and everyone had to do their job for the very first time.

You're missing the point. Every pilot has a "dollar ride" in specific airplane types. Expereince can only be built over time, regardless of airplane type. It used to be that airline pilots were hired only after several thousands of hours flying for-hire charter or in the military. Today, regionals are hiring pilots with just a couple of hundred hours. If you're comfortable flying with those pilots and their decision-making abilities, then go for it! I tend to avoid the regionals.

Put another way, are you a better driver today than when you were 16? If so, why?

Yes and no. I'm complacent now. I don't drive at 10 and 2, and don't have a second thought about changing the radio station. But, it's because experience tells me what I can get away with.