dhpflyn

What would you guys say the best thing and worst thing about EAS would be? I know the schedule can be hard but what beside that is good and bad?

dhpflyn

Also best and worst places you have stayed?

RI830

Lots of guys don't like the logistics (picking your own hotel, rental car, etc) or self dispatching. I liked it as I had control over the places I stayed and companies I got cars through. That way I knew the hotels were nice and points were mine.
The crews there are fantastic. Great people to work with. New airplanes with great maintanence.

Best and worst place stayed......
Best: Cabo, Napa, NYC, KC, home
Worst: Miles City, MT, Gillete, WY

Vsipegged

Pros

- Good equipment. The phenoms are kept in good working order and write ups are fixed pretty quickly. The jet is also extremely easy to operate once you get the hang of the avionics. Tons of information and SA.

- Paperless cockpits. We are nearly there. iPads have already arrived, and within a year I am confident that 100% of our paperwork will be done through the iPad. Save the trees!

- 10/5 schedule. It may still sound brutal, but with the way our schedule works ( standby days sprinkled in here and there) it's actually quite nice now. tag a vacation day or two on, and suddenly you have a full week off.

- Good bunch of pilots. Most guys here are easy to get along with. You can look forward to having a good time on an overnight.

- Rental cars, hotels, general 'freedom' on layovers. At the current time, we still have a great deal of control over where we stay and what we do on layovers. Hotel standby is 1 hour to airport and 1 hour wheels up. So as long as you can make it work, go fishing, go to the beach, hike, bike, explore.

That's all I can come up with for now, but you get the jist.

Cons

- As previously mentioned, lack of a real pay-scale. You lose a ton of money staying here over the long term. Take jet suite for example. You can go there, be typed on only one jet, and make way more as a captain. EAS needs to address this eventually.

- Hotel and meal budgets are pretty difficult to work with in some cities. Not sure of a solution to this. Some guys want per diem, others think it would be worse? I don't know of a great solution to this.

- Lack of profit sharing or any incentive based programs. I'm not sure how many companies do this, but why shouldn't the pilots be rewarded for saving fuel and making smart purchases? It would reward those who care for their companies future, and discourage the crowd who just say "screw it" and ignore prices, waived fees, etc (yes, there are guys like this)

- medical deductibles are a bit ridiculous, but I'm not going to blame the company for this one.

There you have it. I'm hoping others chime in with a few more, but that's what I could come up with over my morning coffee

Overall I'm very happy here. But the lingering fear is longevity at this point.

RI830

VSI,

The medical a deductibles may be ridiculous, but at least you only pay $150 per paycheck for your bennies.

I pay almost $400/paycheck for mine now.
I pay close to nothing when I go to the doc, but $400 sucks.

I prefer the $150/paycheck and pay "when" I need the doc.

I agree about the profit sharing being nice, but also unsure of how many companies do this.
Per diem would cause guys to eat far worse than they do now. The meal allowance can be tough in places. Used to be no limit, but someone ruined it for everyone.

USMCFLYR

On the per diem -vvs- company credit card question........

I was eating lunch with a guy yesterday who use to fly for Kelloggs.
They had a company credit card and he said that they didn't watch it that closely so long as they didn't go craxy on EVERY trip.
We currently employ standard gov't per diem - min $46 in some cities but up to $71 as a high domestically.
I eat what I want on the road (and that isn't a good thing) and still generally spend half of my allotted per diem so I end up taking home and extra $50-$100 home every trip which we wouldn't get if we had a company credit card/expense account.

I'd be interested in what the positions are in EAS on the pros/cons of this part of the contract.

runsky42

Pretty much hit it on the head. I would really like to see a payscale. I prefer using the company credit card. Yes maybe you could make a little on perdiem but I would rather spend the company money then my own. As far as eating healthy I don't buy that. I have been with guys who eat the most unhealiest meals I have seen and they say we have to spend every last nickle. I eat the way I would if it was my own money. One last Con, being on two completely different airframes with no extra pay. Its tuff going from one you have been flying for 3 weeks then you bounce back to the other you probably haven't seen in a month, and I was told by scheduling that they fly me just enough to keep current in the smaller airframe.

dhpflyn

IS everyone typed on two aircraft?

do you have wifi on aircraft?

USMCFLYR

Can you expound on this thinking a little more since it isn't the first time I've heard this - but I don't feel that I'm spending MY money in any case with per diem. I have a travel account and I guess I *float* the payment, but I've been doing that for over 20 years and have never had a problem.

Concur. I do the same. The guys who like to have a few drinks on the road seem to be the ones who end up spending more than per diem; and that is fine.

I've never flown two airplanes at once in my entire flying career barring my earliest flying a C-172 and Piper Warrior at the same time.
When I started my job, many pilots were dual rated and I stiff armed it for sometime. Since then they have stopped dual typing people for now, but I was getting to the point where I felt that I was going to have to *put my big boy pants on* and suck it up. Seems that a majority of my peers have flown multiple airframes throughout much of their careers; one friend even flying 5 different aircraft (and I'm not talking GA aircraft here!) though he will readily admit that he is overloaded.

For those that have flown multiple types at a time as runsky mentions, do you find it easier to fly two similar aircraft though many of the numbers (systems and speeds for instance may only be a few knots difference) let's say a KA300 -vs- C90 or completely different airframes with little similarities if any - say a KA300 -vs- L60?

runsky42

Maybe it's a mental thing with the company credit card vs perdiem. I just prefer the method we are using now. My previous job I was on 6 different airplanes some with close similarities and some not even close and checkairman on 2 of them.

To answer dph's question. Yes, the majority of all of us are typed on 2 different airplanes.