OnMyWay

Which means that they have been doing the opposite the whole time.

Phteven

"We have not had discussions with them on those 30 aircraft, though."
-Skywest VP regarding E175 flying for Alaska.

There you have it, folks. Alaska never even talked to Skywest about the additional 30 E175's we just took concessions to "secure."

Check Complete

Pht, while I agree with what you're saying, there have been some out right lies during earnings calls. Not everything they say has been accurate or truthfull.

I'm glad you guys got what is rightly your aircraft, just sorry you didn't get more to do it.

This coming from a guy whose pilot group has been reaping the rewards of all of the other unions.

I readily admit it.

Thanks BTW!

Meekrob

Heard a rumor recently during AQP that the company wants to put new hires in the jet not to save money, but to reduce training failures on the Q400.


So they hope to get the FAA off their back for a couple years until those pilots upgrade to Q400 CA and fail that one?!

amcnd

You would think putting a new cfi through a new program with the faa watching everystep would be what they wanted to avoid... Maybe they can entice some Compass/Republic/SkyWest peeeps to come over... Doubtfull.

nederlander

I heard it was cause the union couldn't get anything industry leading so they decided to lead the industry with the seat lock.

cactusflyer

I can kind of see the logic there, since taking introducing someone straight from a GA environment and simultaneously introducing them to part 121 operations and faster airplanes and expecting them to learn that in an airplane that has more workarounds and exceptions than actual procedures really is asking for training issues, especially in this hiring environment.

That said, taking someone who spent four years on a well designed airplane and then upgrading them into the Q400 is certainly going to cause it's share of training shennanigans, but maybe QX is banking on having swapped most of the 400's for jets by the time that problem might present itself.

On the plus side, I believe one of the people who was "right-sized" in the Portland bloodbath a few weeks ago is the person largely responsible for why the Q400 is so over-proceduralized, so maybe the learning curve on the airplane will get slightly less absurd under whoever gets that job next.

Meekrob

I wonder who will be named hand of the king next

phalanxo

I fly the E175 at compass... All you really need to know in a training context is "in accordance with system logic" and "it has two channels that continuously monitor. if one fails, it will switch to the other channel automatically.. in accordance with system logic." I swear to god that just about covers everything. Normal switch position is 12 o clock and dark and everything in auto. So, your new hires will be just fine, the plane doesn't require you to do any actual piloting. If you have problems, you just reboot the airplane. It gets cranky if it's powered on for too long. The only tricky thing is it doesn't like to go down and slow down at the same time. It's slippery and requires some planning. It's uncommon, but not THAT uncommon to use the gear very very early as an extra speedbrake. For anybody that actually gets to fly it, it's a really lovely jet and the cockpit is quite comfortable. I don't think it was worth concessions or the PBS, but the customers like it and the pilots like it, and I'm getting off track here but training on it is very easy. Oh yeah, and the autothrottles are retarded and most pilots just override them, but they're still better than no autothrottles.

Petethedog

How do the latest developments affect the route system at Horizon? I am specifically wondering about MFR as a base. The wife and I dream of living in Ashland and I am wondering what the future looks like for this base.
Shrink? Expand? Stagnant?
Q400's only? Mix? Jets only?
Chances of new hire getting MFR?
Thanks all!