The Ballad of PenAir
Chapter 1: Fat, dumb and happy
You move to Alaska to fly in Alaska, that's the deal. Maybe you get hired low time into the freighter. Things are great for the most part. Home every night, good pay to duty ratio, ability to trade flights and get time off. All that making up for the abysmal pay. Overall, pretty good quality of life.
You upgrade. Down to the bottom of the list again. But hey, you're in the left seat. All you want to do is fly your A$$ off when you're at work and have a livable schedule. Hourly pay sucks, now FO's make almost as much as you do with the new bonus program. But still, every hour is one closer to your next job. Nose to the grindstone. Work hard, go home. "I could do this for a while" you say to yourself.
Chapter 2: What just happened?
Enter....the SAAB 2000 (angels singing). "We need more lift for Dutch" they say. "The 2000 is the airplane for Dutch" they say. "All of our problems solved". The bigger faster, more complicated airplane takes the long legs. It goes so senior you could never touch it. Then it promptly sh&@$ the bed. "Where did all the flying go?" "Wow, my schedule sucks next month." "I barely made my guarantee."
That sure happened fast. All of a sudden, this isn't working anymore. If you leave for another airline now, you'll set your career back 2 years and you know it. "Is it worth leaving? No". You say. That grindstone sure is starting to get old though.
Chapter 3: The writing is on the wall
Rumblings of a new base. You hear something about Portland, then Denver. Questions abound. "Do we even have the crew?" Do we have enough airplanes?" "How can they train the ground crews that fast?" Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain. The voice in your head says "whatever comes, just stick with it, it's not worth leaving."
"Can you go for a week?" Then 2...then a month. You're living in a hotel. Or moving south for the company to be re-based. Some folks aren't getting paid to re-locate. (Which they find out after they've moved) Something about the base being too old. If you're TDY your family doesn't even know who you are anymore. You fly 6 legs a day. 5 and 2's, some 6 an 1's, extensions, maintenance problems, ground crew problems, brand new crew. The paperwork is so messed up and so late most of the time that you spend half of your mental energy sifting through it. The whole place is just a violation waiting to happen. Min rest. You go to bed tired, and wake up tired. Repeat. "Where's the fueler?" "Where's my paperwork? Were supposed to leave in 5 minutes". Delayed out of the gate, trying to make up time all day. To no avail....Taxi is late. Pushing your rest and delaying tomorrow's departure. "Why do we have so many delays?" They say. "We better create a position to figure these delays out." You laugh when you read the email.
"Where's my per diem?" "Where's my bonus?" "I've been denied vacation for the past 8 months." You have 5 hour sits at the airport. They start to take away the monetary perks for the folks on TDY. It's terrible for pilots based there, how are they even doing it? It's becoming un-commutable. Overnights are going away. It WAS doable, not anymore. It's starting to get to you. Where did that grey hair come from?
Chapter 4: Exodus
"You hear so and so is leaving?" "I heard so and so is looking at their options." "I heard there's talk of a union." "So and so put in their notice." People can't take it anymore. You ask yourself that same old question "Is it worth leaving?" This time a new answer... "yes." You are willing to take the hit to your career to leave this place. Resumes everywhere to test the waters. Now, you wait. You know the company can't survive losing these new bases. But you just don't care anymore. You are starting to lose your mind. Who is John Galt?