Originally Posted by
AntiPeter
For y'all that have left NJA for the FAR 121 world, is the NJA pilot group good?
Perhaps I've been at NJA too long (close to 15 years now), but the stories F/Os tell me about the PICs they fly with...it's difficult not to be disgusted at times.
Our CBA really shortsighted the F/Os, so much so it is embarrassing so many voted "yes".
65, 70 and 75 year old pilots that are well aware they are a liability yet mouth off and literally abuse the younger pilot sitting next to them that is forced to take in the slack.
Our union leadership is often regurgitated personalities that shift from union to management and back to union. Recalled and they boomerang back. Those volunteers that are doing a good job are often discarded for a lesser candidate but someone that knows how to suck up.
So what is it that makes the pilot group at NJA good? I fail to see it. Sure, we have some outstanding pilots here that care about who they work with and the job they do, but it seems to be the exception rather than the rule. One thing I find interesting at NJA, management and the union often discard the hard working and caring pilots for those that are yes men (and women) that know how to tow the party line.
I wonder if FAR 121 groups are better. Perhaps it is the nature of the beast, but at least if you are dealing with an unpleasant co-worker in the FAR 121 world you are unlikely to be stuck with them for 12+ hour days for 7 days straight.
I'm not trying to stir the pot, just looking for the observations from others. I've been at NetJets since 2003-2004, and the same dysfunctional nonsense and personalities that come with it that existed back then are alive and well today. It's a shame the place doesn't seem to grow or mature. Low-brow people fighting to keep their place, I guess...I can't quite figure it out, and I've stopped trying.
NetJets is full of people that think they and NJA are the tip of the spear. HR believes it, management preaches it, and pilots buy it because they were told to.
Would I say 121 pilots are better or worse? Not sure I wanna start that fight. What I will say is that overall they are different. The worst/weirdest/odd/non standard pilot I’ve flown with at my airline has not come close to the worst/weirdest/odd/non standard pilot I ever flew with at NJA. But I also flew with guys at NJA that I genuinely miss flying with. There are lots of great people there.
There were plenty of normal guys that were totally cool, totally chill, good pilots and had a realistic outlook on things. But the odds of getting a pipolar, cross eyed, political extremist nutcase who also can’t fly to save his/her life, and would do everything in their power to to destroy QOL for your trip because they were those “mission complete types, were higher than they should have been and in a much higher percentage than at my airline. We have a “fab 5” and everyone knows who they are. I would say NetJets has a “fab 20%.”
I would say the signwave of what captain you were going to get paired with at NJA for 7 days had much larger swings than I’ve experienced in 121. Doesn’t mean we don’t have our share of oddballs. I flew with a guy that dry heaves if he even smells coffee and he was militant in having no coffee in the cockpit. That was a hard 4 days lol. But I also think back to the craziest, most infamous captains on the Phenom fleet and the fact that they still had jobs and weren’t thrown on their ass into the streets years ago is mind boggling.