Originally Posted by ttexrbomb

I would not go with Air Wisconsin even if they hire you. Their recruiters paint a picture of a great place to work and a lot of potential. This is not the case. Here is what happened to me.

I was hired in November, 2023. I was promised a $73,000 signing bonus, to be paid out ($5,000 upon completion of IOE, and $17k every 6 months after that). Well come to find out after I was hired, they "silently" changed that to $5,000 after IOE, then $17k 6 months after you upgrade to captain. So, you'll see that in roughly 2 1/2 years. There are no plans on raising the pay of $60.90, no matter what all the chatter is. I spoke with Dave McAdow, who is a senior team member there. He told me that the official position of the company is to keep the $60.90 pay for FO's and reward upgrading to captain. Air Wisconsin wants a clawback in their next agreement, and they want to reduce the FO pay by 25%. Not really right seeing as others are paying significantly more than that. This company is looking to take the pay back down if they can. So, be really careful if you decide to trust them.

They pitch a 55 day training footprint. It took me over 150 days. So, three months longer than they initially promised. And I was sitting on ready reserve. Luckily I got a job offer paying significantly more, so I resigned and took that job offer. And that was after I paid back over $5,129 for their "training". That is fine, I agreed to it. But they also agreed that I was going to be a FO, and they reneged on that part. Sitting around the airport ready reserve wasn't what I had in mind. I mean fly me half time at least. That would have been fine. But one or two flights a month is what people just coming out of training are getting? I honestly think this American deal is not as lucrative as the United was. And their 8K shows a huge write off. So, they can pitch that the American deal was a good deal? It wasn't.

Training is not for new pilots. If you have 1,000 RATP or 1,500 hours, the training is brutal. It can be done, but the training isn't designed for newer pilots. It is designed for already seasoned 121 pilots.

For your interview, you are responsible for your own hotel room. To interview with them, it cost me $119 for a hotel by O'Hare. Don't most companies provide this to you?

You have to buy your own uniforms. They don't provide those to you.

If you have to do ATR (Additional Training), your pay is cut from the 75 hour minimum to 62 hours. So your pay will be close to $800 less while you are waiting for additional training (which could be up to 6 weeks).

The iPads they give you are 2018 versions. Old, scratched up and the battery life on them isn't want you need. They give you a portable charger that you need to use.

They don't use ForeFlight or Government charts. Instead, they use NavBlue, which is an Airbus company. The only other airline in the world that uses NavBlue is Ryan Air in Europe. You can't use Jeppeson charts, even if you wanted to.

The hotel they put you up at for training isn't designed for extended stay. No microwaves in the rooms and a tiny mini fridge barely large enough to hold drinks or refrigerated food. If you want to microwave anything, you'll need to go to a centrally located microwave and wait in line. The sim hotel in Atlanta is even worse. It is located in a bad part of town. Dangerous at night, so if you have a 4am sim start time, you're calling an Uber because their shuttle doesn't start until 5am. And again, 4am sim, you're missing breakfast which is not included in the room, so the hotel breakfast is $19 a day. I just went to Walmart and bought my own food.

When in training, you will not get a per diem for food. You are responsible for your own breakfast, lunch and dinner. But hey, at least you'll get your $60.90 an hour to pay for it.

My training footprint was this. Indoc and Systems - then a 7 week break for CPT, then 5 week break before SIMS, then a month between SIMS and IOE. They clearly don't have the capacity to handle the training they are hiring for.

Caveat Emptor. I would avoid this airline like the plague.