Originally Posted by
WhizWheel
Thats great man. If you feel your experience has been tolerable then thats good. I felt that way until I investigated a "top tier" regional, made the jump and now that I have perspective I can see how much better ANY other regional is. I've managed to avoid furlough (for now) and I am 110% glad I left. If all you have to compare Mesa to is some stressbox instructing job then yes, its better. BUT, understand there is a whole new world out there outside of Mesa and its lightyears better.
I have been at MESA for 12 years and I have been lucky also.I realize everyone has not, but some of that is of your own making. What you fail to understand is that those "top tier" regionals have not always been top tier. They became top tier after several contracts that were won by the the previous (and current)pilots efforts to make them such. We at MESA are on our 2nd contract and are in negotiations for our 3rd. This 3rd contract is where we need to clean things up. I find (through talking to other regional pilots) that they don't know the history of their carrier and think that the management gave these things willingly,I can assure you they did not. ASA spent almost 5 years getting their current contract and it is better than ours, but not much better than they could have had 5 years ago. It is easy to walk into a good contract and then put others down.It is much more difficult to stay and make one better. We would appreciate others support (as we have supported theirs) and understanding that their contracts have developed to the point they are because of hard work,support of others and time. Remember, no airline pilots 1st or 2nd contracts have ever been GREAT. It takes time.