Originally Posted by
The Juice
Well new aircraft are coming late summer next year. The company is going to have to upgrade a bunch of Saab FO's for Saab CA slots to take the spots of current Saab CA's who will transition to the Q. The Saab upgrades have to come first.
Now the company needs to schedule class and sim time way in advance because you can not upgrade 60 guys at once. The whole process will take close to a year to upgrade one group and transition another group. Summer time is way too late to even start on Q captains, no less the Saab upgrades who will take their place.
Colgan may not be around today if not bought by Pinnacle. We would have never received the Q's if not for the fact of PNCL Corp being profitable (thanks to the Pncl pilots). Also Colgan would have had big problems with the high fuel of last year and those crap EAS and ProRate flying we were doing.
Well I hope you're right. I've just heard nothing but "no upgrades until at least spring" constantly around the crewrooms. I agree that they'll have to start training early on. I hope to be able to transfer to the Q sometime late next year, but we'll see.
Originally Posted by
lawpilot
as for future upgrades/movement at Colgan or any other regional for that matter minus maybe expressjet and Eagle... I was at a job fair less than 2 years ago in ATL and a few regionals (the names escape me) were offering classes to 500hr guys upon interviewing them in the hotel! I even interviewed for 2 street captain positions around the same time - Now no movement... I suspect in a year or two things may be different despite the economy.
The flood gates will reopen... and regionals like Colgan who have a ton of young capts with PIC turbine time will rush to the majors and upgrades will sky rocket again... I've lived to see 2 cycles so far...
"when your up its never as good as it seems and when your down you never think you'll be up again"
In the mean time just enjoy what your doing! Like I said- my 4 years as a pilot I never "worked" a day. (omitting recurrent of course)
I hope that your theory holds up my friend. I know the regionals will be hiring again soon enough ... how many regionals and how many pilots I have no clue, but it will happen.
Originally Posted by
Three Green
I heard Colgan was giving up US Air pro rate flying, any truth?
I haven't heard a thing about this, so I couldn't begin to speculate where you heard this from
Originally Posted by
kalyx522
hey J, any captain who helps his fellow pilots with commuting is an awesome man!
Haha, well I'm a commuter myself, I'm not about to strand someone unless I get screwed over by the ground crew after we've already discussed final numbers. I have actually gone back into the terminal at IAD a few times just to make sure there was no one else trying to get on. Once or twice I remember finding a pilot pleading with the gate agent to speak with the CA to see if he/she could board. Of course the gate agent wasn't allowing it and when I walked up and gave them the OK the gate agent looked like they were going to shoot me ... I personally found it hilarious.
Originally Posted by
usmc-sgt
im a 7000 guy
Thought so. I can't wait to fly that thing ... The saab is a friggin tank, but man it'd be nice to have some technology, haha