It's a Catch-22. They want folks with high experience, which naturally assumes a long time at a 121 carrier. But if you've had a long time at a 121 carrier you are subject to recall and probably have a few people behind you as well.

I suspect the best candidates are going to be folks who have a year or less at their respective 121 carriers and for whom there is no huge incentive to go back, like third or fourth year pay. Or whose airline may never be as large as it was (Mesa).

And they have not always had a high amount of success with folks who had 10 years of experience and tons of time at a previous carrier.

Based on what I have seen in the past they will want qualified folks who are prepared to learn and spend at least a couple of years with AWAC. They don't need folks who will come in with the intent of 'rocking the boat', creating a tough time for the training department, bad attitudes, etc.

There are currently 22 pilots on furlough with AWAC seniority numbers. How many of them accept a recall is unknown. But it probably won't be all of them. If the flying swings upwards for the summer of 2010 like it has in previous years, those 22 will not be enough to cover the flying. We'll have to run a class or two and do some upgrades, probably all of those who had been downgraded and maybe even a few more.

Attrition is very slow, but not absolutely stopped. There have been some resignations over the past 18 months of stagnation and I have moved up about 20 spots on the seniority list in spite of the horrible job conditions.

There are worse places to work than AWAC. Probably better ones too. But if you live near one of the domiciles it might not be a bad place for you, at least if you keep in mind that that could change....