I would strongly suggest you don't do it man. The people running TSA/Gojets are some of the most dishonest, backbiting people I have ever worked for. I'm definitely not talking about the pilots. The pilot group had some of the finest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and I did have a lot of fun there with my co-workers. The owner and the powers that be at the management level are who I had/have a problem with. There were so many instances where they would make things hard for you just because of the dynamic between labor and management. What I mean is, they would screw you just to screw you.

The maintenance (it was the same mechanics doing maintenance for both operations when I was there) was absolutely atrocious. It's not all the fault of the mechanics either. The company is run on such a shoestring that they'll just keep deferring stuff rather than taking the time/spending the money to fix things. Many, many, many times I flew airplanes with the logcan covered front and back with MEL stickers. I arrived shortly before Gojets came into being and it was heart wrenching watching growth/upgrades going to the guys that were willing to stab their former coworkers in the back by leaving TSA to go to Gojets. Management did a fantastic job breaking the will of the labor group by exploiting some wording in the contract to start Go Jets and using it to fly new business rather than grow the existing operation.

The gist of what happened was that the part of the TSA contract that dealt with scope said something to the effect of "All flying done by Trans States Airlines Inc. shall be performed by pilots on the TSA seniority list" Management had agreed to this contract granting us the right to any new flying that was acquired by the company in the future. Management figured out a way to renege on the agreement they had made by forming an entity called Trans States Holdings separate from Trans States Airlines. They could have called the new holding company anything else, but I think they called it Trans States Holdings to subtly thumb their nose at the pilot group and show us how unimportant we really were and that they could run the airline without us. Shortly after all this happened, furloughs from Trans States began. The first round was something like 30 guys. A few months later, they announced that they were furloughing like 60 more for a total of around 90 effective 2 weeks from the date of the announcement. Two weeks rolls around and the 60 additional guys take their furlough. Almost all of them got jobs at better places like Skywest, Expressjet, Chautauqua etc. before they ever actually hit the street from TSA. No exaggeration, 2 days after the furloughs, we were desperately short of pilots. They were junior manning everything in sight, management pilots were out covering trips, trips were being cancelled. After about 2 weeks of this, the company recalled all the furloughed pilots. Out of 90 or so pilots, 7 came back. That's not a typo. 7 pilots. I laughed my head off when this happened because their poor treatment of their employees actually cost them for once. Shortly after this, I elected to leave TSA and start all over for $19 an hour at Skywest because things just got worse and worse the longer I stuck around at TSA. I was willing to stick it out and suffer to build the time, but I eventually realized that any more time I invested in that place was likely to be for nothing. Quitting that job was one of the most satisfying experiences in my life so far.

When I arrived at Skywest, I was treated far more humanely. Although Skywest was still soul sucking in a way just because of the low pay, I no longer had contempt for my employer and could actually do my job in relative peace.

While I am an ex Waterskier, and feel that I was mistreated and betrayed by people that should have known better, I think I am pretty far from bitter. I have led a charmed life since I left that place and I fly right seat at mainline Continental, so I don't have anything to be bitter about. Looking back, I can't believe what I tolerated from that place and quitting was the best decision I ever made. The worst decision I made was not listening to the guys that had been there a few years telling me in the first week of new hire class to leave immediately. I just saw them as bitter and elected to forge ahead and make things work.

In summation, don't go to Go Jets because it's very existence is a cancer on the industry and I feel that people continuing to feed the machine is disgraceful to the profession. I know everyone has to start somewhere, but I feel like the other bottom feeder regionals are much more ethically sound places to work than Go Jets. You're an adult and can do what you want, but if you don't listen to those warning you, your punishment is that you have to work at GoJets (for uncle Hulie). If you go there, you'll see what I mean.