19 days on the road? What the hell are you people talking about?

Kalitta Air: You are on the schedule as of 0000Z on the 14th after being off the whole beginning of the month. You were sitting in JFK after 1900z on the 29th, and on the 30th 8am local you called scheduling and sweetly asked what was next.

"Well, you're going off the schedule. Do you want overtime or do you want to go home? There's an 11 am flight on JetBlue if you want it, or you can do a Liege turn tomorrow"

1500 local I'm home cutting my grass... real tough!

The thing that regional guys/gals don't understand is that this place is the "Gentlemans club". Here's your schedule: Leave Fort Lauderdale on a company ticket at 1300 Saturday, for a late evening departure to Brussels Sunday night. Come back the next day, Tuesday, sit for a few days, and then do it again. At Kalitta Air, you do this for 17 days- or usually less, since they tend to send you home a day or so early.

[I usually get called the day before I'm on the schedule: If I'm officially "reserve" as of 8 PM, they will usually have me on a plane to New York at 1 PM or something, so YES....I actually leave the house early some times. OH boy...]

I flew for American Eagle/Executive Airlines and Atlantic Coast Airlines, and both places left me excessively tired all the time from the 5-8 legs per day that I flew, and from the ridiculous schedules. Forget those places- if you can make Captain quick at a place like AE, ACA, or Pinnacle then by all means DO IT, but if you can't then get the f*ck out of there and come over to Kalitta- at least you'll earn enough money to heat your pasta-

N!

Raising the bar
 

Space Monkey said it L1011. "Lowering the Bar". And I know your just working towards whatever goal, and maybe you feel management and the money your making is just a fact of life. But I think you have been in bottom feeders too long. "As far as management being scumbags" I know they will always be scumbags, all I'm saying is its up to you to hold them to a higher standard. I don't think you should stick it out in the wind, just raise the bar, and don't drink the koolaid.

WTF???? The friggin company isn't but a year old. There have been some really good changes in management recently. Corporate culture is hard to change period let alone overnight. Honestly if I sense it's not going to improve I WILL bail out. But I got on when it was still less than a year old. There have already been some improvements. There is still a long ways to go and I am doing more than my aprt to make it work. I don't accept coach due to last minute planning, etc. I make them adhere to the rules they set and thats the best I can hope to do for now. I am just sick of all you guys on the sidelines (meaning you don't work here, also knowing someone who does doesn't qualify you to judge it here either) "Raise the bar" give some of us a break. We are trying to do just that. If I quit and went to some other job that would have you guys blessing then that is one less guy fighting the good fight here. I am here trying to make this a good place to work and hope it does get to where I think it can with the right pilots and management. So all you sitting on the sidelines looking down your nose at me and the others can come here when this becomes a descent company to work at.

Amen....Supplemental 121 Brother!

Space Monkey,
Exactly who are these Senior RJ captains working for and how long did it take to get equivilant pay?
And please do not count per diem. Per diem is not pay, it is reimbursment for expenses while away from home.

Again, Amen.

-People who work at the regional airlines don't realize that they can work for our 121 supplementals and 1. Earn enough money as an FO to buy a house, and 2. Have some quality of life.

Three...It's more fun to fly 747's to Brussels than it is to fly RJ's to Binghamton!

N!

Spacemonkey,
Not having any luck finding any of those senior RJ captains that make more than 5 year Focus captains?
You made the statement, back it up with facts please.
As noted in my earilier post please do not include per diem.

I know the thread is about Focus but w/ you Kalitta guys posting, I thought I would ask about the latest on your contract negotiations?

Going nowhere fast. Held up by the mediator.

Sorry to keep you waiting there 18Wheeler....(sounds like you were getting impatient) The Space Monkey has to go to work sometimes too you know..... and occasionally have a life outside of posting on a message board... As for not including per deim no prob... Since as you saw it actually made Focus look better, as you also saw my equations also showed a computed base before I added perdeim.... So 5 year CA pay Focus Air (no per deim) = $91,440... Let's look at some regionals (all calculations are based on guarantee so the numbers are probably lower than actual pay for a line RJ CA) ... 17 year CA CRJ 200 at Air Whiskey $92,700 top AW pay 20 year CA $101,700; CHQ 15 year E-175 CA $92,700 top CA pay 19 years - $102,600; Horizon 11 year CRJ7 CA $94,080, top pay 18 year CRJ7 CA $116,160; Mesa 17 year CJR 900 CA $91,884 top pay 20 year CRJ 900 CA $98,800; ASA top CRJ 7 CA pay 18 year $91,800; Comair 13 year CJR 7 CA pay $91,800, top CRJ 7 CA pay 18 years $106,200…. Anyway I tired of doing this now but you see my point plus all of my calculations that I just did are based of guarantees and you probably know as well as I do that unless you are on RSV it is very rare for a regional guy to fly just guarantee… So my numbers are on the low side and my point remains the same there is no reason for a guy flying a whale to top out lower than a guy flying a regional which is a fraction of the size…regardless of how many or few years it takes. The whole point of the McNary Watress Act of 1930 was bigger equip with more engines = more pay…