jacburn

There were 3 positions that went unfilled for CA upgrades for Nov.

Those 3 open spots are now filled with new hires that will go through the new hire training and sims as CA’s.

We are back to immediate upgrades when hired for November.


The December upgrade announcement states we are looking for six more upgrades in December.

TURF17

So, I've been in the regionals most of my airline career. I've been through two furloughs, so I'm one of those lost decade pilots when we all went through that ugly recession. I'm currently at a airline that has potential growth but not willing to put up the money to attract and retain. My goal is to get hired by United but it is a murky pathway. So, just trying my best to make a clear choice on getting aboard UAL.

Curious how bonus money works, if hired as DEC?


How about reserve life as a DEC. If a commuter and with current growth how many days in crashpad can one might expect? Also, how long on reserve as a DEC until one would see a line?


How many guys from your CPP are being hired each year or at least in the pool of new hires? Approximate time frame from being put in pool to starting class is what?


Does C5 have AQP? If so, is it a nine or twelve month rotation?



Thanks for your feedback and any other insight as I chew on these questions and more.

JediCheese

Bonus money is bonus money. It's paid out to all captains quarterly.

Don't know about reserve captains. They've been short lately on captains so reserves have been flying. Dulles is overstaffed and EWR is understaffed.

Usually those off CQF are getting lines in EWR. CQF is ~2-4 months as the company scours the pilot group for people they can upgrade to captain. Might get slightly longer because the company is going to need to hire street captains which take 3-4 months to complete full training vs the 1-2 months required for just upgrade.

When the music stops, the bottom ~10 pilots are going to get stuck as CQFs and that's a bad place to be. No idea on what reserve life is like as a commuter but I've heard it's not fun.

There's a bunch of people in the 'pool' but they don't have the requirements. If you have a degree, when you get 1,000 PIC here you're off to United within ~30-60 days. I know of two guys that just recently got their 1,000 PIC here (under 2 weeks ago) and will be off to United by Christmas. They're running about 3 C5 pilots per United class, but that's assuming they can scrape up 3 pilots here that have passed the CPP and have the requirements. Fair warning, Past Performance Is Not Indicative Of Future Results.

No AQP. Full on checkrides/LOFT/PC.

TURF17

Ok but hired as DEC you forfeit the 22,100 bonus money?

Any word how those that are getting offered are saying how the CPP process is - fair?

JediCheese

We don't have DECs. Everyone is hired as a FO.

The company offers X captain spots each month. Should you meet the FAA requirements to be CA (there are no other company requirements), they will offer it to you if no one above you has bid for it. It's straight seniority.

Right now, since they're run out of CA qualified pilots as FOs, they are giving new hires CA spots per seniority order.

The new hire bonus money is outside of anything the Union has agreed. You'll get the $22,100 bonus (or whatever they are offering).

marshal

You would still get the 22,100 when you start indoc.

The CPP started out rocky a far as pass rates go, but it has gotten a lot better over the last year. You can have one failure in either the Hogan or interview and try that item a year later to continue the process.

TURF17

Overall how well is the ground operations in bases/outstations? Aircraft MX?

How big is the company on fuel conservation?

How is the training program? How well are your manuals written?

JediCheese

Ground operations are the same across all UAX carriers. We all use the same ground operation as Expressjet/AirWisky/Mesa/Republic in bases and out stations. Some good, some are bad. Only thing special we use is the C130 gates in EWR which run less well than the A gates, but better than most outstations. Company says the C130 gates have better performance than the A gates so your guess is as good as mine how it all works out.

MX has no idea what they are doing when it's something not straightforward as pull and replace or pouring in more oil/hydraulic fluid. But the 145 is a simple plane and that's all that's really needed. Sometimes when it's a fault that they need to track down and it's not a simple fix, they have issues running it down.

The company is getting bigger on fuel conservation. It's not so much the company as United who is footing the fuel bill.

The training program is special. The good part is they're fixing it but there's a lot to fix. Two steps forward, one step back. Biggest complaint with training are the quality of the offline instructors (I have avoided them and it's worked out well for me).

The manuals are a mess because the non-flying people are still writing the books. Lots to fix and two steps forward and one step back which is the same as the training department.

TURF17

Does anyone know the numbers that UAL is pulling from to fill their classes?
With the other regionals, I would expect more being pulled into the pool due to the size of their pilot staff. Would it be fair to say that 70% of UAL new hires are coming from CPP/Flow agreements?

TURF17

Writing manuals is not my cup of tea but I have given suggestions at previous carriers just to say I gave my two cents. I hear your frustrations and have always tried to follow my carriers SOPs. It is shocking how long some of these airlines have been in business when you start reading their manuals.