killbilly

Correct. That's the "retention" part of the retention bonus.

AerChungus

20k new hire bonus, paid in full first pay check. 1 year commitment all or nothing
5k year 1 retention bonus, paid in monthly installments. 2 year commitment, all or nothing
25k (50k if you're CA) year 2 retention bonus, paid in monthy installments.
If you leave after 1 year but before 2, pay back everything you've received in the last year (except the 20k new hire bonus)
Beyond that, 50k per year for captains and 25k for FOs, paid in monthly installments.
If you have more than 2 years seniority but less than 4, you pay back everything you received in the last rolling 12 months. If you have more than 4 years, pay back everything from the last 4 months

kaputt

When/if they start hiring FO's again, can one decline the sign on bonus and avoid the hassle of potentially having to pay it back?

Bricky

I asked my recruiter about it and was told rejecting it is a red flag.

AerChungus

That shouldn't matter. By the time you're deciding whether or not to sign the bonus, you're already about to go to class. It's not like it affects their hiring decision.

StuckOnReserve

Put the money in a hi-yeild savings or CD, and don't touch it. That way you wont miss it if you have to pay it back. Yes there is a pre-tax/post tax issue, but the company has to adjust your W2 for reclaimed earnings if they take it back so it balances out at tax return time.

AerChungus

^This. If you leave in the same calendar year you were hired, you only have to repay the post-tax amount because C5 hasn't given your taxes to the IRS yet. Leave in the next calendar year and you have to spot the full pretax amount and then you'll get that difference back on your next tax return.

Best way to think of it is "it's not my money, it's the company's money that I'm just gonna make a few hundred dollars off in interest"

kaputt

Appreciate the responses, good info to know.

I guess the next question is, is it worth applying right now? Have they at least started a trickle of FO hiring again, and would I be more competitive than 1500 hour CFIs since I now have 300 hours of single engine turbine?

BusBoe

Single engine turbine dosnt mean a thing unless it's a vision jet or something which I highly doubt. I assume it is a pc-12. They'd take a multi engine piston (Seminole) over that.

JohnBurke

That's actually not true, and an oversimplification. The short truth is that it depends where one applies. The longer truth is that it really depends where one applies. It also depends on the circumstances under which one flew that single-engine turbine aircraft, and on the type of single-engine turbine aircraft.

I have a fair amount of single engine turbine time. Some places count it simply as turbine. Some want to break it down further. Few question the value of that time.

Conversely, I have applied places in the past which look at my large radial four-engine bomber time the same as they do a Cessna 172, because both are piston engine aircraft.

It really depends on where one applies, but it also depends on what one has been doing to get that time. Sitting right seat in a PC-12 maybe viewed differently than 1,000 hours of tactical time in an F-16. Flying a single engine air tanker into a raging forest fire is not the same as flying a PC-12 into Hot Springs, Arkansas on a clear, calm day. You see my point.

Single engine turbine pilot in command time may be viewed differently than single engine second in command turbine time. The same may be said for multi-engine experience.

All experience has value; some may be weighted more than other in a job application environment, but to suggest that single engine turbine has less value on a weighted scale than a light piston twin is not necessarily true.