That's what I did. And stayed close to the Delta complex so I could walk to the interview. Makes a big difference. I sprang for the Hilton, right across the street. Totally took the stress out of getting there in time.

 

I work dark blue suit, white shirt, red tie on day one and dark gray, white shirt, blue tie on day 2.

 

I asked the Chief Pilot: "Is there some rule now that Delta won't hire anyone who shows up in a brown suit?"

He said: "Yes, that's true."

I protested: "But I wore a brown suit and got hired."

He replied: "I know. That's why we made the rule."

 

Ha! When I walked up to the DL jumpseat on the way home after day 2, both guys had this look of horror on their face... "where is your blue suit and red tie?????"

 

Because burning a regional bridge is not a big deal, and better to wait last second in case the legacy decides to cancel/postpone class dates.

 

On the last day of engineer school, the chief ground instructor asked me if I was planning to wear socks on the line.....

 

Not true.

Know a guy who called in sick, then quit. Delta rescinded the offer of employment. Delta perceived it as a matter of integrity and honesty.

Rumor was in 2001 Delta helped obtain reinstatements of some jobs and hired applicants into other positions when hiring was abruptly cancelled after folks had provided their previous employers on notice of Delta employment. Did not know any of those folks personally, so someone else can come along and comment on that, if it actually happened.

Simple moral of the story. Honesty is a part of Delta's culture.

Further, Delta has been good about honoring hiring commitments. It seems as though the Company tried to avoid furloughs post merger and these day, with flying on the rebound and retirements looming, Delta needs pilots.

 

When Delta called me, at 8am on a Weds. morning, I had just walked into the house from flying IND-BDL-BOS. I was technically on my BOS Layover, but I would usually go home vs. the hotel, glad I did that day! Anyway, they wanted me in class, in ATL, on Friday morning, 48 hours from now!

Of course I said, "Sure thing, no problem, I'll be there!" then hung up the phone and started thinking, how am I going to do that if I have to fly the Purolator DC9 back to the hub in IND, tell the Chief Pilot I quit, jumpseat back to BOS on Republic, get up to the Guard and get my Form 5, and still get on a plane to be in ATL Thursday night, for a class on Friday....no way.

So I picked up the phone and called Orion HQ (in RDU) and told them I was sorry, but I had to quit, right now, while on a layover, in BOS because I could not fly the airplane back to Indy tonight, get back to BOS, and still make it to ATL by tomorrow night.

This was at 8:15am on Weds. morning, after Delta called. The lady on the phone for Orion was very nice, said to put all my Jeps and other books into a box and ship them back to Orion, wished me good luck at Delta, etc. At the time, (1985) most of the Majors were hiring, so Orion was losing about 30 guys per month to the Majors.

As soon as I got to newhire class in ATL, 8am, Friday morning, an office type comes into our classroom and calls out my name. I raise my hand, he said, "Get your stuff, come with me..."

I get up and and follow him out into the parking lot. He says, "Get in the car, Captain Smith wants to talk to you." Capt. Smith was the VP Flight Ops, better known to most as Snake Smith. I'd heard of him but never met him, but that was about to change.

So I get led to Snake's office, he's not in yet, his secretary tells me to have a seat, he'll be along shortly.

A few minutes later in walks Snake. He looks at me and says, "You Tim? Come into my office, shut the door." (I'm thiking, oh crap, what have I done? I just got here!)

He starts with, "I don't get to interview pilots any more, I'm wondering what kind of people we are hiring these days, so why don't you tell me about yourself."

I ask, "Where do you want me to start?"

He said, "Where ever you'd like."

So I start with my first little airplane ride in the back seat of my Dad's J3 when I was 8, and bring him all the way up to my job of flying DC9 F/O for Orion.

He then said, "Tell me about Orion, how did you like working there?"

I said I thought it was great, the pay was good, the flying was good, the people were good, and if I stayed on a little longer, I'd be making Captain on it.

He then (finally) gets to the real point of this little meeting;

"Well why don't you tell me about the way you LEFT Orion."

Oh crap. I figured that's why I was here, talking to him! So I told him the truth. I said, "Well, I would have liked to have given them two weeks notice, but you guys only gave me 48 hours notice. I was always told by all my airline pilot mentors in my Guard unit, Don't ever give up a class date for a later class. That could be the difference between making Captain or sitting F/O for years!"

I said I knew that Orion had a couple guys sitting on reserve in Indy, ready to go, and that I had called them as soon as I got off the phone with Delta, so they could get a guy to BOS in time to fly the DC9 out at 9pm, and I knew they did, because I had also called the Captain at the hotel later that day, to be sure they had it covered, he said they did.

After I explained my side of it, Snake stands up and reaches his hand across the table to shake mine, and he says, "Well son, I think you're going to have a real good career here at Delta Air Lines, now get on back to class!"

I shook his hand and wobbled out the door on weak knees, and got on back to class, but I knew I'd be walking on eggshells for at least my probationary year, I figured I was already on strike two!

 

Great story Timbo. I am hoping I get lucky and get an interview, but am very nervous about giving a notice to my flt dpt should I get an offer. We are a very close nit group, (7 guys) and are basically a family away from our families. Glad to see some off the street guys getting the nod for interviews!

 

Wow - great story and great lesson. Thanks!