Legacy carriers don't look at extra sims and how long it took to get off IOE doesn't really show up either. All that shows up are busted line checks and check rides.

I know for a fact that they have gotten some doozies, though most of the ones I know who moved on were good sticks. There was an infamous LASA pilot who had serious training issues. Picked up by a legacy and the training issues continued- couldn't make it through MD training. Rather than being terminated put into pilot recruiting until could hold an easier airframe. Now I hear in the training department. :rolleyes:

You seem to think that if you haven't been in this industry for 10+ pathetic years then you can't fly. The ****** made you Gods gift to aviation ya pious SOB.

Apparently we furloughed dispatchers last week and furlough of FA’s on the CRJ and ERJ side is beginning. Does not bode well.

[QUOTE=Puck Hawg;2564910]Full heartedly disagree about the family part. I have lots of friends that sit in traffic, an hour each day, just to wheel into the same 9-5 rat race that everyone else is. Those guys miss more ball games and practices than I do....and I’m a 13 year regional guy still on min days off....Yes, holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries are never easy to miss, but if you make your time off more about enjoying your time together with family, the job is easy. I’m on 3 weeks vacay right now, and I picked up a trip because my wife is getting irritated with me being home (HA!)

If you and the wife want to make it work, you can. It just takes commitment from both people. In today’s morally bankrupt society, giving up is the easy part.

No life as a commuter? Depends, although, I would argue that living in the majority of cesspool legacy hubs is more than worth the commute. I choose to commute because I want my children to live near family. Commuting adds a few hours a week to this chaotic career, but it’s nice to not be hung up in city traffic, high tax rates, or riding in urine soaked trains/subways.

To each their own, but, I’m able to truly enjoy my days off.[/QUOT

Yeah, it's interesting to hear others opinions & experiences with regard to this.

It all depends on how badly you need pilots and how much the Company is willing to spend to get them up to speed.

There are those that have had training glitches and those that will have training glitches. Be careful what you wish for.

Just asked my FA and she said nope on the ERJ side. They are offering 15/30 day COLA’s

Well, I know you already have some furloughed who are working the CRJ side. They may be counting those FAs.

A training glitch is an extra sim or two, not multiple repeats, rolled over to the next class to start over, being sent back to fixed based trainers because you can’t handle full flight sims, or 4-5 times the normal time required for IOE. The concept of just train until they catch on is completely foreign to me, but if that is what you have to work with, I guess you’re stuck with it. I guess I’m just old and expect people to show up ready to dance. My experience has been that knowing that I had to step up my game or get fired produced results. Studying 727 systems 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 straight weeks wasn’t fun, but I knew the plane and was ready for my oral exam. It just seems that now the training (regional and major) is a 4-5 day on, 2-3 day off, finish when you can type of deal. I don’t think that is a good thing.

This place is shutting down. Anyone who doesn't think so is either smoking some good ganja or in severe denial.

OMG!

I know exactly who you are talking about!

A friend told me one day that she took his resume at a job fair. That obnoxious ***** actually said "well, you have a lot of experience, but you aren't anything special. I'd recommend becoming a CP or a LCP."

And everyone knows exactly how she got where she is. She answered the phone on reserve, and wound up all over the news for being another "first." The place where she is could never fire her. No matter how horrible she is.

I heard some people resigned from the training dept rather than sign her off.

[QUOTE=jcountry;2566600]OMG!

I know exactly who you are talking about!

A friend told me one day that she took his resume at a job fair. That obnoxious ***** actually said "well, you have a lot of experience, but you aren't anything special. I'd recommend becoming a CP or a LCP."

A guy I flew with had the same thing happen years ago. He was one of the very bottom pilots who just beat a furlough and all he could hold was Guam 727 flight engineer. He went to either a job fair or interview (can’t remember) and a very young UAL pilot talked down to him because he was still on the panel after 5+ years at the company. She went on to say that after that amount of time he should be a captain and staying on the panel showed lack of motivation. She wouldn’t accept that FE in Guam was all that he could hold since at the time UAL had 5 year captrains. She was hired at a major with low qualifications at a time when there was rapid movement at her company. She had no idea what the industry norm was.

The latest OO FA class has 8 ASA FA’s. They all made the comment that they wanted to keep there DL travel benefits..

Travel benefits?

What?

The only benefit nowadays is getting to say “I was bumped off flights for 6 hours and got to stay an extra night at the Red Roof. It was great!”

Non rev benfits are a total ripoff-especially for connection carriers.

Consider the caliber of the source these days

I was at the hanger. My friends sister is in that class so I stoped in to say hi. The FA instructor who i also know told me all that... all 15+Year ASA FA’s..... guess if they go to OO they can retire and get to keep DL pass privileges... smart move... plus now they get AS/AA/UA also.

Still trying to stay under the radar huh?

Yeah...they were supposed to have DAL passes for life with ASA as well. The last company I would go work for is the scumbag operation that put my company out of business. OO will have it’s day. They’re already struggling with attrition. Seems like they can’t fathom people leaving the kool-aid dispenser for a company with good pay and benefits.

Lol what? Your reading comprehension is terrible. I’ll try again.

Eh it’s the same old story with new hires. Either you get great ones that know how to fly and try to be a huge sponge to be even better pilots. Or you get guys that can’t do something as simple as hold speed in a descent talking about how they should leave XJT to go be a direct entry captain at GoJet.

Nah, I understood your **** comment the first time Captain Dick. Previous response still applies.

lol okay if you say so. But I have to be honest with you I don’t see what you are saying. I don’t think it’s wrong for pilots to know how to fly before they start flying passengers. Yes I know there is learning curves for flying a jet. But that learning curve shouldn’t be the basics.

A regional captain didn’t know how to break a stall. That’s a skill that was taught in his private pilot training. And to me, that’s wrong that he still didn’t know how to do it. Is that being pious?

I really enjoy flying with new hires and I didn’t forget where I came from. I just have a problem listening to people who struggle to fly talk about how they should be an airline captain yesterday just cause they’ve been 8 months on property.

I guess we just disagree.

Anyone wondered whether expressjet is really that bad should read through this entire thread. Twice. And then hit themselves in the face with a tack hammer until they lose consciousness.

Those are bad ideas..... Going to expressjet at this point is a worse idea.

I don’t think it’s wrong for pilots to know how to fly anymore that I think my surgeon should know how to cut. If you’re talking about an 8 monther shooting his/her mouth off about being a captain so quickly like that, then I give you praise for holding your tounge. But, your initial comment did not say anything of the like. You came off as someone who believes they never make a task error while flying but are quick to criticize those who do.

All the Crew Trackers on the LXJT side have been notified that their last day is the end of May as well.

It seems as if they’re only concerned about keeping the pilot group........

If they were concerned about keeping the pilot group, they would have given out raises that kept up with the rest of the industry. No need to furlough pilots when they are leaving on their own for other airlines including other regionals.

Damn this place is still open? I haven’t flown in like a month. I was kinda hoping I’d get a call saying it’s shut down, don’t bother coming back...LOL

Im confused... thought we had a 145 contract for the next 4-5 yrs. Wont crews need to be tracked?

I am bit surprised the union or management hasn’t explained to the pilots what the purpose of these furloughs are, and what the end game is....

Not sure why the union isn't telling the pilots about the future so they can do what is in their best interests. We are all sick of hearing about NDAs. I think its going to be hard to sue ALPA over a NDA when the company is bankrupt and gutted. Sooner or later you just need to do the right thing.

Furloughing / terminating crew trackers right before summer is definitely not a good sign. And the fact that the union will be bending over to allow CA's to pickup FO trips, versus drawing a hard line and getting FO's paid more to attract and retain. The end is near.

Whoever bought us has crew trackers already :D

I don’t think SJU is going to sell Xjet unless they are only selling the 121 certificate.

I just can’t see it being “the end”. There is no regional that can pick up the flying being done. I suspect it is streamlining of resources, possibly outsourcing more functions to corporate.

Basically 2 things will shut down ExpressJet.
1. They can’t staff the flying that they have signed contracts to fly.
2. United buys additional mainline planes to replace those seats.

Neither has happened or will happen overnight. Even if United were to buy new planes it will take years to get them. I don’t see ExpressJet getting any large rj’s, but I don’t see them completely going away as long as there are 50 seat jets running around. Scope is maxed out and even if United added another fleet type it would only allow around 65 more big rj’s. Even if they all went to express the number of pilot seats would be slashed over what is present now. My guess is that those planes will be spread out between the companies already flying them. I don’t see ExpressJet having a bright future when the 50 seat jets are parked, but until then I see the worse case being shrinking considerably but surviving. If I was there I’d be looking to get out, and if I was applying to the regionals I’d go somewhere with big rj’s and your best guess of a quick upgrade. Being that United changes it’s mind on a daily basis, what actually happens is anyone’s guess.

The actual numbers under current language is add 79 SNB on UAL then 70 76 seaters BUT must remove 140 50 seaters.

That light at the end of the tunnel you are seeing is actually an oncoming train. We are already way behind the power curve with staffing. There's no way they can catch up unless they start throwing boatloads of money with a real career path. C5 and Skywest continue to grow. If United can get it for less, why wouldn't they.

Bigger airlines than this one have gone away and the market adjusted. When major airlines like Eastern, Braniff, and Pan Am shut down the remaining companies picked over the choice parts and the wheel kept turning. ExpressJet could go on, but if they do shut the doors the choice assets and flying would be picked up by the remaining regionals and the ExpressJet pilots would be free to apply to other airlines or find another line of work. Ask the guys at Comair how things played out. I think the train is heading your way, but who knows when it will get there. Regardless of the reasons there isn’t enough new blood entering the regional market to support it at the current size. I think that you’ll see the regional fleet totals shrink within the industry. The 50 seat jet market will go the way of the 30 seat turboprop. The remaining regional fleet will be 70 seat jets, but a much smaller total regional fleet number than now. The majors will eventually follow Delta and bring on 100+ seat jets to provide the lift.

Ahh, it hasn't been that bad for me. Of course I avoid ATL- the place where nonrevs go to die. Also I don't try to take a family of 7 to Paris over the summer. But being flexible I've gone all over the world with my kids. Heck, one time trying to get home from CVG couldn't get on a flight. Looked at what was available... what the heck? CDG was wide open, business class. Went to Paris, bummed around for a day. Flew home, business class again. "Seriously honey, the only way I could get home was to go to Paris."

Or rent a car