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Old 06-29-2023 | 09:24 AM
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Default DRL Upgrade

What’s the consensus on the property on the additional Praetor’s lowering the upgrade time on the DRL fleet? Enough pent up demand to keep it at 14-ish months?

Thanks in advance.
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Old 06-29-2023 | 09:56 AM
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Originally Posted by AA717driver
What’s the consensus on the property on the additional Praetor’s lowering the upgrade time on the DRL fleet? Enough pent up demand to keep it at 14-ish months?

Thanks in advance.
Put in your standing bid for all all three entry aircraft and monitor each bid award cycle. When you're close to Phenom upgrade make a final decision. With each bid cycle and seniority list, pay close attention to whether they seem to be keeping Phenom guys locked, or are they letting them back into their old type (an easy long recurrent and 299 ride on the line). A few have not been held to 2 years, which could throw off your game strategy.

My crystal ball says you'll still get DRL early by holding off while factoring fleet growth/economy/seat lock waivers/retirements. If you have all the TPIC you'd ever need and can live on PBS FO pay for awhile just in case, take the risk and wait for DRL.
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Old 06-29-2023 | 09:57 AM
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The data shows that it’s now greater than 14 months and increasing. The last upgrade bid award is only open to folks who want to upgrade into Phenom. The open bid is not for Challenger or Praetor. If you want more details send me a PM.
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Old 06-29-2023 | 10:59 AM
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Thanks, guys! I’ll PM you meitnerium.
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Old 06-29-2023 | 01:03 PM
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Originally Posted by meitnerium
The data shows that it’s now greater than 14 months and increasing. The last upgrade bid award is only open to folks who want to upgrade into Phenom. The open bid is not for Challenger or Praetor. If you want more details send me a PM.
The company response is they’re currently staffed where they need to be for the DRL fleets but anticipate many more additional openings throughout the fall in both fleets. As a reference point when I took the Phenom upgrade in 07/22 the projected upgrade time to DRL was 36-41 months and by 11/22 I could’ve held either DRL fleet, so keep in mind current levels of DRL upgrades are still well beyond what they were even a year ago and things can change drastically in a short amount of time.
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Old 06-29-2023 | 03:00 PM
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Originally Posted by meitnerium
The data shows that it’s now greater than 14 months and increasing. The last upgrade bid award is only open to folks who want to upgrade into Phenom. The open bid is not for Challenger or Praetor. If you want more details send me a PM.
Don't doubt it, but I friendly-wager folks could still reasonably try to bypass Phenom and go straight DRL in 2 years-ish even if hired today. Just a guess. If you have extra intel I'm curious, if you're willing to share. I went Challenger to Phenom upgrade on industry philosophy and figure I'll probably lose money playing it safe.
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Old 06-29-2023 | 07:01 PM
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My thought is, due to the last awarded bid where DRL was something like 14 months, you will get a lot of pilots passing up the upgrade to the Phenom to try to get in the DRL a few months later. This will create a longer waiting list for DRL and I suspect those times will increase while the Phenom will decrease. I also think the last bid being all Phenoms may be a way for the company to try and get people to second guess how long the DRL upgrade will be. I suspect the next bid will have a larger number of Praetor and Challengers in it. Total speculation on my part though but happy to play along.
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Old 07-01-2023 | 07:48 AM
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I will probably just take the Phenom upgrade and sit out the lock-in.

Goodbye, APU…




ETA: I had talked to a couple DRL guys who told me how awesome their lives are so I thought I’d wait…
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Old 07-11-2023 | 03:02 PM
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I could have upgraded in February but I'm waiting it out. You'd think I get any PBS bid I bid for... not the case. In the Phenom. And for those who know what a joy that is....
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Old 08-15-2023 | 04:15 PM
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I saw the bid results come out for DRL and Phenom the other day. I assume the upgrade times are holding?

I could see the seniority list but it doesn’t have date of hire that I could see.

Thanks in advance as always.
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