Flex Jet Training Contract
 

A friend of mine told me the company actually went after a pilot in court over his training contract and the judge actually ruled in the pilot's favor. Any know the details to this or the case number?

I read about this a couple of months ago. I think it was like a 2 year court case but the pilot did finally win, so to speak. Don't know how much the lawyer fee's were, but I think it was more than the training contract was... Guess it was about the principle and not the money.

Do you remember what state this was in or the case number

Sounds funny "Flex Jet training contract". They did have a training contract, but I don't think they need it anymore... one, there isn't really anywhere to go to and leave Flex Jet hanging, two, even if companies where hiring, Flex Jet is probably a better job than most. If I'm at Flex Jet, I'm set.....

I'm not talking about this guy, I don't know what happened, but some guys have no conscience and no class, they're in ground school or maybe session 5of sim training, and they leave to go somewhere else. My best friend was doing IOE at Jetblue when he left for Continental... I asked him if he had a conscience seeing as JetBlue had just droped $30,000 on him, he said "yes, but my career comes first". oh well

Googling "Flexjet Training Contract Lawsuit" pulls up numerous hits, the link below is hit #4:

Pilot wins lawsuit against Bombardier Flexjet | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News

Yep, that's the one I was think of...

Your best friend was correct. If Jetblue needed to furlough him during his IOE, they would have done so without missing a minute of sleep and without any conscience. It's business. Your friend was looking out for his business interests as well.

Carl

What the F?

"Mr. Miller estimated his legal expenses were about $70,000, but he believes he's among the very first pilots to successfully challenge Flexjet's pilot contract."

"Mr. Miller now flies for Netjets Inc. of Woodbridge, N.J., which is owned by Berkshire-Hathway Inc."

Training contracts should be illegal. Most companies abuse their purpose anyways. The cost of training is not only expected to be provided to a qualified pilot but it is part of the company expense anyways. Why should we be expected to pay for training, capital that the airline should have anyways and should expect to lose if they're in the business of training individuals....

Very true. I heard Warren Buffett say: "The only thing worse than training an employee and having them leave, is NOT training an employee and having them stay."

Carl

The whole point of a training contract is that you don't pay for your training.

You only pay if you leave early.

I left Flexjet many moons ago, 9 months into a 2 year contract - never heard another thing about it.

Of course, when I turned in my notice, and the CP asked what I was going to do about the contract - I asked him where was my PIC type (due to screwups with trainig scheduling - we didn't get typed initially), where was my 6 month recurrent (supposedly we were supposed to get typed at recurrent), where was my 6on/4off schedule - became 7on/3off, where was my 3-6 month upgrade we were promised (my sim partner later upgraded at 7 years), etc............

They didn't fulfill their end of the bargain - why should I fulfill mine?

Yeah, they should stop hiring "screwups" who can't get typed.


jk, couldn't resist.

Ha ha! It was actually RHandschuch cancelling all of the training that had been originally scheduled by MH. Since the 45 was new and only one sim in the world - we were rushed thru SIC training and put on line ASAP. Also the reason for the voluntary/mandatory 7on/3off instead of the 6on/4off we were promised.

I wonder if he is part of the 150 furloughed CAL pilots?

Agreed. Another thing that should be illegal is giving a guy 3 bumps and a talking to and considering him "qualified" as SIC in a jet, ANY jet!

How else would you qualify someone??? you think companies should make guys fly an empty jet for several hours?..... it must be very expensive to give someone "three bumps" as it is....

How do you qualify someone?!? You give him a type rating!

I too worked for flex many years ago...it was during 9/11 that I got "laid off" Well after getting a phone call telling me I was laid off, to Rhandshut calling me back and telling me that no you are not laid off, to an hour later telling me, sorry we made a mistake you ARE laid off......well they call me back three months later, ok cool back to fly again, although to upgrade its going to take a decade. So in the best interest of myself, I took a PIC job, well when I handed them my resignation letter, HR asked about my contract, I said "what contract?" You terminated my employment three months ago which nulled the contract and when you called me back you did not make me sign a new one. They were speechless! haha Never heard from them again, best move I ever made was to leave. Who wants to be a bag loader a$$ kisser for 5+ years....... living the dream right?