ClarenceOver

Why does APC say domiciles "none listed"? Is it a secret?

Undrfly

You are home based with XOjet. I believe they airline you "to and home" from your trip every time.

Duksrule

So you make the same year one or year 19?

dirtysidedown

Is their a high attrition rate for FO's bailing because of stagnet pay structure? Captain pay is ok, a little low considering the eqiupment flown.

murkdaddy

Someone correct me if I am wrong but I believe you get a pay raise every year. Now I have no idea if it is 1% or 5%

Murkdaddy

Jeff Spicoli

I'll share why I left XOJET. I left in September of 2013 after 3 years of the worst experiences I have ever had in aviation. Leaving was the greatest thing I have ever done for my career. I would only use XOJET as a stepping stone or a last ditch place to hang your hat while you look for another job.

Operations is a mess. For my first three rotations I was sent airline tickets that originated from Atlanta, when I lived on the West Coast. I have flown empty aircraft across the country per my trip manifest and was asked later by operations why. I have missed training dates that I was not aware of and was never sent travel arrangements. Of course any change that results from a disaster at operations usually requires pilots to airline to Newark from the west coast. Or a reprimand from the CP asking why you missed your training date. I actually wanted to say "because I don't bring my magic carpet with me on work trips, so I couldn't' get to DAL from LAX." But I bit my tongue. Of course now I wish I hadn't!

The schedule is absolutely brutal. My last rotation was only 36 hours long. I was on duty for 26 of those hours and I flew 8 legs, barely meeting the 10 hours of flying in 24 rule. I was so tired when I got home that I could only rest for two days. Then I realized that I had done this for 15 days in a row during a normal rotation.

The pilot group is an overall good group of people but there are some extremely bad apples. Most notably training captains with an A designation that work with newer pilots. I have never been treated so poorly by another group of people: yelled at for being unfamiliar with an item that the training captain was supposed to show me on my first rotation (it was not taught at initial), forced to clean the aircraft and load bags every leg and the worst behavior of all, these training captains are supposed to evaluate pilots to help them progress but some with the A designation absolutely refuse.

These same captains always call themselves "the best pilot group in the world". When it is quite the opposite. I've seen horrible things done to the aircraft. The worst being a captain ride the brakes during the taxi all the way from the north to south complex at LAX. All the while brow beating me about how carbon brakes work. When he noticed the brakes were smoking after he walked out of the aircraft he totally panicked asking me for help and grabbing cold water bottles to pour onto the hot magnesium brakes. I actually took cover expecting them to explode.

The pilot progression system is absolutely miserable. There is no seniority to upgrading at XOJET and upgrading to captain is the only way for a pilot to receive an increase in pay. There is no pay scale and a pay freeze in effect since 2008. I hear this has changed and I have no details on the pay increase. I don't stay in contact with anyone from this company. Something that has never happened at any former job. You need to move up 3 levels and each level requires 5 letters before you get the chance to upgrade. Remember many captains will not bother to write anything for you. After this ordeal you may be selected for a captains review board, or not. My review board was 10 hours long on a day off. Of course I had to wait over two years to get this opportunity while 24 less senior pilots were able to upgrade out of seniority before I had the chance (remember no seniority). By this time the "reserve captain" designation had come to pass and this simply means you are a captain but you receive copilots pay.

Constantly changing procedure. In my 3 years at XOJET I wore 3 different uniforms. I used paper charts, an EFB and finally an iPad. Long story short the wheel is reinvented at XOJET every 3 months or so. Pilots are expected to know the new procedure cold. After my 13 days off I always expected a huge change upon my return. Usually this change would require a week to figure out. By the time I had mastered a new procedure it had already changed.

Inconsistent training and brutal check rides. Even during simple observed line checks pilots are subjected to constant questioning. This has improved lately with the addition of newer check airmen. One company oral check took 3 days, required 3 check airman and was over 6 hours long completely burning up any available duty time during the busy holiday flying schedule. XOJET pilots have 4 check rides a year, more if you desire an upgrade. Our safety training on how to perform CPR or operate a life raft was conducted via power point presentation. In three years I never donned the smoke mask, never operated a life raft, never physically touched the first aid kit and put out a sponge that was lit on fire in a parking lot with a chemical extinguisher, which is not the type used in our aircraft.

Zero safety culture. Our own "red eye rules" and "red zone rules" are constantly disregarded by the safety team and every other entity at XOJET. We were assigned a red eye trip with a 2 hour re position leg for maintenance afterward. This was against our safety policy. The captain just gave up and refused to call. I called operations, the duty officer, the safety officer and maintenance. Operations told me the trip was legal, the safety officer never called me back, the duty officer told me his hands were tied and that the safety officer told him to "remind me we were going to furlough" and maintenance told me the trip was important. After the trip we learned no maintenance was required, unnecessarily causing over 3 hours flying without revenue.

Keep in mind you will likely be flying the CE-750s from Netjets these aircraft have over 12000 hours and are in as bad of shape as you would imagine. Nearly every leg results in an aircraft reset or delay for passengers from the dreaded ding of the aircraft warning system.

In fact on my last trip to SMO I watch an XOJET crew attempt to taxi out of the blocks only to delay for nearly an hour for a problem. When they started engines I told the CP hey check this out. Lets see if they get out of the blocks. We watched them sit in the blocks for ages then turn the aircraft 90 deg, shut down the engines and APU got out and pulled the batteries. The CP is a former CE-750 pilot and he found the procedure quite strange. Even though I have no love for XOJET I still felt badly for this crew. Struggling to get through the day. I knew that feeling so well.

Pilots are required to hold an XOJET credit card that affects the pilots credit after 180 days of non payment. The company was constantly making hotel reservations with this card without my knowledge then they did not cancel the card. It is up to the pilot to clear up this mess during their free time. I cancelled the card, tired of clearing up the false hotel charges. The company illegally restarted the card without my permission. Then charged more hotels to the card without my knowledge. After 180 days the creditors started to call. I managed to fix my credit an buy a house eventually but it was after I left XOJET with no job offer. Got on my feet and found a great job with great people that I take great pride in.

I have since found employment flying a Falcon 900. The very aircraft that XOJET ran off the runway at Rifle with the head of training at the helm. Oh yeah and our main trip involves class 2 nav overwater, something a training captain told me I would never be able to do. The same training captain blackballed me and has since moved on to another company. So you dont have to worry about Mr Hangloose but there are many more miserable pilots at XOJET who take great joy in watching others suffer.

I now love flying again but it has taken months to put this miserable experience behind me. One that nearly drove me out of aviation.

Many more reviews of XOJET here: XOJET Reviews | Glassdoor

biigD

It sucks that you had such a poor experience, but the recent reviews seem to indicate that the new management team has XOJet pointed in the right direction.

I'm not passing judgment about the situation one way or the other (I'm a 121 guy) - it's just an observation.

Jeff Spicoli

Well I read through the thread and noticed that relatively high time people from 121 backgrounds are applying and getting interviews. Seems to me that they should know what XOJET is really like rather than imagining what it is like and missing an opportunity to go to the majors. I worked at XOJET and it isn't a good place to be period. I don't feel things could change in such a short time. The high time aircraft are still there and I have seen the lowest time aircraft in the fleet being slowly sold off. 795 I believe was the lowest time X on the property and it was sold to a part 91 outfit. It was nice to see it in new paint on the ramp being property taken care of.

Feel free to disregard my experience. I'm just trying to do the right thing and warn people what this place is really like.

biigD

I'm sorry - I didn't mean to imply that I'm disregarding your experience, or that anyone else should. There's a huge amount of noise on this board, but at the same time members such as yourself that take the time to write detailed accounts of their experiences are what make it so valuable.

I was just curious about the reviews that seem to imply that perhaps the new management team might actually make XOJET a better place to work. Or not, who knows?

Jeff Spicoli

I know you didn't mean anything by your question. Brad the intern gave the pilots a raise. So now the pilots are writing positive reviews. Everyone was hating on him when I left hence the nick name. I feel this is a temporary situation. These are the same people that were treating me like crap when I left. The chance in MGMT occurred over 2 years ago now. The former CEO was gifted the DO position at MGM for successfully beating down the pilot group into no raises for nearly 4 years. Then XOJET got Brad.

Another likely reason for the positive reviews is that there was a lot of attrition when I was leaving. I'm certain the pilots writing positive reviews are management pilots and remember there is a merit based system at XOJET. So the more you kiss butt the farther you get.

However maybe things will work out well for all the FOs over there. Hopefully. Some have been there greater than 3 years as an FO stuck at 52k. I guess they got an extra tidbit this year but really how many years are you willing to sit as an FO?

You realize that the only meaningful raise is when you upgrade to captain? I never saw that pay because I had been trashed talked by a few senior captains. I had over 15 letters to upgrade and I sat as an A copilot for years. I was robbed by a few hateful people and as far as I know this process has not changed.

Not only that but I am sure the credit card in your name that affects your personal credit score is still issued to the pilots upon hire. The company charges rooms that you are not aware of and then doesn't cancel the rooms. You are required to either track down a receipt or pay out of pocket. That has not changed and as far as I know it is an illegal practice. I had to pay a service to clear up the negative marks on my credit.

Also the safety situation was deteriorating when I was there. Pressuring a crew to do a reposition flight after a red eye? When I asked to verify if there repo was necessary the safety officer told the duty officer that I should be reminded we were going to furlough? Who needs that. Despite everything I went through that one moment made me realize that I needed to leave right away.

I've been very happy with the decision.