upsiddwn

How are domiciles (base city) assigned at Citation Shares? Do they hire based on where they need pilots?

What is the current upgrade time and forecast for the future? Are upgrades based on straight seniority? Do upgrades happen faster or slower in some domiciles over others? If so, what are the junior and senior domiciles for upgrades? Do they ever hire Captains off the street?

I hear the schedules are 7 on/7 off, is this accurate? Do they have other options like NJ reserve schedules? Are you pretty much gone the whole 7 days? How much do you actually fly out of your base city on a Citation shares jet? Can they keep you out longer than 7 days?

How's the over all quality of life? Do you do a lot of commercial travel to and from assignments?

skydawg

You can pick whichever domicile you want. You just have to live within a couple hour drive of the airport. No commuting like NJ.

Not hiring Captains off the street. The most recent upgrades were 12-14 months, but they didn't really need to upgrade them. They only did it because that's what they told them when they were hired. Current new hires are being told 24 months or more (maybe a new hire or recent interviewee can chime in). Upgrades are based on performance. Domicile has no effect.

No other options. Mostly gone the whole 7 days although sometimes you get some days off (not often, in my experience). Flying out of your own base is probably more related to what base it is. In my case, only 2-3 times per year.
Quality of life depends a little on what you like. Given a choice, I'd rather do 3 on/3 off, but the fractionals don't lend themselves to that since you usually airline at the start and end of each duty period (7 days). OTOH, the 7 days off is nice. Quality of life as far as the company is concerned is very good. Company seems to really care about the employees. It still has a "small company" feel to it and most pilots seem to be very happy to be here.

upsiddwn

skydawg, Thanks for all the info... Very helpful for sure.

Do they type everybody as new hires in the aircraft you are assigned? Are all the different aircraft assigned to all the available domiciles? How do they decide on the initial aircraft assignment? Do you swap seats if it is your leg, or are "F/O's" always in the right seat?

When you say upgrades are based on performance, how does this work? Does previous experience and Total hours, PIC hours, etc. help the upgrade time?

What can you expect for first year F/O pay? What I see is 40K + perdiem based on 23 weeks at 2.30 an hour = $8,887 or $48,887 total. Is this pretty accurate?

Thanks again for your info....

skydawg

Everybody gets PIC type rating. Aircraft are assigned based on the company needs. Any aircraft/any domicile. Domicile really only means the airport they fly you out of to get to the aiplane they need you on. Don't swap seats normally.

Don't know if the total hours helps much or not. Everybody seems to upgrade CLOSE to the same time as long as you have a good record and good attitude.

Sounds about right. You can do overtime to earn more. About 325/day for overtime first year.

AVIVIII

I have a friend that is a captian with them and says that they are very oriented towards older, retired or furloughed guys with hours in the 10's of thousands. He is 35 years old and they all call him kid.

palgia841

I know of 2 pilots hired who were in their low 20's.... both had internal recommendations and got hired right at mins. One was a female.

I am not arguing what AVIVII said, just telling you the only 2 people I know at CS were pretty young/low time.

AVIVIII

Thats good to hear! I am waiting for 15 more hours of X-C time so I can take that dang ATP ride, other thant that I have the mins. I have a couple guys on the inside, so I hope this works out!

EXTW

There is a broad spectrum of backgrounds for the new hires at CS. If you meet the posted minimums and are truly interested, apply. Be persistant. It's a good place to be.


EXTW

justflyin

A few questions for the current CS drivers out there:

What is the general mood and level of trust between pilots and management? I have been at both a regional and now a fractional and both places seem to have fairly adversarial relationships between the groups.

What is the concensus on the merit-based upgrade system? Is it based on performance and aptitude like the military; or is it more political, who knows who?

I understand that you are not provided crew meals during the duty day. Is there any prospect for that changing and is it true that they are $10 per meal if you choose to partake?

Do you generally stay at a Hilton family hotel, or similar? Or is there no standard for crew lodging?

Have there been any issues with staffing (either under, or over) and denial of vacation requests? Are there signs of understaffing like constant overtime requests?

During your tour, do you generally find yourselves running at near 14 hrs ON, followed by minimum 10 hrs rest?

Would you praise the operations of your company, or would you like to reach through the phone and wring the neck of some managers and schedulers?

How does the growth of the company look for the next 5 yrs? 10 yrs?

I live in a city that is listed as a CS base and am currently evaluating options in case my present fractional job turns for the worst. I definitely enjoy the Part 135 fractional flying compared with the Part 121 tedium, but have not been happy with the QOL with my current employer. I truly believe them to be headed in the wrong direction and would like to join ranks with a rising star. I appreciate any info or comments provided.

skydawg

General mood and trust I would rate very high. My experience has been excellent. I think most would agree.
Performance, aptitude and ATTITUDE. Customer service is high priority. Haven't seen favoritism. Most make the Capt upgrade pretty close to the same time as others hired at the same time. Some delayed for various reasons.

True. I don't see it changing. I usually find/make time during the day to use a crew car and go get something. Eating 3 square meals every day is very important to me. I have to work at it but rarely have a problem making it happen. If I see a potential problem coming up during the day, I order a meal. The $10 doesn't bother me. I'd pay that much most anyplace and it would probably not be as good. I know others get regular meals, but that seems wasteful from what I have seen.
Those and many better. Hotels are generally pretty good. Some of the smaller cities it gets a little iffy.

Haven't heard of any vacation denials. We submit vacation requests at specific times of the year and it is first come/first served. Specific dates will not be available if you don't get your request in early. Once you have your date it should be pretty solid. The company encourages pilots to volunteer for overtime and they use volunteers a lot. Occasionally they will ask if you will, but it is up to you. Once in a while something will happen that you will get home a day later than scheduled and you will get overtime for that. Doesn't happen often.
NO. Up until now, we flew our schedule and went to the hotel. No sitting around the airport just because. Some days are long and others are not. Most layovers are considerably longer than minimum. We DO have early call outs from a layover with some regularity. The schedules are pretty flexible. That's about to change some. New policy will include the possibility of "standby" at the airport, and "reserve" at the hotel. In reality, we have reserve at the hotel now, but in the future the hours will be specifically designated and "rest" time will be specified and firm. My guess is that the standby at the airport will be infrequent. The company really seems to care about the pilot's QOL.Mostly praise. We're still a small company and in a growth mode, so there are some growing pains. That also provides opportunity for upward mobility if you're interested in that. While I have some minor complaints, the company overall gets very high marks from me.

If you think things could turn sour where you are, I'd leave sooner rather than later. The entire fractional industry may be at or near it's peak size. If so, the only growth is going to be shifting between different ones and turnover of employees. As is the case anywhere in this industry, the sooner you get where you want to be the better.

PM me if you want with your phone number and maybe we can compare notes if there are things you may not want to say on a public forum.

Skydawg