By law, Delta cannot fire you for deploying during your probationary year. Not only that, but they've always been very supportive of my Reserve commitments, even during my first year. It helped to have a chief pilot who was a retired Reserve CO.

If you go over 30 consecutive days, your probationary period will get extended by whatever that number is. That's about it.

KC10FatBoy,
Thanks for the poke in the eye. I've been TDY and just got back. Also, sitting the duty desk. I've got my appointment. I was surprised that they were looking through the app prior to hitting submit. I did not know that they could do that. I was curious if anyone else had that happen.

A squadron mate of mine just got an interview, and a friend in my sister squadron as well. I'll update my app as soon as I have the medical.

12 (former 2ARS KC-10 IP Barksdale/McGuire)

Frank nailed it again. I had a class mate get deployed to the sandbox right after initial training and another for 60 days near the end of the first year. For that one, I know they extended her probationary period.

Good to know. I keep hearing Delta is Reserves friendly. I just don't want to make waves by doing too much reserve duty while on probation.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my question. I'm currently getting my package together for a reserve helo spot, hopefully it'll work out!

Good luck, fellas. Now move to Jacksonville and rush my Herc squadron. We need pilots!

So I am hearing in the crewroom that Jul 29 - Aug 2ish they'll be done with interviews for the year and have hit their number.

If tue that means the flow isn't going anywhere. Even so I find it hard to believe that they've hired 150ish guys already. We'll see

Seems low - lets look at the numbers.

Someone in charge said about 59% were making it through the interview. When I interviewed in 2007, there were 8 of us - I don't know if how many they interviewed per day this time . So they interviewed for about a month this time - 4 weeks x 4 days, 16 days. 16 * 8 is 128 x 0.59 is 75 or so. Add 45 or 50 furlough bypass is 120 or 125. Even with the flows from Mesaba and Compass, that doesn't seem like it adds up to the 305 they said they would hire this year.

For those of you smart on the training process, could you answer a few questions?

- How long is indoc training?
- I've heard indoc classes of 30 per class, is that about right?
- If that's right, how long do you think it will take for them to get to the end of this 305-pilot hire?

Indoc is 2 weeks. Then you go to the sims. Time in between will vary depending on the airplane you were assigned and how busy they are. Since the first group has yet to go through this, anyone's guess is as good as any. In the past, I've heard of guys waiting anywhere from less than a week to two months between indoc and sims.

Indoc classes have averaged around 30 per class. I was in one of the two classes in 2008 that had 50 and they acknowledged that was too big. Too much to cover in too little time with so many people. I doubt you'll see another class with more than 30 or so.

Two weeks for indoc then aircraft school

Depends,

Guess, guess. :D

Well, if that is true, I wonder if they will even attend the Job Fair Aug 28th.

Well, lets put it this way, if they're only hiring 4 days a week (mo-th) and you want to hire 150 people, and you started on June 23rd, then by the last week of July (the rumored original goal) you've interviewed for 22 days which x 8 x 60% pass rate nets you 105 people. Interview one more week, the week of Aug 2nd, and you'll net 124 people.

Now if they were running 5 days a week, 33 interview days, then you'll net 160 people.

But this is all based on 8 interviewee's per day.

It might not be far off, its just what I am heard today from a reliable source.

I guess the real way to answer this is to ask, does anyone have an Aug 2 or later date?

My guess is by all means they'll be there.

If I'm not mistaken they were at job fairs in 2008 and 2009, if I heard right. They're not announcing they're ending hiring, it just might be what people predicted and that was hiring and then a lull and then hiring later for next year.

It all depends on the flow. No flow means more hiring off the street. This has yet to be seen.

DAL is extremely reserve friendly. I've not had any problems getting off work for MLOA. They have a pretty nifty Military Leave Handbook. It tells you your responsibilities. As long as you are faxing them orders (for long term stuff) or have them on file (for the shorter stuff RMPs RUTAs etc.), they won't hassle you.

I've heard them calling the Squadron Commander if you are on orders on the holiday. However, they don't whine when the CC says you are needed.

One last thing ... you only need 400 hours OR a year, whichever comes first for probation. In NYC, on the mad-diggity-dog, I was a line holder my first month on property and was off probation in 5-6 months. Goodtimes. :o

I don't think they start a new group every day of the week; Thursday is likely the last day of the week when they start a new group to allow for the physical and psych interview on Friday.

Thanks, I forgot about that. So - they interviewed even less.

But, FTB said he heard in the crew room they were almost done interviewing ... where lately it's been hard to hear anything with those darn horns blaring from the World Cup.

Also, someone said they called for an interview and was told all the spots were full. Kinda odd, but who knows.

I think rumours are taking on a life of their own here.

Last I had heard, They had interview slots filled up through the end of July. Those inteviews would likely fill up any August, September, and possibly October classes. If the flow continues, the compass/mesaba guys that were held back 90 days would need most of the slots in Nov/Dec, so you wouldn't need many street hires to fill those classes.

The version of the rumor I'm hearing is they are taking a pause because they need to figure out if the flow is still happening or not. If it is, they don't need as many street hires, and don't want to create a huge pool (Delta's not been into 100+ person pools. They generally seem to want to send a person to class within 60 days or so of the interview - at least with civilians.) If something happens that the flow is not available, they'll need more bodies from the street, and it should be game-on full bore again in August.

I don't think hirring numbers have changed any. Most recent base visits (which happened last week,) and other info comming out hasn't mentioned a change in the game plan for the numbers.

Unless things have changed, Delta doesn't look at any helo time. There wasn't even a place to put it in the flight time matrix on upas back in the 96-2001 hiring timeframe. A lot of us fought long and hard with Plato Rhyne to try and fix that.

If you can fly instruments in a helicopter, where every axis is fighting each other, then you can fly instruments in a transport plane, where the toughest thing you'll do is couple up the autopilot and click it off!

Done em both;14,000 hours (2500 Hueys).

I'm looking forward to flying with some new hire F/Os. They can tell me what they learned during indoc....we seemed to miss that in the merger:p

Good intel in this post.

The official numbers have not changed, but the flight operations folks (who tend to be more optimistic) say we need a lot more, enough to continue through the waves of retirements, which means it could get started and continue for a long while.

Let's see:

Fill out new hire info, healthcare info, pass travel paperwork
Wear your hat
Don't select First Class when flying positive space
Review of FOM
Reivew of how MEL works
Wear your hat
Don't use cheese grater if you're not on company business
Sign up for Delta Pilots Mutual Aid
Listen to guy talk about how to get help if you're an alcoholic
Wear your hat
Network guy tells you Delta is doing wondrous things
Listen to scheduling guy tell you to always answer your phone
Hit the soda machine when the PBS guy fails to show up for his allotted hour
And don't forget to wear your hat

Nailed it Jesse. Two weeks = one Jesse post. Perfect!

You forgot the DALPA guy telling us that "this is the last job we'll ever have" (says someone who had five jobs between the furlough in 2001 and coming back in 2008. :rolleyes:

When do they give us the hats? :D

They fixed it. Delta counted my helo time when I got hired in 2008.

----------
We have hats?

Not in LA.;)

Give?? The only uniform piece that they give you is a $9 set of wings along with an order form so you can order the other 14 pieces of metal that you have to pin on and around your person to get suited up to fly.

You buy the uniform and most of the brass.

Abbot's and Crew Outfitters will have some deals for ya. Should get out the door for under 500 bucks. :eek:

500 bucks!!

Man, you buy the good stuff.
Wal-Mart has black pants for $24.95

Yeah. I had two jackets/blazers at Northwest. I thought I would get two for DAL, until I found out how much they cost. :eek:

I only have one and take very good care of it. :rolleyes:

Not sure how it was done previously at Delta, but I have to assume that they have incorporated a little bit of NWA into the indoc class. I assume the part they incorporated was the scheduling gal telling each class "get ready because you will all be captains in 5 years" (I heard this as a new hire and when coming back from furlough) :rolleyes:

$21 at Costco. I've found them as low as $9 and I actually like them better than the two pair of $70 pants purchased (and never worn) from Flight Station.

Flight Station's easy to work with, but their quality is not up to the standards of Abbott. If the chance comes up to get a new jacket, I'll go back to Abbott's again.

That depends on if we keep the flow down. The good news is I'm already Typed in the Equipment :cool:

I keed, I keed, ... we're hiring.

Kohl's 34.99 a pair, nice cool golf pants that breath nicely and match perfectly

The Kohl's pants also have a stretchy waist to compensate for beer expansion on your overnights. Hey newhires....the captains buy beer at least one night on every trip...honest!