snackysmores

Compared to the Saab, you're gonna love the Q lol.

ASpilot2be

LOL I probably will.

N19906

Hey!
It's a pretty decent airplane. Yeah, it has it's quirks, but so does every piece of machinery. We spent sooo much time over the years knocking out it's shortcomings that it's pretty good nowadays, but it just can't escape it's past. Sigh...
A straight-winged turboprop that cruises at M0.60/365 knts. on a good, (cold), day while kissing barberpole?
Nothing else does that. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not a jet. I get that.)

(BTW, I was told that QX's fetish for using the ground air carts came from accounting. Something to the effect that as a CPA carrier, the AG covers fixed costs, like ground support. QX is responsible for variable costs, like fuel burn. So, (aside from the stupidity of "We spent the money, so we're going to use the damned things!"), it's the result of who's balance sheet the operating cost show up on. Put it on the AG's dime by using the air carts.)

N19906

As for that. It blows many minds to consider that truth.
Only four~five years ago, time to upgrade was at twelve~thirteen years. Then the bottom fell out. Thanks, BL.

I hope QX recovers from these self-inflicted wounds. Good luck guys.

Griever

We will, but we may be doing so with an entirely new management team. SOC is moving to sea, many director level jobs are being asked to reapply.

DashAviator

I apologize for the delay in answering your question - have been out flying for the last couple of days. The average leg length in the Dash is just over one hour, with lots of short hops (i.e., Seattle to Bellingham, Portland - Eugene, Boise - Lewiston). It's pretty common to fly your tail off and only get 4 or 5 block hours in a 12-hour duty day.

You'll hear a lot of horror stories about the dreaded "six leg day", but the suck factor depends a lot on the weather, your crew, and how many times your captain has to call Maintenance Control. Some six-leg days are easy. Other days, you'll time out by leg 4.

I actually enjoy flying the Q400, but it's a well-known fact that I have low standards.

Just for fun, I pulled up some of the E175 trips on eCrew. As expected, many of the jet trips are not very efficient. This is mostly due to the fact that we don't have enough jets to build a complete route system. There's also a lot of training going on. The trips should get better after we get some additional E175s and more pilots and flight attendants are trained in the airplane.

I did notice, on average, that our Q400 crews fly about twice as many legs as the jet crews for about the same credit. For example, consider a 3-day trip that comes in at 12.5 credit. This would be about 6 legs in the jet and 12 in the Q400. This is a hypothetical example, but illustrates the general trend.

snackysmores

^ Yep that's very accurate.

In the winter time the six leg day becomes impossible without extending if you're doing turns out of SEA. The flow alone is enough to cause a crew time out but just wait 'til a snowflake hits the ground and everyone gets vectored for a 30nm ILS.

I fondly remember one time we were given a heading to intercept the 16R loc and having to tell ATC we can't pick it up; we're too far away lol.

ASpilot2be

For bases like MFR, how many of the trips are early starts and late finishes? Or does it kind of vary?

The flow into Seattle sounds like very fun times!

snackysmores

MFR has the worst trips in the system if you're a commuter.

Lots of 4 days with 4am shows and 12am releases.

CurseURedBaron

Any word on what kinds of destinations/overnights the jet has and/or is supposedly getting?