snackysmores

The VP of flight ops who we just fired flew an airbus once 10 years ago when he snaked his way up the ladder at virgin. He did their inaugural flight to SFO or something.

In the years he was at Qx he never flew the Q400, never completed training, yet made policy decisions that affect us significantly. We're the only airline in the US that still flies Q400s and it's arguably one of the most difficult and challenging planes to learn to fly...He's responsible for trying to get our AQP cycle cut from 3 days to 2 which was a huge pita for all us who had to be guinea pigs (Feds said no after trial was done). He's also responsible for having upgrade training slashed..q400 upgrades will now have to do 30 hours of CBT, 3 days of ground, then oral checkride and off to the sims. The 2 week ground school is gone. "That's how we did it on the Airbus!"

The FOs upgrading now will be able to handle it but the 175 FOs down the road will struggle big time.

Packrat

I always espoused that. Why? Because:

1. QX pilots are trained to the same standard as AS pilots. Sit on a jumpseat and the departure/approach briefings are mirror images.
2. You know the work ethic of the QX pilot. You have his personnel file.
3. You know how he/she fits in with the corporate culture of your airline group.

But every time I suggested it to someone on the 2nd floor it was scoffed at. "We want to be able to hire people from differing backgrounds." Answer: Then just flow a percentage of the pilots you need from QX. No sale.

Bring it up to QX managers like the Bagwan and his direct response: "I don't want to be the training center for Alaska pilots." In the mean time the QX pilots that wanted to work for AS and would have been perfect fits were bailing out for SWA, UAL, etc.

Angle Lake "thinking" can be very mysterious.

Jonneaux

Good discussion. I used to work for an airline who's management philosophy was to not give employees the resources they needed to do their jobs, then scream loudly at them and threaten bankruptcy if they failed. They are gone now.

Muddle through the summer then ditch half the Q's, replace them one for one with 175's and you might make it.

amcnd

It's been well know for 20+ years. If you want to fly for Alaska, dont go to QX...

max gross

You hit the nail on the head. Regional pilots have proven time and time again that career progression is #1. Not pay or QOL. After all, it's a race to mainline!

Even with the recent pay increases at many regionals, it is still peanuts compared to what the other half gets. American in genius to have propped up their slave labor groups the way they have. People are tripping over themselves to go work for those 3 sh!tee wholly owned airlines.

AAG survives off the fact that people from the PNW will take serious concessions to work for Alaska. Now that word is out that working for Horizon could hurt your chances at getting to Alaska, it severely hurts your recruiting. A simple flow is all that's needed.

PS. I hate flows as they are a management tool to perpetuate this crazy contractor system, but the reality is that it works.

SIUav8er

I question 12/2014 junior Ejet captain. Where are you seeing this? Im senior to that and cant hold the Ejet.

snackysmores

Check the August flica award and scroll wayyy down near the mfr dash upgrades. He's there.

Have you been a dash captain for less than a year? If yes you're seat locked

snackysmores

PS is the best candidate hands down but it wouldn't work, he's the type of person who will straight up tell them what they need to do to fix everything and they would look at him and say "no." So he would walk. Can't say enough good things about PS though, a pilots pilot and a real standup guy.

OregonAviator

I've flown with him maybe two times tops while on reserve and let me tell you, no matter how many months goes by that guy still remembers my name and shakes my hand before I get to even addressing his name first. Seriously one of the most stand up guys here and I would vote him in as well. Come on PS!!!!!!!

Yogipilot

I'm sure mgmt would love PS to bail them out too and preach their baseless slogans yet, I believe that he scares them because the man has integrity that's real and isn't just a slogan. PS can't be bought and he isn't the greed mongor that those at the top of the pyramid scheme are. The perfect storm is total cop out they have been told over and over this was coming for years by so many even a few in the mgmt ranks yet they treated this place as their personal ATM machine and left the employees scraps and now they actually have to lead and they are clueless. The "Thanks for all your do" slogan needs to change with "We are going to do what needs to be done" period.