I'm an instructor, but I was hired as a line pilot and brought in full time after I had a year of line experience. The adjunct guys are good, no doubt, but they suffer from the same problem but in the opposite way. They don't instruct enough to stay proficient with the courseware.

Personally, I go out and fly pairings in JFK and BOS on my fly days. NAS turns are boring. My fly days are the days I look forward to the most. In April I flew 2 trips instead of the required 4 legs in 2 days. I wish we could fly even more, but the training load is pretty heavy. A good solution would be removing the monthly requirement to fly and letting us bid every third month to fly. But there are downsides to that too for line guys. (Instructors bumping you down lower in their bid months, etc.)

What some guys don't seem to realize is that the instructing job and the line pilot job are not the same job. They are very different, and being a good line pilot doesn't necessarily make you a good instructor, and vice versa. So I don't buy this while "scope" argument about guys wanting to stay home in Orlando, but being thwarted by the non seniority guys. First, they DO hire full time line guys occasionally. And second it's not like being line qualified means you're automatically qualified to be an instructor.

The best way, hands down, to become an instructor is to get hired as a pilot first then apply for a full time instructor position after a year or two. Full time positions don't open up very frequently though.

 

If locals want to be instructors, they should apply when the emails go out. Best of luck to anyone who applies.

As far as the adjuncts go, I'm not a huge fan of that program. They don't instruct nearly enough by only coming in 2 or 3 months per year to stay up to speed. Don't get me wrong, they are good instructors, and close personal friends of mine. But all of the adjuncts on my fleet are actively trying to come full time for that reason. We only have 4 adjuncts on the E190. The rest are full time.

 

If you're in the family situation and ONE person uses the medical a lot, it isn't bad. That's the situation I had the last couple of years. My wife was dealing with some major medical problems, but my son and I were healthy and fine the whole time. I didn't have to come up with much past the HRA, the Healthy Rewards and my FSA. Probably around $2,800 out of pocket not counting premiums but including money I tossed into my FSA. So, for two years I thought "It's not great, but it's not as horrible as everyone says."

This year? My wife and my kid have been struggling, and it's horrible. FSA? Gone. HRA? Gone. Healthy Rewards (which I max out every year)? Gone. We've hit the family deductible now, but we're still a couple grand away from the max co-insurance. So, this year it's looking like I'll hit around $5,000 out of pocket including my FSA money but not counting premiums. Spread that out over several months, and I could be paying $400 a month higher premiums for MUCH better insurance.

 

Seems like we're talking past each other a bit, and don't necessarily disagree on the salient points, but more the philosophy. The adjunct program as it was originally envisioned 4, 6, 8 years ago(it's been reinvigorated a few times) was supposed to have guys teach and fly on a close to 50/50 basis, not 2-3 months per year. I'm sure it's harder to keep up on the courseware if it's less often, but that's a leadership/structure issue that could easily be fixed.

Honestly, IMO it absolutely is a scope issue. You as a guy that got hired to fly the line first then transitioned to JBU aren't taking away a job from any JB pilot. But your example also proves my point; with 2 years on property you have better QOL being an instructor at JBU than a guy with equivalent seniority who just happened to be based in MCO. Doubly so if you were on the 320. That's why I want all those jobs available for line guys, and not off the street non-SLI. The months where an adjunct guy bids his line don't really bother the normal line guys; he/she just bids and flies what their seniority normally holds in their assigned base.

You seem to keep ignoring where I've agreed not every line guy would be a great instructor, but again, that's what the interview, selection and training process are for. And the line about let locals apply when they send the emails out is a bit of a non-sequitur. You know as well as I do (probably better) that most vacancies at JBU are not advertised to the pilot group at large.

For the newhires reading this back-and-forth, the bottom line is your training will be a pretty good experience no matter where your instructor came from. I'm personally a skeptical guy at times, and passionately want our pilots to have the best instructors and most varied employment opportunities. Having said that, sans one bad apple on the 190 fleet and a couple guys that were mailing it in a bit, I would rate all my interactions with JBU guys as being average to excellent. The program is set up with the intention of making sure
you have every opportunity to succeed.

 

The problem seems to mostly be flight operations not being able to release guys to training on a regular basis, especially the MCO guys. One person leaving MCO increases the bid divisor quite a bit, so it's not easy to get 2 or 3 of them off line at the same time.

That assumes every instructor lives in Orlando, and it forgets the fact that anyone can apply for the full-time positions as a line pilot when they open. I'm not circumventing anything since everyone had the opportunity to apply for this position when it was open 2 years ago.

Of course there would be more opportunities open to line guys if all instructors were hired from the line, and I'm not opposed to that in principle. But we will have to negotiate that in our next CBA, and I'm not sure how much people will be willing to give to gain something like that in the CBA. Maybe it is a bigger deal to most than I think it is, but I believe most people would rather focus on other issues first, like healthcare, work rules, etc.

I didn't know anyone at JBU when I applied. All I did to get my position was reply to an email from training inviting people to apply from the line with my resume. Every position that has been open for adjuncts since then was advertised to the line. I haven't seen any positions open that weren't advertised since I've been at JBU, frankly. Keep in mind there has been a big change in leadership at JBU, and that things are run a bit differently now, so that may be part of the disconnect.

I agree with that whole heartedly. We are here for you to succeed, and will help out in any way we can to get you through training as smoothly as possible. Good luck to all the new hires, and all the people trying to get on. It's a good company, and things should only get better going forward.

 

Whats the average hired looking like?

 

I was a very senior regional FO with lots of internal recs. 5000+ total time.

I believe the demographic is shifting toward hiring more folks with TPIC. This isn't to say someone like myself can't get hired, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

Also, minimum competitive (for civilian) is 5,000TT plus.

Hope this helps.

 

7400TT, 1000TPIC (jet), heavy Boeing time, 6500 Jet. No call, could be the degree. *rolleyes. Have 131 credits but they are scattered all over the place.

 

Have you been to any job fairs just out of curiosity?

 

Seems like you would be a good fit. I hope you get a call soon!