You really believe this stuff?

Regards,
Clutch

So you are saying that in the last ten years Alaska has hired a total of four (4) pilots from Horizon and that was all in the most recent class?

Regards,
Clutch

Yes
 

Yep, I lived it. During the years I was at Horizon Air Alaska Airlines hired over 80 pilots from Skywest and only 4 from Horizon Air.

Skyhigh

Not too many
 

Clutch,

Alaska has not hired to many pilots over the last ten years. I don't have to number but it is only a handful from Horizon Air. My point is that it is a long shot to make the conversion to AS. Most end up getting stuck at QX.

When I was a flight student my initial instructors were hired by Horizon Air. We all were so excited for them. Next stop the majors. Well it has been over 20 years since then and they are all still there.

Skyhigh

Total Cost
 

College is more than tuition and books. There are living expenses and opportunity costs to consider. It was Costco's article.

Skyhigh

The ladder
 

As you climb the ladder of aviation you get to visit with a lot of pilots. Their stories are all worth knowing. Most are individuals who had gotten stuck along the way and know that they will never reach their dreams. Now they have to live a greatly discounted version of their once youthful hopes while others who do essentially the same job get paid three times as much for doing less.

It was there fault really. Things happened to them like; they got married, got too old, too fat, were furloughed, hit a recession when it was their turn to move on to the majors. There is a long list of little things that can stop an aviation career in its tracks. At one time they were young and hopeful too. Now a cautionary tale to be learned from.

Eventually however you begin to realize that you are very similar to those who fell short. You begin to see the same story play out in you career. A recession, birthdays begin to go by faster, lay off or two and the reality begins to sink in.

Skyhigh

Sky,
Lay off the barbituates. This post was too much of a downer -- you accurately described my recent past and probable future! :(:p

The great part of flying is what I quoted from you above: the pilots you meet and the stories you hear. My workplace is full of pilots with failed airline dreams, or more accurately, pilots who weighed the probability of progressing from their unsatisfactory life at a regional airline to a good life at a legacy airline and found the probability not worth the sacrifice.

We've got great people where I work, and I really enjoy working with them and talking with them. Besides the ex-regional pilots we also have a bunch of ex-military pilots (Dutch, German, US, and even a Romanian MiG driver). It's an eclectic and very interesting group, and they're a lot of fun to be around.

Well, the only reason I'm critiquing you here is to satisfy USMCFLYR, who wants me to be "balanced". I think he's a little off-kilter himself, and was nearly incomprehensible in his banter with GoPats on a recent thread, but try to humor him -- as a former Marine I'm sure he finds nearly everything around him incomprehensible.

You have a positive role here Sky. Without you and a few others, this place might be mistaken for an Amway meeting (not that there is anything wrong with Amway, which is just one of the companies I offer you in my multi-level marketing empire :D).

I actually believe that companies like Alaska waive the carrot in front of Horizon employees like Skyhigh is saying. Plenty of companies do it. The government agency i work for does the same crap.

But with that being said, if those employees know that's how the companies operate the employees shouldn't pin their hopes on working for Alaska. Apply overseas or somewhere else local. To sit there and take the abuse in hopes of being one of the few that get the call is stupid. I don't think it needs to be said that the legacies and local US airlines suck when it comes to treatment of employees.

Flug -

Feel free to refute any of my incomprehensible posts with facts.
If you can't understand me - maybe you just don't speak Marine.
Also - are you really trying to say that being balanced is a bad thing?

USMCFLYR

I'm betting that the ratio of: Alaska applicants/Alasks hires is even more depressing than that.