I read forums of other UAX carriers, especially those with a CPP and those who exist in my base. You also post in ExpressJet and other forums, so why exactly do you think it’s strange to take an interest in other carriers’ forums? Trust me.....the INSTANT I move on to a Major, I won’t be looking here any longer.

 

You can only fly 100 hours in 10 months if you were a new hire 11 months ago.
Your examples.

 

I do rarely post on ExpressJet’s and other forums. I do read their forums because I have friends at ExpressJet, SkyWest and Republic and I like to keep up with what is happening there. All three of these offered me a job. I was, in fact, pretty close to accepting a job at all three. You never know when any particular regional is going to have trouble and I would still take a job there if Mesa has trouble and I haven’t moved on to a major by then.

Because IAH was my preferred base, I asked both SkyWest and ExpressJet the fateful question, “if I stay in IAH, how long till I upgrade?” SkyWest nearly laughed because the upgrade is so long and tried to convince me to go to DTW or ORD. ExpressJet at least had the decency to offer me a straight up answer. I applied at Republic when they were first coming to IAH but backed out when I found out they were going to have a 5 year upgrade in IAH.

I am actually happy for ExpressJet in getting the CRJ200 contract and I hope they are based in IAH. Maybe, ExpressJet will open the phantom ATL base that Mesa management lied about.

The market for moving on with 1,000 TPIC is ripe. Senior pilots have a little harder time of it, but I see ExpressJet pilots moving to United in droves and now Kalitta is getting into the act of aggressively recruiting younger ExpressJet pilots. Good luck!

 

And, after 11 and 12 go by while you sit on the beach, then you can fly 100 hours per 28 days for another 10 months, and you can take another 2 months off.

I hear that this is the case at SkyWest in DTW from a buddy there. That they are short pilots there and it is possible to take a rolling 2 months off.

 

Really... a lot of guys are hanging on by a thread staying here. If they put me on reserve for a whole month I would probably be leaving this place pretty soon after.

 

Yes, same here! What a joke!

 

Say that you bid min credit each month and never pick anything up. Are those guys also running into issues with part 117?

 

What is min credit? Not completely seriously.

Many of our captains are assigned 100 hours every month as scheduled.

 

Bid min credit = trying to maximize days off, not picking up any overtime, and therefore staying as close as possible to the minimum monthly credit for lineholders allowed by scheduling. If staffing levels are where they should be then min credit should be about 80 hours per month. At this rate you won't run into issues with your 1000 hour limit.

 

You don’t work here, do you? Ever hear of unstacking?