ahh ok - thanks RV5M.

 

Hey boys - As many of you know I left for Frontier over a year ago. I wanted to pass along a compliment I received on all of our behalf. I flew with an old head the other day who's been in the know and connected one way or another most of the time he's been here with training and or hiring. He told me they've always had really good experiences with Mesa guys. "Good pilots, good pass rates, good attitudes." Take it FWIW but he seemed pretty sincere and matter of fact about it. I'm sure his sentiments would hold true for many other regionals too, but it made me feel pretty good to hear it. I usually can sense when someone is patronizing me, and I don't think he was.

I'm sure someone will pipe in now saying: Of course they love you guys, you're used to working for pennies and being treated like crap. You come to Frontier and never complain. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but if so why was there like 6 XJET CAs in my class and only 2 mesa guys? Hmmm? Actually... the answer to that is probably because XJET is going backwards and Mesa is not. Which is a sad commentary in it's own right.

Who knows... I'm talking in circles... This industry is so crazy. I really think all fee for departure contractors are bad. Look, all I know is we all have to work somewhere, and hell I had some really cool things happen in my life while at Mesa. Namely meeting my wife, starting my family. Buying my first home. Picking up 2 more along the way having 4 different domiciles. Not to mention all the friends I met and the many type ratings.

All this BS about people saying we're bringing the industry down because we choose to work at a place like Mesa whilst we LIVE our LIVES, I say go to HEL! Save your vitriol for the people in your life who have no choice but to endure it - you're all small individuals. And whether you want to acknowledge it or not, your Skywest, or your Comair, ACA, XJET, Envoy PSA or even Horizon, or whatever POS you happen to call home is using the crap out of you too, and deep down you know it!

 

I have never seen a rejected regional TA do anything other than cost the pilot group more money in the long-run, and benefit other pilot groups with less spine. A rejected TA immediately resets the foot-dragging by management teams who are not afraid of the NMB or ALPA at all. How many regionals have been released to self-help within 5-10 years of rejecting a TA? How many legacies have simply shifted around flying when a group rejected marginal increases in pay?

Do you know who benefitted most from Envoy's stand for justice? It wasn't the Envoy pilots, it wasn't all regional pilots, it was PSA & Piedmont. Unless there is a national seniority list, an ALPA national regime bold enough to reject any regional TA that lowers the bar, or an NMB that actually releases regional pilot groups to strike ever, then it is patently stupid to reject any TA. In such a broken, dysfunctional, uncoordinated quagmire of regional pilot groups, rejecting a TA simply incentivizes other pilot groups to take concessions and thus lowers the bar even further!!!

Is Republic back at the table with RAH's union, begging for a second chance to give them a raise? No. How did the Envoy stand for justice work out? It sure as heck didn't end up "raising the bar."

Back up your positions with historical data on the financial and career outcomes of rejected TAs at regional 121 carriers since the 1980s and I'll consider your position. I think you'll see that making a stand at the regional level never works out. Regional feed is, by design, set up to be fragmented and distributed among lowest-bidders, with contract durations on RFPs overlapped to provide maximum "ratchet-down" capability.

Lastly, if you want to devote your backbone and indignation towards something that would actually raise the bar, start a petition of all regional unions to pressure their MECs into a national Memorandum of Understanding--a binding agreement that no MEC of any US 121 airline will ever sign off on a TA with payrates below specified amounts (with inflation adjustments included).

Spend your time and emotions arguing for something that could actually raise the bar. Rejecting a TA at Mesa isn't going to.

 

From the alpa email: Ornstein says Harty’s take on the 1500 hour rule as told to Regional Horizons include, “If the FAA truly wants to enhance safety it will get this 1500 rule repealed. The military has guys flying missions in Iraq with 400 hours. And when the quality of training was controlled, we had better pilots.”

 

ATP flight school is JUST like military training.

 

I think he is referring more to MAPD. I will say the MAPD grads I had come through training did very well on the whole.

 

You acknowledge the truth and yet you still think you can win. No doubt the "Never Quit" spirit is admirable, but you need only look at recent history to know you don't have chance in he!!.

 

Jerry? Is that you?

 

But... but... this is the innerwebz! We aren't supposed to have lives outside of work! Nothing else matters!

Thanks for your refreshing insight and good luck at Frontier!

 

Hah funny! I guess it doesn't matter for a regional lifer such as yourself, you just get to stagnate at the top, must be nice.