As of the last bid there are 12 spots open for FO in FLL, 12 in MCO, and 2 in IAD. IAD is currently the junior base for FO's. I believe all the new hire FO's that are being sent up to IAD want to be based in Florida. Once the company assigns you a base then you can put in a preferential bid of where you want to be based. They'll move you if there is a vacancy in that base and if the company can staff your position in the base you're leaving.

As a new hire expect to be based in IAD initially and I would say about a month or two before you can move down to Florida as more new hires come on board. As always this is subject to change with airline's hiring activity and movement in seniority.

Also as of the last bid it shows they need 7 more captains which the company said they'll resume upgrading candidates in February. The most junior captain DOH is July 2012. Hope this helps in making your decision!

 

Is there any truth to Silver no longer being able to afford updating your FMS databases?

 

Sort of.

All of our FMS's are currently disabled. The company does not have an approved simulator training program for the FMS. The FAA has decided that we cannot use the FMS until we have the training program. Our simulators do not have an FMS installed in them, so who knows when this will get fixed.

All of our flying is being done "old school" - paper charts and VOR's!

 

They spent all that money on those things and now they cant even be used wow.

 

Dang thats a bummer.

 

Um, there are PC based trainers that are approved by the FAA. Can't imagine they would be cost prohibitive... Sounds like there may be more to it than just that.

 

You can't bid for your domicile during training? They just blindly assign one? That sounds strange to say the least.

 

You do fill out a bid while in training. That was my bad the way I worded my sentence. You'll fill out a bid & then the company will assign you your domicile based on companies need at that time. Currently there are spots available in Florida bases but they keep sending new hires to IAD since they're short handed there even though majority of new hires want Florida bases.

You can keep the same bid you fill out in training or you can change it around in flica as you wish. This is considered your preferential bid.

 

Silver is now flying to PIE? I thought that Florida market was already pretty saturated?

 

Did I read correctly, no FMS??