Excuse me while I speak of a reality. Great Lakes is a horribly managed airline and the pilots in the company are the lowest paid in the industry. We do not get paid while attending initial training. We do not get paid when flights are cancelled for maintenance. Our domiciles (Farmington, Pierre, Prescott, Ft Dodge, and Cheyenne) are ridiculously difficult to commute to. These are the facts and anyone who works here will state the same. There are many other detractors to list but it would take too long.
With that being said, I can say that the pilot group at Lakes is phenomenal The type of flying that we do, (no autopilot, no GPS, no Flight Attendant, no LAV, and flying 7 to 9 legs a day) requires a competent flight crew. Anyone who applied at Lakes knew exactly what they were getting into. This is not a place to linger. It is a place to come, build experience, turbine PIC time, and move on. As a guy who started at Lakes with 850 hours and has recently upgraded in just under a year, gotten his ATP and a type rating, I personally think the sacrifice was worth it.
Oh, next time your jumpseating on Frontier, United, Southwest, or any other airline, ask the Captain what he thinks about Lakers.. SEEE YA!

 

Hey guess what I got my ATP and a PIC type rating at my regional to and probably make as much as you do as a captain.

 

Uh...?...what's your point here?

 

: )....................

 

Wow! No Lav? Lakers are real pilots!

 

Great lakes is the cockroach of this industry and I wish nothing but bad things for that company for their treatment of their employees.

However, because of every pilot who willingly works at that airline, they will continue to be able to pay their laughable wages.

Congratulations sir. You and everybody that works at that airline ARE the problem with this industry.

As long as there are googly eyed cfi wizards that will accept that pay or anything similar to it, this industry will never improve.

 

My point is that there are a lot of previous threads bashing Lakes, more specifically, the people who fly for Lakes. I think the majority of guys who are here have a passion for flying and are willing to sacrifice a couple of years of pay for the opportunity to fly.

 

How do you take a dump?

 

The lavs on Pinnacle -200's are deferred a lot. Maybe I should put that on my resume to boost my marketability?

 

I agree with you. The wages are terrible. I'd be surprised if after August of this year, the airline is still in business. But, how many pilots have progressed on to awesome flying jobs ( Alaska, Southwest, United, etc.) because of the experience gained at this cockroach of an airline? You might be surprised at the number of former Lakers sitting in the seat at a Major.