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New Gama/WHEELS UP King Air Bases

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Part 135 Part 135 commercial operators

New Gama/WHEELS UP King Air Bases

Old 03-18-2015, 08:42 AM
  #11  
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I've run into several of their crews on the road. Very unhappy group!
Sounds like there are more problems than just the schedule, but the schedule is definitely at the top of the list. Hear a lot of complaints about getting paid for per diem (takes about 2-3 months!). The scheduling department is also very unorganized. A lot times, guys don't get their flight info for the next day until 9, sometimes 10 pm the night before. From what I hear, the opening of more bases has helped, but there are alot more fires to put out. Was thinking about going over there before I started hearing about all the problems. Every company has issues, but not getting paid in a timely matter and having to work almost every day should not be an issue.
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Old 03-20-2015, 04:33 PM
  #12  
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Originally Posted by Packrat View Post
Check your PMs.
Done, thanks.


To answer some of the other concerns, yes there are problems but we also have an 18 month trend of continuous improvement and more to come. No company starts off with everything running smoothly, if you want a place that's "perfect" best of luck with your NetJets application. 10-20% of our new hires are internal referrals so there are plenty of guys that like it here and are bringing in their friends, no company is for everyone, I've been around many a NetJet Captain at Signature *****ing and moaning about their job, so take the *****ing and moaning from our guys with a grain of salt, remember, they're still pilots ...
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Old 03-20-2015, 06:39 PM
  #13  
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Default New Gama/Wheels UP King Air Bases

Originally Posted by Kritchlow View Post
Well, that would be nice. But if I had a guess, and it was between an open house or an announcement of a 7/7 schedule, I will bet they would get some very (over)qualified folks.

I totally agree.
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Old 03-20-2015, 06:41 PM
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Originally Posted by galaxy51 View Post
Done, thanks.


To answer some of the other concerns, yes there are problems but we also have an 18 month trend of continuous improvement and more to come. No company starts off with everything running smoothly, if you want a place that's "perfect" best of luck with your NetJets application. 10-20% of our new hires are internal referrals so there are plenty of guys that like it here and are bringing in their friends, no company is for everyone, I've been around many a NetJet Captain at Signature *****ing and moaning about their job, so take the *****ing and moaning from our guys with a grain of salt, remember, they're still pilots ...
But, there's only 3 years left on the contract.
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Old 03-20-2015, 08:32 PM
  #15  
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I've met three WU pilots in the last two months. Good guys. All three had their applications in at NetJets. Two had upcoming interviews.
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Old 03-21-2015, 06:31 AM
  #16  
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Yup we are losing some guys to NetJets, there's some interesting insight into that, #1 the guys we lost to them are very well qualified. #2 NetJets doesn't exactly have much love for WHEELS UP and they are poaching the pilots, I say if it helps some of the guys get hired there that's good for them, they got something good out of working here. #3 EVERYONE is losing guys to NetJets, just like JetBlue is losing guys to United, which we have lost some guys to also.

In regards to the contract yes there are 3.5 years left, at the end of that time we are projected to have (assuming all options are converted) at a minimum 400 pilots in the fleet. It would cost WHEELS UP 400 X $10,000 just send the guys to recurrent (135 required pilots to train under the air carriers certificate), so they would need to spend $4,000,000 on pilot training alone, not to mention suspend operations for 6 months while everyone is trained. Or they would have to have another operator start hiring a year before the contract is up so that they could take over operations. Not to mention we have an excellent working relationship with them.

Over the last few months we have hired some of the most talented guys in the pilot group, we have lost a fair number of guys but we have been lucky in that we have been able to hire some great guys and gals to replace them. So in the end we are a better fleet for it.

I've met a few of the new hires in recent months and they are very excited to be here, they were warned about the schedule and the length of time it takes to get per diem when they were hired. For them it's an opportunity to get in early on a program that has great potential.
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Old 03-21-2015, 07:46 AM
  #17  
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$10,000 for recurrent? Highly unlikely given the fact WU would have 400 Pilot's and I'm sure management would have negotiated a reduced cost. I went through recurrent on the 350 every other 6 months and the cost was only $5k to $6k and our Pilot group numbered only 10. Flight Safety was our provider, do they still offer 350 initial and recurrent?
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Old 03-21-2015, 08:01 AM
  #18  
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Originally Posted by galaxy51 View Post
I've been around many a NetJet Captain at Signature *****ing and moaning about their job, so take the *****ing and moaning from our guys with a grain of salt, remember, they're still pilots ...
To paraphrase an old Navy saying, "A biatching pilot is a happy pilot."
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Old 03-21-2015, 08:37 AM
  #19  
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I've been here for a little less than a year and I enjoy the company and the flying. When I got hired the schedule was made very clear to me. As for the per-diem issue, it does take about 4-6 weeks for reimbursement, however after my first month on line I started getting reimbursements every 2-3 weeks. I came from an airline enviornment so I am used to being paid a month behind.
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Old 03-21-2015, 09:54 AM
  #20  
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Originally Posted by brianb View Post
$10,000 for recurrent? Highly unlikely given the fact WU would have 400 Pilot's and I'm sure management would have negotiated a reduced cost. I went through recurrent on the 350 every other 6 months and the cost was only $5k to $6k and our Pilot group numbered only 10. Flight Safety was our provider, do they still offer 350 initial and recurrent?

Yes, 135 recurrent is 4 days, so 8 hrs of sim + classroom. FSI 350 ProLine 21 sim wet rate alone is about $1,800/hr so no they don't cost 5-6K ...
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