capitalairtrans

What's the latest at air choice one? I hear the pilots are bailing out of that place like rats off a dying ship. Will they be able to Crew the airplanes at the rate they are losing pilots and why is everybody leaving? I thought they were supposed to be buying new airplanes and adding new cities?

flynavyj

Friend is the CP there, while i'm sure they're struggling to keep employees they're decently compensated for their equipment. Anyone operating turbine singles in the soup or even piston twins is going to struggle to attract applicants, especially with the hour requirements where they're at.

Additionally, if you're at the 1500 hour requirement, there are better paying local gigs around...I know they operate out of STL, which also has a base for the highest paid first year regional 121 outfit in the business (TSA)....I'm a local, and found a decent paying 135 On-Demand gig that didn't make me absolutely BROKE.

I feel this will be the same struggle for many small operators, despite how well they treat their employees. While many folks just want to be compensated well, and provided with good benefits...if all else is equal, I'll take the comfy jet with an APU over the Caravan any day.

Green Giant

Originally Posted by brokepilot2 View Post
"I've only heard about air choice second hand but I do know they have a 2 year training contract that is not pro-rated ($10,000 I think). I know that they will come after you for the money if you leave early (a guy showed up to serve papers to a former air choice one guy in my training class)."

Found this in the Pt. 91 section. It has been my experience that if the company demands a training contract, then you might want to stay away from them. Further more taking a broke pilot to court for a bogus contract in the amount of 10K for basically a C172 with a Turboprop engine just isn't cool. For 10K you could get a B737 type rating.