Rotor transition?
 

Saw something in another thread about no more RTP for Piedmont?

Any info greatly appreciated. Thanks.

It gone. Poof. Necessitamas mas cap it tans.

Have heard RTP interviews will resume in January at Piedmont.

OK. Hopefully you’re right Army. January would be perfect. Fingers crossed.

Ran into a Piedmont FO in grocery store parking lot. He seemed pretty happy. Said things aren’t great but not that bad either. Same exact story at the rest of the regionals. Local flight school and easy commute, PNS to CLT makes Piedmont work for me.

Your decision is your decision.

But take it from all of us here, this is not the "same exact story as the rest of the regionals". People are leaving here to go to other regionals. This place is bad, and your friend will soon realize that after having done it for more than a couple months. Not trying to be mean or anything, just want to make sure you know what your getting in to if you come here.

pe are also leaving other regionals to come to piedmont so....

Endeavor and maybe Republic are probably the only places I would say are solidly better.

We legitimately can't fill classes right now. People are bailing two weeks before indoc... word is out

Management did this to themselves. Let’s see how they fix it. Bigger bonuses for new hires and nothing for the people already here is the usual solution.

Wish that were true but we have 19 more starting this week. Planned class size is 20 for the fall I think.

My class alone had 2 from TSA, 2 from ExpressJet and one from AWAC.

We’ll see what happens the next couple months. Hopefully what flyjustin said comes true.

19 is less than 20...

Were any of those 5 DECs?

The 19 listed, many already bailed and recruiting is working there butts off to full the slots last minute.

We are losing a ton of people in between indoc and systems..

Also there have been a few geniuses that went to Indoc here and went to another airline.. collected 2 salaries and resigned just prior to the system class.

We are only at a net of 5 pilots for September and about a dozen more are coming off the seniority list so the contraction is starting again.

The recruiting department has a goal of 800 pilots end of year agreed that target is in danger right now.

Classes of 20 lined up for the next couple months. People drop, they call people from the next month asking if they can start next week. Even with that, the class was short 1. So yes, it is true. You worn the uniform yet?

I saw a DEC in the crew room the other day... his eyes were wide open when he heard us talking... he really couldn't believe what is going on here.. and he thought he came from a bottom feeder..

The shenanigans here are terrible right now.

OP here

Just got an email from recruiting saying 2018 RTP is full. Going to schedule 2019 interviews this fall.

Unfortunately a huge part of my decision is based on RTP bonus to pay for training combined with the ability to train locally. I can’t afford to pay for housing at a flight school in another state or across the country. I live 30 minutes from Sky Warrior in Pensacola. PSA recruiting ghosted me because I missed an interview for a family emergency. Only other options are CommutAir and SkyWest but they are both 2 leg commutes. I’d rather be homeless than deal with a 2 leg commute...

I’ve been doing research for several months now and it looks like Piedmont is the only one that fits. PNS to CLT is an easy one leg commute. If I can get CLT that is.

What about ATL for sky west? Pretty sure ATL is junior on the CRJ side.

Oh yeah. Forgot SkyWest was in Atlanta. Hmmmm... another option to consider for sure. Unfortunately the SkyWest page is full of horror stories just like the rest. Making it really difficult to make a choice.

Take a lot of what you read on here with a grain of salt. Heck even if you read the Endeavor pages it’s mostly peole complaining about their situation.

Regionals stink hands down. I would go wherever the easiest commute is. So for you that sounds like PDT or Skywest. One thing I can say about piedmont vs Skywest is be prepared to sit in the training department for a very long time. So if your in a hurry to get building 121 time I would say Skywest. If the idea of sitting at home but still getting a pay check sounds good then choose piedmont.

I would almost guarantee everyone on this forum will tell you to go to Skywest and I bet everyone on the Skywest page tells you to go to piedmont. That’s the nature of the regionals. Everyone believes the grass is greener anywhere but where they are.

Just curious, have you actually started flying the line? I thought that a lot of the complaining on the forums about Piedmont couldn't be true. I came from another regional, and no this place is not like other regionals. We are far behind our peers on QOL and pay. Please name one other regional it takes 9 months to just hit the line.

Read my post and you’ll see I mentioned training takes forever here.

Also never said piedmont is great. However everyone has different needs. The OP need rotor transition money and a one leg commute. Only regionals that offer both for him are PDT and Skywest.

Since he won't shoot straight, I will do it for him.

No, he has never flown the line here at Piedmont. In fact, he hasn't worked for an airline in years.

In other words, he doesn't know the state of the industry first hand, and he certainly doesn't know the state of Piedmont. Take what you read on these forums with a grain of salt, especially when it comes from someone who has never experienced it for themselves.

Sooner is trying to convince himself he made the right decision by spreading falsehoods about this place. Can't believe we need to review this on a weekly basis.

You guys are hilarious.

You guys are going to be so bored when you can’t use that argument anymore.

But for now... never gets old

Enjoy it while you can. Running out of time.

Well you'll actually have worked a day as a Piedmont pilot, and will actually know how things work around here. So your opinion will change and it won't be necessary.

I give it three months of flying the line before you start singing a different tune my friend

I give it soe...

Exactly what tune am I singing? I told the OP to choose between Skywest and piedmont cause he needs the rotor program and an easy commute.

Are you telling him he should force himself into a 2 leg commute?

Pretty sure they are speaking in general with your extremely knowledgeable opinions of what it’s like working here, without actually working here.

Do you sleep in your cheerleader outfit or just wear it during the day?

I'm not sure the rtp program will return to pdt... it was extremely costly and there were several training failures. I think they have enough committed cadets now to keep the fo pipeline moving... recruiting really did a nice job with that.. but the need will be captains.. captain's... captain's...

We got some great people through the rtp though... I'm interested to see what happens..

You can. Everyone in my indoc that wanted it got it before systems even. Apparently it’s filled with short legs from old dash8 routes, so it’s not drawing a huge crowd.

I haven’t flown the line yet, but of the 8 captain upgrades in my systems class, none of them seem to think of Piedmont as negatively as it’s presented here. You gotta pick what’s best for you. It was the best choice for me for reasons similar to yours, rtp partner school nearby, and one leg commutable. Other regionals are no doubt better in some or many other aspects, especially pay and schedule, but I’m planning on getting my time and moving on. They know it too, and don’t seem to mind. Even at indoc when they were explaining benefits they didn’t go past 5 years because as the instructor said “by then if any of you are still here, it won’t be for long anyway”

You need to consider what if the economy takes a crap and you are here longer than “5” years... Piedmont is way behind the ball.

You also have to remember everyone is on their best behavior in the school house. You are under a microscope when upgrading, a negative (realistic) attitude wouldn't be the best idea for someone doing their first upgrade. So take that into account when they give their opinions.

By military standards, it’s a pretty easy gig. You know your schedule for a month at a time in advance so you can plan your commutes etc. People on the line treat you well and the company is accommodating when you have family issues you need to attend to in training or if something comes up on the line. You’ll fly a lot more in airline world than you will in .mil. There’s also a lot less bs to deal with compared to military life.

By airline standards, life at Piedmont is rough due to the schedule... 4-6 days on, 2-3 days off for a total of 11 days off a month to block 50- 75hours a month with cancellations, displacements etc. Junior FOs to Senior captains all get treated equally as the company uses extensions to cover gaps in mannig caused by training delays, and under accession etc.

Pay is below average. Unless you’re able to get triple premium pay which is few and far between on the FO side of the House. Triple premium is also decreasing on the captain side.

Flow is long. Significantly longer than the 5 years recruitment is advertising. PSA and Envoy both got flow increases but there’s no sign of an increase coming at Piedmont. Piedmont used to have the fastest flow of the three Wholly Owned regionals but without a flow increase that may no longer be the case. Using current attrition rates (8/ month avg over the last year including flow and OTS hires when AA takes flows roughly 10 months a year), withthe size of the pilot group, a new hire could be looking at around a 9 year flow... 12 years with zero outside attrition. That’s pushing Envoy flow timeline. At current expansion rates its 18 months or so until the next flow increase (to 7 per month) from getting a net gain of 125 additional folks on property.

If you get to Piedmont plan on working hard from the day you start flying the line until you leave. Plan on hitting the apps and job fairs hard after you’re off probation and take the next best offer you get. Don’t be one of these folks who leave $1-1.5mil in career earnings on the table because they’ve been on property a couple years and are competitive to leave but are content waiting 4-6 more years for the flow vs applying elsewhere.

As long as you’re willing to work hard and don’t expect strings of days off beyond 3 on a regular basis your transition to Piedmont will go pretty smoothly.

What could go wrong. Mainline unicorns farting jobs and dollars everyday. Riddle and recruiters say jobs for erybody.

Everyone thinks they somehow have the magic ticket out. Choose every job as if it is your last. It may be. PDT does however get you to mainline. Slowly but surely. If you can handle being beaten on everyday for 7 years. I mean Conan the barbarian wouldn’t be who he was without torture am I right?

Just to clarify Envoy didn’t get a flow increase. A grievance was settled making a harmed group while again.

I did just finish 24 years of active duty....

Why would you settle for crappy QOL? Tons of better options out there. Don't devalue yourself or your time.

PDT recruiters started calling the 70+ RTP applications lined up for interviews yesterday for 2019.

Interesting... thanks four the info.