planecrazyjenn

Well it's refreshing to see a few people who have a realistic view of what flying is about.

floyd78

Hey I'm 29 years old been flying for 10 years and have have had 2 different mini careers in computers. So I am just now getting to do what I set out to do...I can say this that I have both bad and good days no matter what. But I always smile when I get in the airplane no matter what

GreasySideUp

You all couldn't say it better- I can't see doing anything else. It's nice seeing someone out there agrees.

Any PDT'ers out there: anything to be aware of before looking further into the company? I'd appreciate any feedback you have regarding time spent there; the flying, people, scheduling, etc. I'd appreciate any info you have.

Thanks for the help so far and take it easy.

Dark Knight

and while we're on PDT topic, what are the "realistic hiring mins"?
i'm having trouble believing that any regional would hire someone with just a comm multi
i'm debating sending in an app..
thanks

LatePush

I worked for PDT for a while...and I'm not going flame anyone's choices in coming to PDT, but just do your due diligence before you get involved. I've flown 91, 135 and 121 and I love flying, too.

Flying for PDT made me not love flying. The contract is bad and violated like a woman of dubious character at a mining camp. FAR 121.471 is simply a suggestion in the eyes of this company, as a pilot you must constantly watch their manipulation of this reg and cya. AQP training will continue to be inept and inconsistently applied as long as the director is still Jay Keen (the devil's imp of corporate fellatio).

QOL, don't come here if you even think you're going "get home." Flying charter is way more fun. Not only that, if you're smart, charter 135 can leed to significant business contacts where great opportunities exist.

Equitable payrates and a fair contract , yeah, right.

New airplanes and scope clause, do I really need to explain?

Benefits, not even close. Ask yourself, "Is this place worthy of my sacrifices and be the good little soldier pilot and wishing things will work out?" LIFE is too short, methinks.

All of this is just my opinion and what I beleive to be true, good luck in finding your path,

LatePush

DMBinHBurg

I live near CHO so if I ever made the jump to a regional, PDT is my first choice. However, some of the things that hold me back besides pay is upgrade time. Is it still 7 years to upgrade? And how about the future, I've heard after 2009 they will get disolved and I've also heard Q400s could be on the way with more expansion. Any insight from PDT people?

mbaroni

I don’t know on the Turbo Jet versus Turbo Prop. But, it seems like we have pilots from PDT going to places like Southwest and Cathay without TJ. If you want to go to FedEx or UPS it might be a different story. Depends on where you want to go after PDT. Guy that went to Cathay wasn’t even a captain, and we’ve had several go to SW, so it wasn’t a one time deal.

Upgrade right now is just over six years. It won’t go down much unless we start losing pilots to US Airways. If 100 pilots go to US Airways in 2008 like PDT management says the upgrade will drop to three years, maybe lower. BUT, you can’t believe much of what they say.

Whether PDT will continue to park the fleet, I don’t know. It’s too hard to tell if management is lying to us or not. US Airways and PDT tell us they are going to buy replacement turbo props (either Q-400 or ATR), but again that’s if you believe what they are saying. Even if they order planes they say 18 months until we see them. Piedmont has parked airplanes because of lack of first officers, and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon. If PDT can’t get pilots I don’t see how they would get new aircraft.

Reserve is 10 days off a month. You’ll have 6 straight days of reserve followed by 2 days off and so on for the entire month. You will however have one stretch of 4 days off per month. Scheduling can’t change those 4 days, but they can change any other day off you have. So, any day you have off other than those 4 could be taken away from you at any point.

planecrazyjenn

I think I'd be hesitant jumping on to an airline that doesn't have it's near future figured out, then again...do any of them really know what's going on...

Flight1339

One thing I wouls like to add is that SYR wouldn't be a good choice for a base. I was supposed to be based there but I quickly transferred to MDT. The number of lines and airplanes overnighting in SYR are decreasing. I got awarded SYR in August and in the few months I was based there, I was always the most junior guy there. In MDT, however, I went right to a line. The last few base bids had no open slots in SYR. The basic consensus with the crews I've been flying with is that SYR is gonna get closed down soon.

EWN is a senior base with not a whole lot of movement so plan on sitting reserve for a while if you bid for it. Hope that helps.

planecrazyjenn

Ouch well maybe I'll reconsider the airline thing for now then. Where are all the new hires going?