I too have an interview coming up soon. Had no idea they had 767s!
Ah I hope I do well, ground school sounds like a lot of hard work, but I expect to give it my best shot and see how it goes...

 

Piedmont loses 3 airplanes this year (one might have retired a few days ago not sure on the exact date). Really think about the impact of this before deciding what regional to work for. That is 15 captain slots just disappearing further lengthening your upgrade time. There seems to be no indication of getting planes in the future (management says they are looking but supposedly can never find anything). We will be down to 41 airplanes (Nearly half the size as when PDT and Allegheny merged).

We did sign a new contract some of it is being implemented in April the rest in May (supposedly). Positives include: Increase in min day to 11, increase in guarantee to 75hrs from 72hrs, per diem will be around $1.70 and reserves are now pay protected when extended on their last day.

Schedules have been working people hard...breakout seems to be one line with 15/14 days off a few with 14/13 the rest with 12 or 11(minimum now) and all somewhere around 88hrs credit/block. There are trips built with less than 10hr overnights, there are trips built with 7&8 operating legs. Average three day is 6legs--12hr overnight, 2 legs or 4 legs --16hr overnight, and then 4/6 legs on the last day to pay around 14hrs. Most days off are grouped into blocks of 2 days. This makes it EXTREMELY tough to commute. We are short on pilots and seem to be having a hard time getting people to come to class (our contract is mediocre, we are losing 3 airplanes, we are not offering a $10,000 signing bonus). What this means for new hires is that you will be used to legal limits, and probably not efficiently (a lot of deadheading due to outstation bases).
No one knows for sure what bases will be open for bids once you get out of training. They usually do not open slots in every base. I would say you have a fairly good shot at getting ROA because it seems like they open at least one slot there every new hire bid.

The training is very difficult and the biggest problem with it is inconsistency. Groundschool was not that bad. Listen well and take a lot of notes, because the systems guide they give new hires is extremely watered down. I had to add copious notes from instructors to make sure I had all the numbers needed for the exams. Our manuals still have many typos and errors that can make some of the more nit-picky/specific questions difficult to answer. But overall, out of 12 everyone in my class made it through groundschool.
The sim is another story. You do not have one assigned sim time each day. Your slot during training could be at 6 in the morning one day and then 6 in the evening the next or vice versa. This makes it difficult to 1)get a good nights rest and 2)make sure you have adequate time to prepare for the next lesson. During my initial training I had 5 different instructors for my sim lessons. That means every other session was with a new instructor. I would leave many lessons frustrated because I would be criticized by one instructor for doing a task the way my previous instructor told me to do it. There is a definite lack of standardization (at least when I was hired) Talk about frustrating. Just like any place, there are instructors who are better than others, and they all have their own methods of instructing. That is my objective critique from my own experience, I'll try to stay away from opinions.

The company is now offering a $150 referral bonus to employees who recommend a friend to come to Piedmont so be careful of anything that sounds "too good to be true." A few years ago I would have absolutely recommended people to come here if they had low time: 121 experience, in busy airspace, icing and weather make it hard for you to leave Piedmont without becoming a better pilot. It was a great place to get in, build some hours and move on to greener pastures. However, now that every regional requires an ATP, it is hard for me to recommend people to come here when they can go somewhere flying jets and at the same time collect $5,000 to $10,000 signing bonuses.

 

Good info, thanks

 

No way their buying Empire. What would Piedmont want with a bunch of F-28s and a SYR base!

 

Just did some photoshoppin! Could you imagine? Crazy talk

 

I still say no. Better chance AA buys TWA. Prolly close the STL hub too.

 

Does anyone know anything about this interview program with U.S. Airways?

 

Right now 25% of all new hires at mainline have to come from PDT.

A person actually has to start class to count towards the 25%

However, if you come to PDT or Upgrade to captain you cannot interview at mainline for 12 months

 

There still seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around about this hiring agreement.

US Airways must offer jobs to the lesser of: 25% of total new hire positions during a calendar year, or 3 of our pilots for each month they hire. i.e, if they hire 60 in one month, and 0 in all other months for the calendar year, they only have to offer 3 positions to our pilots, not 15.

Also, the amount drops to the lesser of 25% or 2 pilots per month US Airways hires in 2016 and 2017. After that, our contract is amendable, and the agreement is over until it is re-negotiated.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but all I can go off of is the wording in the new contract. The only wording I am aware of is US Airways must OFFER said number of positions. I would take this to mean if they offer Pilot Joe a new hire position, and he decides to ditch class for United, US Airways may use that offer towards meeting their commitment. This only makes sense, as I don't see why they should have to go out of their way to accommodate our guys not taking what is offered to them.

If US Airways hires more than 144 pilots spread out over 12 calendar months continuously for the entire duration of this agreement, realistically, I see 36 of our guys getting offers for 2013-2015. Then, in 2016-2017, 24 of our guys per year getting offers. I wouldn't expect to see more than 156 of our guys total getting offers if Piedmont is still around through 2017. That is still a decent amount of pilots, but much different than saying a straight 25%. That number would be much higher, and inaccurate.

 

It says the agreement is fulfilled when the pilot starts training.