Straight off the press

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070405/20070405005534.html?.v=1

I seems the timing is perfect with Pinnacle getting ready to lose 17 CRJ because of pilot negotiations. Any thoughts...

 

Is that a Tuskegee(Sp?) Airmen??????????? in your Avatar....................amazing stuff

 

Yeah...gotta love those guys!!!

 

SAAB. . . and PAST V1, you gotta check your history. That's not a WWII airplane in the background; it's WWI. Tuskegee Airmen flew P-51s in WWII. The gentlement is wearing a French uniform.

He was born Eugene Jacques Bullard in Columbus, Georgia, in the United States. His father was known as "Big Chief Ox" and his mother was a Creek Indian; together, they had ten children. Bullard stowed away on a ship bound for Scotland to escape racial discrimination (he later claimed to have had witnessed his father's narrow escape from lynching as a child).
While in the United Kingdom he worked as a boxer and also worked in a music hall. On a trip to Paris he decided to stay and joined the French Foreign Legion upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Wounded in the 1916 battles around Verdun and awarded the Croix de Guerre, Bullard transferred to the Lafayette Flying Corps in the French Aéronautique Militaire and was eventually assigned to 93 Spad Squadron on 27 August 1917, where he flew some 20 missions and is thought to have shot down two enemy aircraft.


READ : http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/a...aletteeng.html for a really interesting story.

 

I see that degree worked well for SAAB.
Good 'ol Rutgers.

 

From the horses mouth:


John Bendoraitis, Compass executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the Compass jets will serve cities out of the Twin Cities, Detroit and Memphis hubs.

The Embraer 175 has a range of nearly 1,700 miles, and Northwest management will decide which routes will be served by it.

The new jets to be flown by Compass, as well as 76-seat Canadair Regional Jets that will be operated by Mesaba Airlines, are expected to fill a gap in Northwest's fleet. Northwest wanted to acquire 76-seat regional jets to meet flight needs that fall between the 50-seat regional jets and 100-seat DC-9s.

Bendoraitis said Compass has hired 10 pilots to fly one 50-seat jet in the early months of the company's operations. He estimated that Compass will need to hire about 350 pilots to operate the 36 Embraer jets. They'll be hired under pay rates negotiated by the Northwest branch of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) during concessionary bargaining last year.

Bendoraitis acknowledged there is a tight market for regional pilots. Some pilots are being hired by large carriers, some are jumping to other regional airlines for better pay and some are leaving the profession.

Pay rates, retirements and job security all have been affected adversely in the pilot profession, said Northwest pilot negotiator Ron Barnett. "Quite honestly, I think there is a looming pilot shortage for the right seat [co-pilot] at regional airlines."

 

I know there were some interviews done this week at Compass. Anyone want to comment on how they went or any of the particulars of what went on why they were up there in MSP?

 

I believe they (Compass) are using part of Mesaba's training center for interviews. RJ85FO and XJSAAB spend a lot of time in the building. Compass rumors or fact ???????????.

 

whoops....................yeah ahhhhhhhhhh I was just testing you guys.........................you passed

 

Northwest pilots really blew it on their scope!! Here is a picture of an EMB-175.


There is no way that thing is a regional jet. Continental (50 seats max), American (70 seat max, limited # of 70 seaters), and United (70 seats max) are somewhat holding the line. Delta, Northwest, and US Air... I just really hope they get it together when their contract becomes ammendable. 70 seats max at a regional. This is destroying the pilot profession more than anything else I can identify!!