Colgan contract?
 

If/when we get some sort of contract, what do you want to see in it? Obviously more pay, but what else?

I don't know exactly what can be covered by a pilot contract, so some of my list may not be possible, but thats somewhat why I want to get other people's ideas...

I'd like to see per-diem for all TAFB, not just if you overnight. I understand this has to be taxed, but it'd be better than nothing. I'm sick of PBJ sandwiches and other assorted cold food.

Also, some sort of clause that will hold maintenance to a higher standard. "Ops check good" doesn't fix problems. Their definition of "good" and ours seems to vary by a large margin. Also, I think that there needs to be some limit to how many MEL'd and deferred items can be on any one bird. One of the planes I recently flew had 5 significant things broken, and it had just come from HEF. If this is how our planes LEAVE our maintenance base, something's wrong.

I would like to see at least a 2 hour call out on reserve. Making it to the crew room in Houston is longer than a 1 hour affair.

Remember guys vote yes starting tomorrow, no union = no contract. We all are a great group of hard working pilots and while it's unfortunate that we have to be in this position it's time to make a change.

"Colgan, simply the best"

is now

"Colgan, We just want more rest"

Show Irene the door and let it hit her on the way out. Cabin pressurization should not be an MEL.

I've got class starting on the 13th... too excited to sleep most nights... any heads up?

Prettier flight attendants.

Pressurization an MEL??

Jeez why dont they fix that kinda stuff it not like they aren't making money.

Is this on the 1900s or the 340???

i hate my job
 

haha. Just the pressurization? Ive seen 11 MELs at once.. what about yall? Press, Air conditioning, push to talk switch, and my favorite- the auto briefer!! Just to name a few.

Contract? Shut the damn place down.

Get rid of all the crew schedulers (even Leroy) and start fresh.

But really, we need 14 hr days. We cant be doing part 91 flights after the 14hrs either. Maybe a limit on legs a day? Because 10 just sucks. Maybe no part 91 flying after 8 hrs of 121 flying? NO being drafted. Just no. Let the guys who want to work pick up open time. This way, they have to staff reserves.. almost like a real airline.

618FT... if i may offer a heads up. Quit. Quit right now.

How about saying in the contract they ar not allowed to go into Crew Trac and change times to make you legal for some BS ferry flight, or stupid ALB-LGA turn :( Oh wait thats illegal, why would that need to be in the contract ;)

"are you sure the times are right for today? I mean we only need 15 more minutes to make this flight legal..why dont you check your logbook again.. and maybe we can drop that reserve day on sunday"

or how about me saying, "hey i dont think thats legal, because of the 7 day issue" and then "oh dont worry, we can fix that"

Then refuse to fly it.. thats always a treat!

Don't tell me this happened to you and you didn't have somebody hung for it?

Maybe I just haven't been in the right place at the right time yet, because I haven't heard of anything nearly as bad as you guys claim...

It happens, when CS gets desperate to fill seats it's their @ss if they don't find someone, sometimes they do what they feel they have to do legal or not

I think the pilots who accept the illegal trip are as much to blame for that. It's like laughing at a childs bad behavior. Don't encourage it.

Haha I've talked to a bunch of guys that love it after several years... I guess it's what you make of it and where you're based. If you don't like it, why not move. Doesn't sound like a fun time in the 1900 crowd either though. I'm doing the 340... and nobody can make you do an illegal flight... tell them NO and stand by it... I hope you don't get pushed around like that with everything in your lives. Telling people to stay away isn't helping the situation as far as getting more pilots onboard to help out. I can't say I've ever heard of a place where someone wasn't complaining... seems to be an awful lot of people complaining everywhere with every airline or flight school and very few that are willing to step up to the plate and help fix it. Why can't we work together constructively here? Why is everyone else but management getting these complaints? I think it has to do with the superiority complexes you meet in aviation... everyone thinks they're better than that place and even if that's true, it doesn't make the situation better... it's not a perfect world... cut the guys some freakin' slack for giving you the chance to fly something bigger than a 172. A pilot uniform is a pilot uniform when you walk into a bar to pick up some girls lol... I'm grateful that I can work for any airline right now with the hours I have. I was dreading instructing for another 2k hours just to beg for an FO spot on something 1/2 decent. I'm 22, healthy, full of energy, and I want to fly my butt off in anything with 2 or more engines. I already work and do school 7 days a week... and I love every minute of staying busy and being worn out and trying to get pushed around by people... 20 years from now, I might think differently... but until then, whatever goes. However... if conditions improve, they improve :)

You are right, but what does that say about a companies corporate culture?

That is why you have to keep your guard up. I have flown with several FO's who don't truly understand FAA rest regs, thus get themselves into these situations. Sometimes I wonder if they just skip that section in training.

Jesus these two quotes say it all, Give COLGAN some slack becuase they "let" you fly something bigger than a 172, thats the mentality that is allowing them to abuse you............... They dont let you do anything!!!!!!!!!!!, they need you not vice versa:mad:


Whatever happens happens...................??????dont tell me I wasted my time with other ALPA pilots in LGA supporting you guys if this is the mentality of the pilots over there


PS maybe its because your 22 and in reality still a kid, but this is not a hobby or a game, the point is to make money for you and your family, not to tell your buddies you went to ATP with that you fly something bigger than a 172, I fly a EMB-145, its bigger than your SAAB, and my buddy flies a EMB-170..............its bigger than the 145, chances are there will always be an airplane bigger than yours................

No, just the mentality of the trainees. My class was drinking the kool-aid at first, too, but it doesn't take long to come back from the dark side. So far I have only heard of one or two that are not pro-ALPA, and they are just indifferent, not against. Let them get away from the controlled training environment for a while... they'll come around.

Saab,

He'll come around, they always do. It just takes some experience.

Thanks for taking your own personal time to support our efforts to bring the pilots together. You know first hand we have a great bunch of guys/gals here who work hard to accomplish a lot with very little. let's keep working hard, but let's have a say in decisions that will affect our lives. Let's know when a base is going to close beforehand, let's have some accountability on the company to pay us the correct amount. Let's have someone to support us when we have to deal with shady CSers.

Colgan pilots,

"Work hard, play hard, stay hard"

and

"Let's make it better"



"Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything."

I second that... I met some great guys from XJT and CAL that spent some of their down time to talk with us and answer questions. I greatly appreciate it, guys, as I am new enough to not know exactly how this all works, but observant enough to know that we most definitely need a number of things to change, and it's not going to happen unless we all come together on it.

Remember to vote. Ballots in the mail, if not received by Aug. 6 go to www.alpa.org/colgan for intructions to request a duplicate ballot. Remind everyone to vote, every vote is a message that needs to be delivered.

I never said I was against ALPA... I'm all for the bettering of the pilots and overall practices at Colgan however that may be -- but even from all the unionized airlines, you hear "horror" stories... it's all relative and there are whiners at ever level nomatter how bad or how good it gets. I'm not saying that I support the conditions or things that go on there -- and whatever can be done to make it better for everyone should be done. The issue I tried to bring up is that everyone just whines and badmouths everyone else but themselves. I'm not the type to sit and complain and just disparage a place. When there's an issue, I take care of it or talk to people that have the power to take care of it. Again, that message was not directed towards the efforts put in by ALPA and everyone that's looking out for the pilots... those efforts are very much appreciated by everyone whether they actively support it or not... it's for the whiners that need to direct their energy towards something more productive.

I don't know where you guys did your training at, but where I did mine, when anyone got hired at any airline, someone would ALWAYS say something bad about that airline. EVERYONE on the outside gets these stories and have skewed and misleading conceptions about a place. Instead of hearing "Oh, Colgan (or any airline) has it faults because this this and this... but ALPA's working hard to negotiate a contract that will fix these things..." you end up hearing "Oh I hear horror stories out of there... don't go there your face will melt and you'll spontaneously combust and be miserable for the next 75 years."

I don't think anyone implied you were against ALPA. Your right, people should direct their energy towards making things better which is what we are trying to do. Just FYI though, going to people in the company to fix things doesn't work here, been there done that. I still have 5 emails from December that have yet to have a response and 2 voicemails from Feb. Just letting you know what to expect. I just call a spade a spade.

Wow though... that first post came across all wrong like I don't care -- I definitely do. I was making some exaggerated generalizations to prove a useless point lol. I do realize that they NEED us... especially with shortages... but it wasn't always like that. I'm thankful that the times have changed. I remember struggling to find a CFI spot over a year ago that paid more than $10 an hour. Everyone at my school was a pilot... everyone in my area was a pilot... Florida was leaking at the seams with qualified pilots. My CFI instructor at the time had 2k/250 and was barely able to find a spot at a regional.

Either way... back at the point here... when does voting end?

Votes End August 21st I think.

I'm waiting for my PIN and VIN to come in the mail so I can vote. It's like waiting for Christmas morning. Have any of you guys received your numbers yet??

I havent yet...anticipating it though!

nothing yet here either...

:rolleyes:Hopefully they will start arriving friday,saturday and monday. Get your dialing finger ready


Make sure if you don't have anything by next week, go to www.alpa.org/colgan to get a duplicate ballot from the NMB.

That's funny Sh$t

Haha, I heard a 1900 pilot using a handheld one time probably because of a push to talk switch. Sounded funny:D

lol, this picture somes it all up:

Attachment 1032

I just Deadheaded on you guys and the F/A was on IOE or whatever they call it, she was cute, I told her she should of come to XJT, she said she had already tried :( for whatever reason we didnt hire her, yet I am flying with newer F/A's that dont do services on 1hr flights, cause they are 400lbs and lazy :(

Let me guess, 210? They still haven't fixed it?

awesome picture dude. I had 4 red lights today. Beat that. It's like a sim session every day at Colgan!
Anyone else get tired of seeing "Ops Check- OK" in the maintenance log?
I like the 5 day airworthiness checks that take under 5 minutes- including the time filling out the log.

You think that's funny? Watch us punch the windows in the cockpit to get the thing the pressurize. Had a jumpseater talk to us on a handheld from the back once.
Or if you really want to laugh.. just look at the plane.

No matter how bad us Saab guys think we have it, the Beeches have gone through twice as much. There are definately some things that need changing around here, but all in all I think I have it pretty good here. It really just depends on the individuals situation.

I feel for you batman, i couldn't put up with thats stuff as along as you have.

Thanks, and it's not fun. I don't know if I want to upgrade in Dec or go to XJT now. You're right, I'm pretty much at the breaking point at the end of this month. It's hard to keep the big picture in sight when it sucks this much right now.

I'll be jumpseating with y'all tomorrow morning if I make it to IAH on time. If I can get the direct from Dulles, that's only a 4 leg commute for me tomorrow ;)

I feel for you guys, I have some other pals that left COlgan that I run into here at XJT.......man the stories are endless, I have a buddy that was hired before me and the people he had initial class with still have yet to upgrade, so the upgrades aren't that quick there, and here they have been around 2.5 years, PIC time is nice but its not coming all that quicky at Colgan. As a CAPT here you can make way more money than Colgan, same as an F/O here, not to mention QOL etc.................... I dont know the longer you stay there the harder it is to leave, if you dont live in a base there I think anyone is crazy to stay there, if you live in base and are truly home everynight thats one thing, but even then...........I dunno, just hope you can get your PIC and get out, I flew with a lot of bitter guys there that have been trying to leave and for whatever reason cant leave, they are 40yrs old making 50k with terrible QOL......I know I am going into one of my rants but I cant help it, I am just trying to give some new people a heads up............:D