Freedom
 

Freedom operates under Mesa, right? Is life so bad here? If one was hired by Mesa, how difficult is it to get MCO?

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. I don't know...but I will give you the finger every time I commute. :D

If you are hired by mesa, they will assign you an aircraft that suites their needs...you will be equipment locked for life (until you can upgrade into the CRJ...you will never be allowed to transition as an FO like you can at other airlines). If you are assigned the CRJ you will never, ever be able to bid the ERJ.

Your equipment determines your domicile:

D-8: PHX, COS, DEN
ERJ: MCO, ATL, JFK (expect JFK)
CRJ: IAD, ORD, CLT, PHX, Hawaii (expect IAD).

Much appreciated. Great way to start the day! lol

So what I'm hearing is: Even if you have to commute for a different airline, it is far better than hooking on with Mesa and living in base? Man, you'd think management would realize that they are driving their pilots away and start doing things differently.

Mesa management is the best a driving their pilots away. People are starting to learn before going to Mesa. That is all we can hope for. Who knows, maybe they will get a better contract. Oh, I am sorry, I just got back to reality.

Yes, better to commute.

Mesa management appears to be functioning in a delusional fantasy-land. Part of their problem is that their middle-managers (like most mesa employees) are worthless incompetents who are too spineless to tell the top bosses anything they don't want to hear. I'm not sure that JO realizes exactly how much deep do-do he's in now that the bottomless pilot-well has run dry. By the time they figure it out it will be too late.

I think mesa's current business plan is to hope like hell for another 9/11 event that will solve their pilot shortage. If you think I'm kidding about this, you have obviously never worked at mesa.

SharkyN584......you dont want to make that mistake and flick me off while your commuting...trust me!

Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh! :rolleyes:

Okay guys. Before things get out of hand, everyone cool down. Please, keep it civil and respectful.

Don't worry about it...if you were actually light enough to actually get "flicked" off, it was probably unsafe of you to be on the airplane anyway.

if you fly for freedom, i'm sure you're used to getting the finger by now

or if your just a low life that has nothing better to do....and wants to kiss his captains ass and make him laugh!

Hey sharky... plenty of Chautauqua guys commute in on my flights... would you like me to start denying them for ya???

I am sure he was kidding. Did you notice the :D after what he said?

Priceless, considering people trust you with their life in your hands!

So what does ":D" mean? Is that now the universal symbol for "Take what I just said completely seriously"?! Or did everyone forget the Comair Finger thread so it's not funny at all anymore.

P.S. - I don't commute on Freedom...I'll give you the finger from 21A on Southwest though!

so whats with the animosity towards the Freedom pilots? I thought he was just joking around. I flick off my friends on the road all the time...and if they flick me off...well then they get about a dozen pennies lobbed at their windshield. :D

I was joking. But at the same time, MCO was our biggest and most popular base. A lot of guys here now commute since Freedom took over almost all the flying outta MCO (we still do a couple flights). Lets just say not everyone is all warm and fuzzy about that...pilots, gate agents, and rampers alike.

And then we all sit and "flick off" the pennies at each other...

cause you guys didn't pick up that MCO flying from another well known delta connection carrier...

get used to the fact that all of our managements switch our flying around all the time. Ask all the Freedom MCO guys if they'd like to go back to CLT?!?! or even DCA (which you guys do now too)

never take out your aggression to the pilots... we are all in the same sinking canoe. The managements are the problem... which Mesa is trying desperately to fix...

PS i have never met a bad chautauqua crew, everyone has been awesome down there.

Mesa pilots are also a problem for staying there and taking that reaming that you receive daily.

What he said...

So what is keeping you at Chautauqua?? Shouldn't you have left for Comair a long time ago?!?!

Ya know what dude, this is the most ignorant thing I have seen posted on this thread so far. Do your freakin homework before you insult me or my pilot group. Year to July, Mesa has lost 450 pilots, roughly half of whom are junior FO's making lateral moves. Since July, my global # has gone from 800 (July 3rd) to 780 (today, Sept 5). Those are the guys and gals senior to me moving on... I don't have the official numbers for the junior ones for that time frame.

Its telling that you can judge an entire group of professionals with the wave of your hand. Very pretentious. Must be nice to live in the lap of luxury over there at fantasy-land airlines or whatever make believe operation you work for.

:mad:

(Oh, and for the record this "smiley-face" means ****sed off)

what he said...

So let me get this straight...You work for a company you know has terrible work rules and treats their employees like crap. You know that half of all the people that walk through the door get in and make a lateral move as soon as they can. Finally, you know that your company will still break the crappy contract you had to accept to get the Alter-Ego Freedom on to your list. Yet...knowing all this you still went to work there and are surprised at the criticism?

Well, at the time I got on with Mesa nobody else was really hiring. It was post 9-11 and it was a different time then- we all had seen our careers go up in smoke over the Pentagon and the Twin Towers. United, Northwest and Delta all came crashing down too. The economy was in the post dot-com depression. So yea, I took the job when they offered- I had dropped too much of my own cash and that of my parents into the career to just fade away into the shadows (I finished the Commercial Multi about a week before the attack). In all honesty, I was probably not good enough nor was I experienced enough to get on with Skywest at the time either... So yea, I took the job when they offered.

Today, the market is wide open- in a year it is going to be desperation city. In fact, PSA I just heard is preventing J4J guys from going back to mainline because they can't keep their aircraft staffed. They are parking planes. Mesa will be doing the same soon in my prediction.
...
But I still say your criticism of the PILOT GROUP does not hold water- Mesa will pay 18-20 MILLION to replace the pilots it has lost this year (1000/hour in the sim with 40 hours total training time- and that is IF they don't need extra lessons, and I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that new-hires are taking an average of 12 or more lessons to get through). So, the best way to hurt Mesa is to get hired here, ride out 6 months to a year getting experience, and then make a lateral move to a better regional.

Walk a mile in my shoes dude. I doubt you have a clue what it is like to work at this hell hole. I have been fairly sheltered from it- ORD, IAD and JFK are a total MESS, and we don't really get pay protected. So yea, I get defensive when somebody out there makes a shallow statement about my pilot brothers and sisters. We work hard here at Mesa, and we get walked over all the time. Our contract is up soon- if you want to be part of the problem, keep on slinging mud at us and HELP management drive us down. You want to get on the bus? When you hear of a Mesa picket line come out and join us. You see a Mesa pilot in the terminal? Say "Hi", flash a smile and give us some dang support.

Hey Sport, what part of no pay protection, 25 hour over nights, 4:55min scheduled sits (so they don't have to get you a room) among many various contract violations make this such a great place for you to be critical of anyone else?

ERJ Nice reply - I totally get it.

You are so right about not kicking a dog when they are down.

If Mesa folded there would be a glut of pilots for a while... would that not slow the industry hiring for a while?

Keep at it.

First, you wouldn't want me to walk a mile in your shoes because then I'd be a mile away...with your shoes. But all kidding aside:

The only thing I said about Mesa pilots was to agree with the guy who said they are the problem for staying there and continuing to get abused. You said the best way to hurt Mesa is to leave...if you hate your company so much, why are you still there? Everything else I said was about how FREEDOM (the company) took the flying in MCO.

P.S. - 9/11 was terrible, but it screwed everyone, not just you.

Yea, 9-11 really really sucked for a lot of people, not just me. My story is a little blip on the standby radar in the back room. But you are right- I need my shoes! Especially in PHX where it is so hot your shoes will melt on the tarmac... :eek: I am hoping to leave soon. I will be a LAMA (life after mesa airlines) Got a couple of bites I need to get onto the hook there. You movin' on soon? Good luck if you are! Lots of places hiring these days... chose carefully as I am sure you will. For instance, I don't see how NWA is going to get new peeps to fly for them...

MESA: Management-Encouraged Severe Attrition

:D