Mesaba Street Captains
 

Just want some info from those of you who work at mesaba about the street captains. I know they are hiring for the Saab, but what base would it be for? Any chance of getting MSP as a new hire. Are they realy short on captain? I know you would be on reserve, but would you fly at all or just get like 12 hours a month. Any info helps thanks. Also has anyone interviewed for a captains position? any gouge on the interview.

I know we are advertising for them, but as of yet there has been no need. I think the company is anticipating need in the future. Yes, Saab and either DTW or MEM. MSP is possible, although remote. DTW is the junior base now, but MEM will be again come spring as the CR9's start to deliver there and senior SF3 captains make the jump to the jet.

Hard to even speculate on how much you will fly.

It's all too new for any of us to know what it will be like. It's all just speculation for now.

Does anyone have anyidea of what kind of time a month current reserve captains are flying now?

Most every day on reserve. How much a day? Depends. But like others have said, current usage doesn't always mean future... with how much change is happening right now, it's anybody's guess.

I am just wondering how much flight time a captain on reserve got last month just for an idea?

i was thinkin about applying too because apparently upgrades at colgan are going a lot slower than anticipated due to sim time, any idea what the competetive times for being hired would be and anyone actually go through it?

yea but youd hate life for a long time because every FO to upgrade after you for the next year or two will be senior to you. how are are you from upgrading at colgan it cant be that long...

it might be like 6 months now, i know someone who was scheduled for a class next month and they pushed it back till jan, and the other thing is yeah i'd be junior but i'd be at a better company with alpa and i just get this sinking feeling about things that are going on here at colgan

Not sure what will end up being competative. From what I have heard though, we are getting many highly qualified applicants from several places. I think anyone coming here with time on the Saab, stands as good of a chance as any. Familiarity with the actual aircraft is worth a lot in a position like this.

Some thoughts on Street Captain questions:

It really doesn't matter if you get hired on as an FO or a Street Captain. If you have the ATP mins, and the Captain awards are going so junior as to necessitate hiring Street Captains, you will get the Captain upgrade anyway, even if you are hired as an FO. The only difference would be how soon you get paid Captain pay. I do not know when you earn the Captain pay as a Street Captain. Our contract protects seniority, so a Street Captain won't get any jump whatsoever on the seniority list.

Here are some considerations:

Hiring a Street Captain saves the company a lot of money for training, and does not deplete the supply of FO's, which is going to be an issue, if it isn't already. If you are hired as an FO, and enter FO training, and then are awarded Captain one or two months later, you have to start all over again in Captain class, which is essentially the exact same thing, but the FAA requires the full course anyway. Street CA's just take the Captain course right from the start.

This could lead to the possible bypassing of Saab FO's for upgrade. As it is, Jet FO's are being bypassed for Saab CA spots because the company needs Jet FO's, and also needs to get some value out of the expensive Jet training.

If you are an FO, and have the upgrade mins (ATP mins, no more, no less) and the seniority (as little as 2 months from hire, soon to probably be less), you MUST be awarded the Captain spot in the vacancy. However, you could end up bypassed, which essentially means: You will start receiving CA pay 8 weeks after the start of the class for which you were bypassed, even as you fly as an FO. Therefore, a bypassed FO will start earning $43/hr, not too bad for a year one regional FO. Remember, this is only if you had the upgrade mins and seniority to by awarded CA, and BID Captain on your preference bid, but were bypassed.

You will know if you were bypassed because you will be listed as such on the vacancy award.

Furthermore, you must enter class to become a Captain after 120 days of being bypassed. There are a few minor loopholes, but this is essentially the case.

So, Mesaba would be a good place to come if you have ATP mins right now, as even if you end up bypassed, you will still make decent first year FO pay, as long as the Captain awards remain junior, which it seems they will. It won't matter if you are on the Jet or the Saab, as long as your preference bid shows that you wish to be a Saab Captain in the junior base.

Furthermore, it won't really matter too much if you come on as an FO (with ATP mins) or a Street Captain, as long as you don't mind a small delay in the pay, and a possible slight delay before you start logging those PIC hours.

thanks for the info very helpfull i think i might put my stuff in tomorrow, just curious on the commuting clause that mesaba has thanks

Yeah Mesaba is a MUCH better company that Colgan you'll find.

sarcasam???

No I am serious. Mesaba is a much better ALPA company.

If hired as a street CA, how long until you could hold MSP?

Hard for me to say but I do know MSP is the most senior of all the domiciles.

Quite a long time. Consider that if you do go street CA, you will remain on the bottom of the CA seniority list for some time as the FO's who are more senior to you upgrade. MSP is the senior base.

52 Hrs last month is what I got on reserve. 1st month as captain and this month on high speeds then next month line? Don't plan on this for upgrade I was on the buble as far as upgrades as I was one of those 7 year MSP FO's and was my first chance to upgrade to MSP. Currently 2005 roughly to hold MSP sf3 capt but when the 200 takes off in msp all bases may end up being the same for upgrades for a while.

Thanks for the info thats what I was wondering.

Thanks to all the Mesaba guys for the great info I have a few more questions for you. Do you have ready reserve, or hot reserve? What is your normal reserve call out time? Do you have a long call reserve? Is there a seat lock time period after training? and is the a training contract there?

There is a provision for ready reserve, but it is not used for pilots currently. Normal reserve call out is 1.5 hours to report. Then, in domicile you have another hour to get yourself flight ready and be on the flight deck 20 minutes prior to departure...effectively, you have 2:10 to get to the airplane from the time you are called.

Seat lock is 24 months. If you come in as a Saab captain, you will remain there for 24 months. Yes there is a contract. I don't know what the terms will be for a street captain though.

What are the training contract terms for an FO?

12 month contract for $12,000 on a sliding scale.

So Mesaba makes you sign a training contract? What's the term for CA's?

BTW I don't quite understand this "seat lock" deal, can someone explain what that is? Does it mean that you have to be a Saab Captain for 24 months?

If you bid to be a Saab captain and are awarded it then even if you could hold CRJ captain (200 or 900) you are not eligible for the position for 24months. You are "seat locked" into your CA position for 2 years.

IE - You are awarded Saab CA in Nov 07, you would then be eligible for CA on another aircraft in Nov 09, assuming your seniority could hold it. This keeps down training costs as pilots are unable to switch aircraft as often as they might be.

The talk about the "seat lock" being released or shortened is because it is possible when Mesaba aquires as many aircraft as they plan to that they will not have enough Saab captains who have been captains for more than 2 years eligible to bid to the CRJ. They would then have to shorten the seat lock, eliminate it, hire street captains for the jet, or upgrade lower seniority FOs into these positions.

Now a question for those in the know, if a seat locked captain were bypassed for a jet postion are they owed this "bypass pay" that people have spoken of before that kicks in 8 weeks after the bypass??? I'm not familiar with that specification.

The above statement is either a really new development or just plain wrong...

At Compass - yes (Many have avoided signing.)

At Mesaba - ???? must be something new.

Any newhires that signed one ??????

Very new, havent signed one. I asked around to a few of the guys in my class and they havent signed one either.

If I read the pilot contract right, Mesaba is authorized to contract us up to $15k pro rated, but as far as I am aware there is no contract.

No one in my class as far as Im aware had to sign one so this must be either new or whoever wrote this requirement is plain wrong.

I think street hire CA for jets is not going to happen or for that matter upgrading lower seniority FOs into jets as there are many senior CAs and FOs waiting to upgrade into jets. As a matter of fact, many senior FOs in Saabs have elected to wait to upgrade into jets and have not upgraded into Saab CA. So there is no shortage of pilots waiting to upgrade into jets. Street hire CAs will all be into Saabs.

It is very likely seat lock will go away as Mesaba gets more jets since People will need to upgrade into jets by seniority as this is the only method that will not create conflict among pilots.

Seat locks are released as needed to avoid hiring steet captains. For saab captain positions this is only holding back a handful of people but for the jet there are probably at least a hundred (mostly saab captains) that would be held back to bid to jet captain. So street saab captain likely, street jet captain not likely.

Yes there is a contract however it is 10G's for saab....no idea on the jet. The contract I believe states that if street captains are hired, then the seat lock for the captain thing is eliminated. Also if there is a jet captain hired off the street, then everyone that could hold that position (seniority wise) must be paid that same rate (even if they are flying the SLAAB) I disagree with the 12G quote, sorry NS.

You signed one, just probably didnt realize it....one more reason to pay attention

Uhh...I pay attention.

I didn't sign one and I just got done with the training department.

If they did institute a training contract I think it'd be a pretty big deal.

Are you sure you aren't confusing conversation about our ALPA contract with management regarding training matters with a 'training contract'?

I could see how one could get confused... and no offense Sigep but you seem confused because you mentioned a $10k 'training contract' in the same breath as our ALPA contract regarding seniority protection (prerequisites to direct entry captains). These would be two totally seperate items.

Edit: I just realized we're on the same team Sigep, when I wrote this I was thinking you were another outsider acting like they know everything about another company. So..that explains the tone...that and the fact thats its 3:30am on a bar night:-)

You signed it because I did, and no I am not confused, but welcome aboard, and if you didnt sign it we have a big problem coming up pretty soon. It was probably part of your initial hire package, not something you had to agree with during new hire classes, but anyways ALPA (hope you enjoyed the pizza and the free lanyard) and MGNT are different (pass on the Kool Aid, it is tasty but makes you lose all sense of judgement, i think you know which lanyard to wear), but yes XJ has a training contract, and my conversation is directed at two different audiences, hope you get MSP soon or DTW, ask them what is going on and dont F-up

Im quite sure I didn't sign one as well, nor did anyone else in my class. XJ must have been pretty slick at putting the wording into something we did sign. But if there is one, I don't plan on leaving XJ anytime soon anyway.

Do you know where I could find out more about it then?

I'm not planning on leaving but I specifically remember in the interview that I was told that there was no training contract. I think it even said that in the new hire slide show too but they've since updated it and it's not in the new one.

I went through the new hire package pretty carefully and I don't remember anything about it there as well...this is going to bug me.

It's actually even listed right on the APC page now too.

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airli...al/mesaba.html

That doesnt always say a lot.