Mesaba or Lynx?
 

Mesaba street capt or lynx fo?
commute to DTW or move to DEN?

If it was me, I'd choose turbine PIC.

Determine your priorities among these factors:

1) Where you'd be living/based and commuting issues
2) Pay/Work rules
3) Equipment
4) Industry reputation
5) Expected career progression/upgrade/where people go when they leave
6) How well others like working for each company
7) How well you think the company will fare in this dog eat dog world (usually anybody's guess, but use your crystal ball if you have it)

See which one does the best among your top priorities. Remember what is right for others is not necessarily right for you. Good luck.

That's all entirely up to you...what do you want out of life?

Lifestyle-wise, there's a lot more to do in the front range than in DTW. As a street CA you'll probably be on reserve in DTW for a LONG time. If your main form of recreation is video games, it shouldn't matter. Otherwise...

QOL...obviously you'll have more time off and schedule control as an FO rather than a CA at any airline (not to mention a street CA).

Money...how bad do you need it?

Career Goals...this is the toughy. Obviously you need the PIC to progress, but PIC alone won't do it. Oil is up, hiring is down at the majors, UAL is throwing the "F" word around again, and we just started the five-year "window-of-pain" for age 65. Do you have a REALLY good connection at a good major (that will be hiring for several more years)? If so, it might be worth jumping on the PIC at all costs. Otherwise...

Also what are the growth opportunities at Lynx? If they're still expanding, an FO job there might turn into a CA job real quick, and without a bunch of senior FO's on top of you. That would be a huge factor for me, and I would do some research. Don't just take for granted what somebody on the internet or a recruiter says, look at SEC filings and quarterly reports...hard orders for airplanes (as opposed to options) would be a good sign.

Lynx has 10 on order, only 1 is left to be delivered, IIRC, 10 options.

Objectively, there is a good chance Lynx will get the A/C due to higher oil and the reduction of the mainline F9 sched. Now, if things go nuts in the economy, everyone will stop growing and those options will be put off. Stopping growth at Lynx is not good news for Frontier either. No money to grow Lynx means cash has gotten very tight and things are getting ugly.

If you live near a Mesaba base and will have good QOL, then I don't see why going there is a bad option. If you live in the west, more specifically Denver, then the commute would suck.

<Rolls Dice>

Have Fun and Good Luck!

Checko

No question at all.

Mesaba street captain.

There is no question Mesaba is the best choice. First, turbine PIC is the important time. Mesaba has been growing big time over the past year. Lynx is filled with captains who had a decent amount of experience, so they are not as interested in moving on. Trust me that attrition at Lynx will not be like attrition at Mesaba (atleast over the next few years). The pay is twice to three times better at Mesaba (isn't that reason enough).

Honestly, I think Lynx is one of the worst regionals out there specifically because of their pay ($50/hour for 74 seat captain). Yes, I would say Lynx is worse than Colgan.

Go to Mesaba.

I think I've seen this statement word for word in another thread... haha.. :)

so did both lynx and mesaba offer you these positions???

Utedrummer I have had an app/resume in for three weeks now at Mesaba for a street captain position. Haven't heard a murmur from them. Sounds like plane deliveries slowed down so hiring is slowing. Also sounds like guys are waiting quite a while for IOE due to plane deliveries. Getting on with them would have been nice I have family in Detroit and MSP, but some pay is better than no pay. Good luck with your decision!

Don't spread erroneous rumors unless you know it to be true. Deliveries of new airplanes have not slowed down. Mesaba is getting 2 new CRJ900 and 2 CRJ200 per month and continuing to hire like crazy. January alone XJ is getting 2 new CRJ900s. NWA has options for additional 74 Bombardier jets after initial 36 CRJ900 have been delivered in 2008. Poised to hire another 330 or more pilots in 2008. Hiring has only slowed during the Christmas and year end weeks. It is already cranking back up. Flowthrough to NWA has started this month and it will further create vacancies, in addition to growth at a rate that I have not seen in other regionals at the moment.

I put in and got a call the next day....???

I am a west coast pilot and I would be commuting to DTW, MEM or MSP (ok, i guess I'll just accept it, commuting to DTW, which BTW is a 2 leg commute for me...) But the money....
I guess it comes down to how stable is Lynx going to be and how are they going to treat their pilots w/o a union or contract, which is in reality what I'm trying to find out from some of their current pilots.

I can't really believe that the flow will move things along much at all until September. It's only 3 pilots/month until then, plus the company is holding back the awarded pilots for 3 months. When September rolls around and 9 pilots are moving out per month then the wheels will definitely be rolling. But yeah, hiring has definitely been crazy and the planes keep on coming. It is looking like it should keep up for another 5-6 months at least. But getting back to the subject of this thread: TURBINE PIC

Lightening speed: I was just mentioning to everyone what I read on the Mesaba thread (page 160 or so). I would normally read that to get a "pulse" on what is going on there. I apologize I didn't have it as hard fact. Depending on who you chat with on this site everyone is a liar at one point or another. I am definitely not trying to bag on Mesaba. My apologies again. Utedrummer what can I say . . . I envy you. I am sitting in the midwest hoping to hear from them. I am just afraid it will be too late when I do. If it helps your decision Lynx is asking for a one year contract that is not pro-rated. Do you know what Mesaba is offering for Street Captains in the way of a contract?

Dont know that they are...36 month a/c lock is the only thing i know of...figure to be gone by then but never plan on it. the biggest downfall for me at mesaba is the 2 leg commute to DTW or MEM. MSP is the ONLY 1 leg base and even then its a 3 hr flight, I could do this for 6-10 months but looking out to 3+years of it is very unappealing. DEN however is 45 mins...QoL is important.

Currently Mesaba is not asking for new hires to sign any training contracts. However they are allowed to do so under the current pilot contract.

hey ute.. let me see if i can be a little help.. you ask how stable lynx is.. i think they are gonna be very stable.. but then again.. its the airline world and how stable are any of them.. although with being under frontier.. and the price of oil. they are utilizing us as much as possible.. good for both companys.. as for how they treat people.. i can only answer for how i feel.. i have no complaints and think its gonna be a good place to work. is there gonna be issues.. im sure.. there is everywhere.. especially with a company thats only been flying for not even a month.. but there is also advantages to being in aplace thats brand new.. i could have gone alot of places.. i choose to give lynx a chance and so far i feel good about my choice.. not sure if that really helps u out much ute.. everybody's situation is different.. and guess it just depends on what u want out of it... good luck..

I have street capts in my ground school right now at mesaba and they had to sign a year contract. The new hire fo's do not but the street captains do. Atleast in my class they did. I personally would hate the commute because it will be a two leg commute which dips alot in to time off. Good luck to you

I agree, I'd say avoid the 2 leg commute at all costs, unless you've done 2 leg commutes before and know that you're up for it. Even a 1 leg commute is no fun.

I Interviewed at Mesaba for Street CA two weeks ago. In the interview I was told there is a $10,000 contract, pro-rated on a monthly basis for one year from completion of training. They don't want people going to Mesaba for a "free type-ride" and then leaving.

I don't think New-Hire FOs have to sign a contract, but could get one when they upgrade.

well ute were you offered a job by both

still waiting for the lynx interview (next week) and im throwing in a republic (den base...) job fair, then i'll let you know

Thanks for the updated info. I have not heard of any upgrades having to sign a training contract as of yet. I don't think they are worried about any newly minted PIC's walking away from the first year in the turbine PIC factory.

I don't really know what their worries are concerning the Street CA's. Maybe they are afraid they might get burnt out on long-term reserve. What good is a Saab Type without the PIC time to back it up and validate it?

I think the management wants to make sure they get their money's worth out of street CAs since they spend well over $50,000 for each of them in training cost.

If I were you I would definitely go with Mesaba. Mesaba you get better pay and QOL, not to mention a better stability. Mesaba is growing by leaps and bounds and that is a good place to be right now. Why would you even consider an FO position at Lynx? It would be one thing if Lynx offered you a CA position. Even then I would choose Mesaba.

Right now, if I had to choose between ALL regionals, including Comair, Expressjet, Chautauqua, Skywest and others, I would pick Mesaba. Do your homework and you will come to the same conclusion. You will thank those of us who recommended Mesaba to you down the road.

Flowthrough to NWA has begun, and they have assigned 3 pilots from Mesaba per month through September 2008 and 9 per month through December 2008. This flowthrough is a good thing because it will create additional CA vacancies as well as allowing you to just sit tight at Mesaba and flow up to NWA without even interviewing after 30 months. It may take a little longer but so what? Even if you decide not to go to NWA, why not get some Turbine PIC time while you waiting to move up to majors?