The company wouldn't spend a dime to help their employees succeed.

 

The same could be said for Alaska...move out of the state if you can't get around! We can play this game all day.

BTW, I am not a supporter of EAS, just happy to have the opportunity to get my thousand and go to greener pastures.

 

ZK doesn't operate solely on EAS. There are numerous destinations that they operate that the plane gets filled and the company makes money. EAS is the bread and butter but it isn't the only game they play.

 

Eight non EAS routes!

Route Map

 

When did that happen? I thought both could *log* PIC but only one is considered the *acting* PIC. I have Jepp's "The FAR's Explained" sitting around somewhere. Granted it is a couple years old.

 

For the record, there are only a few FO's that will not make 1500 by August. The company increased the minimums to get hired every month to prevent this, but a few slipped through the cracks and flew less on RSV than the company predicted. I know Great Lakes isn't the only airline that has FO's in the same boat.

Upgrade time at Lakes is currently very fast. We have about 12 going through upgrade this month, and most of them have been here less than one year. We are not short staffed at this time, although as many of our FO's upgrade in the next few months we likely will end up being short on FO's. I am honestly surprised that we haven't gotten more applicants looking for the quick upgrade time. 6 month upgrade at lakes or 6 year upgrade at Eagle. Obviously Lakes is not for everyone, but we have had a lot of Lakers move on the the majors recently.

 

Not really..I mean, you like oil right? But other than just oil, these are natives that have no other way to get around due to the environment. It's not like the 4-corners area of the US where you have the biggest Native American reservation in the US, yet it pales in comparison to Alaska native villages and the distances they are spread apart. To a significant extent, the US government helped encourage and sustained a lot of these village outposts with dozens of AFB installations, early warning radars, communications relays, and other sorts of stuff, not to mention most of the villages already existed for the most part, unlike most cities that have been build after "discovery" by Europe. Many of the "EAS" contracts in AK are for "mail service" as well, because it's the only way to get mail out there. The planes usually do double or triple duty, fulfilling many other roles (with the same plane)-cargo, passengers, combination, etc. These aren't people that have the option of easily just "moving", as it's large families, native communities, people that sustain themselves on things that you'd never consider putting in your mouth, etc.

I would say it's very much not the same thing, we have like 3 highways, for an area the same size as half the lower 48 states roughly. Nowhere near the road infrastructure. The reasons why AK needs EAS are exactly the reasons the lower 48 largely doesn't need it. They try to apply the same criteria, but it's a totally different situation. Whether the Federal or State government pays for EAS here, I don't really care, but this ain't Kansas, and you'd likely die trying to get to a village by other means. We aren't going to tell people in the lower 48 to move to cities, and it's probably not appropriate to say that anywhere, but there are certain realities that have to be realized.

If there's really any place in the lower US that is more than 2hrs away from a hub by car, I'd be for ensuring that they have adequate emergency medical service, although im sure health corporations find ways to make their helicopter operations profitable, by using them and charging...

 

Well, here's one example, but I wouldn't necessarily use the date as "that's when it changed", it's just the quickest one I could find. You'd have to go back through legal counsel's interpretations and see if there's an earlier version that says the same thing:

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/...2/Trussell.pdf

Anyway, I used to think the same as you, it surprised me.

 

This really didn't change anything. All the safety pilot has to do to log PIC is assume the role of "acting" PIC and log as such. Then the person under the hood can log it as PIC since they are the ones on the controls. If thats not acceptable then the FAA needs to clear that up too. Most of the large flight academies programs are still putting out pilots with lots of this type of time and still are to this day. Plus they are still selling "time building" packages too. So...

 

See this is why I don't like to post on forums.

Lets say out of 300 Pilots that only 10% won't have 1500 hours. Yes, that is a grand total of 30 pilots and that seems like just a handful will have a real problem and cause for concern. From the company perspective (since they claim to be shrinking) this is a GOOD thing. They get rid of an extra 10% of the pilot group and claim their $7500 training contract to pocket for profit. Well I'm sorry but I can't be so cavalier about this. Some FOs are faced with RSV until Aug because of the shrinking lines and are not getting 60 hours a month. In fact, some are getting 6 (read SIX) hours of RSV making it impossible to reach 1500. And as for picking up extra flying outside Lakes....well that is a breach of contract unless you get written authorization from the company. And I can tell you they are not giving that in written form.

Yes, this is more of a per person problem that should be addressed on an individual basis. I just feel that tossing this under the rug is not a attitude fellow Lakers should have toward low-time FOs.