pinnacle or eagle??
 

First post here greetings to all.

Got invitations to interview. One form American Eagle and one form Pinnacle.

I've never flown for the comuters before and am anctious to get back in the air and start flying again.

I was wondering any thoughts from anyone?

I know the upgrades at eagle are pretty bad but they do offer choice of base. Also they have no training contract.

How are the upgrade times at Pinancle?

I've already accepted the interview for Eagle but I'm not sure about the training contract at Pinnacle so I'm holding out before I accept an interview from them.

At Pinnacle where do the new hires get sent and what aircraft?

As far as eagle I would like jets and chicago. If I get chicago what aircraft would I be put on?

Any thoughts from anyone?

Thanks in advance.

i will give you the pinnacle side, since i work here.

there is no training contract. hence people get their time here and move on to greener pastures (although there really isn't anywhere to go right now). you can pretty much get your base and airplane that you want right out of training. the only place that is tough to get into right now is msp. times are tough at all the regionals. lots have stopped hiring, some have asked their pilots to take voluntary leaves. pinnacle has been in contract negotiations for 3 years now. our contract was signed in 1999. our work rules and pay show it. there are a few plus sides however. we are still growing, we still even in the market down turn cant hire enough pilots, and upgrades right now are still as soon as you have the time (still had vacancies go unfilled on last post). we have a big rally in mem on may 1st if you would like to join us and see what we are fighting for.

It doesn't hurt to just interview at both, and then form an opinion of their operations/HR/corporate culture...then start asking these questions so you can have your own experience with both airlines, that combined with other peoples opinions will probably be more helpful than just getting their opinions with nothing to crosscheck it with.

Good info, Airsupport.

I dream of ATL... If I pass the interview...If I get offered an interview...

:D

Wow things sound better than I thought at pibnnacle. I think I'll call them and accept their invitaiton.

How do things look for detroit or memphis. Would I be sitting reserve forever?

I went to one of the kit darby job seminars and that is where I got the info about training contracts.

My goal is to fly as much as I can and don't want to sit reserve for ever.

How much flying do you get per month?

Thanks in advanceagain

Say you have the PIC time to upgrade, is there an amount of time you have to sit as FO or be employed at Pinnacle before you can upgrade??

Thanks again

I'm warning you to not go to Pinnacle. Look what happened to the last guy I warned (theprofessionalpilot).

You must have 100 hours at Pinnacle to upgrade. If you enjoy 10 days off or less, and getting abused. Pinnacle runs things very tight. Reserves fly more than normal line holders.

Reserve is probably around 6 months. Probably shorter in DTW, and MEM. As a captain you will be on reserve for minimum of 2 years.

Avoid Pinnacle until we get a better contract.

That's too funny :)
What happenned to the last guy you warned??

Anyway I just called them and set up an interview date. They said there is a 50 question test right out fo the ATP book. Dam I hate test like that.
I'll take a sim test over a written test anyday of the week.

Are the questions the hardest questions out of the ATP book or what??

GUys this all helps very much thanks

What are your TT if you dont mind?

TT 5200hr fixed wing

With all due respect, with 520hrsTT all you are concern is about upgrade? Sure we all want to become CA's at some point. Check Mesa out. They are looking for street CA's.

Think i would go to pinnacle if i were you. I work for eagle, and the upgrade time is gonna be minimum 4-5 best case, worst case is that things go to hell when we get sold and we lose the AA feed.

This thread pretty much sums it up. He was high time looking for a quick upgrade as well.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...ad.php?t=23973

Are you looking somewhere else?

Check with Albie at Emerald Coast, I can't say enough about him and how their preps help out.

Good folks at PCL and I wish 'em the best.........GOOD LUCK!

Well yes I am but man the market out there for jobs is pretty tight. I want to fly again and like right now. I mean I have 5200 hrs TT time with 1023 PIC B757 time and the offers aren't pouring in.

I think I might be able to upgrade pretty fast at a regional like pinnacle....and that might help with the bills untill this market settles out again.

Are you guys at pinnacle sure there isn't a training contract?

What is this written test like at pinnacle.

Oh and also at eagle I was told that the chief pilot/training is fast tracking guys like us with high time. I was also told they are waiving the simulator check at the interview for me. Just interview and get a class if the panel like you.

Man , I will tell you one thing i have a couple of friends at pinnacle and they told me a couple of things, one the hotel you stay at becareful they steal cars there and the third floor is well you bad classes are like 2 max 10 but usually 5 the training is bad just plain bad . You will do better at eagle ..

Anybody with some info on this written test at Pinnacle??

Toe,
Aviation intervievs .com has some Pinnacle gouge and some tipical questions.

http://www.aviationinterviews.com/

With your times and over 1000 turb PIC, Why not go Major or Frac? more money.

I would go overseas (Emirates etc..) with that much time.

With those times how about something like charter/fractional etc? At least something a bit more comfortable until the majors pick up again if that's where you're trying to get. I don't think I'd subject myself to the regional lifestyle with that flight time.

[\quote]With your times and over 1000 turb PIC, Why not go Major or Frac? more money.[/quote]


Trying but like a said the offers arent't pouring in.

I figure get a job somewhere for now. Then wait till a better offer comes in.

In the mean time the company that hires me gets a guy that will do a good job for them while I'm flying for them and I get to keep my skills sharp.

Thanks for the link. I'll go check them out.

agreed, thought about going corporate/fractional? I got friends at pinnacle; they are low timers. and they enjoy it but what do they know right :confused:...

You have to live over in Dubai. Ain't no way I'm living over there. Yes money is pretty good and it's a secure job.

I've gotten solicitation form those overseas recruiters to sign up for their overseas recruting services, but I don't want to live overseas.

Most other foreign airline you have to live over there.

ok, so my guess is that with your time and not getting calls you have been out of the game for a while. if so then yeah pinnacle might be the place for you. you will have to fly right seat for 100hrs and then you can apply for upgrade. once there and you start getting some recent flight time i am sure you will look a lot better to the other companies.

like spooled said however if you come here and upgrade within 2 or 3 months you will be on reserve for a very long time. an easy way to explain that is everyone that was hired before you will have seniority over you. even if you are a captain, an fo hired before you will be more senior. so everytime you think you are getting close to holding a line an fo will upgrade and push you back. just some things to think about.

and as far as things went with the professionalpilot he is far from high time. he only had around 2300hrs when he first got here, and was upset when either he, or they, or both got confused, misinformed, or whatever about the time he would need to upgrade. from what i hear he is going to fly a couple hundred hours more in the right seat and then move to the left as soon as he can.

Actually no. I've only been out of work for 3 weeks due to my previous airline going belly up.

And yes I know what you are saying about me being junior to an FO if I make Capt quickly... However, with a little luck, I will get a better offer from another carrier before too too long. But I'll still do a good job for pinnacle while employed there (for the record).

And after reading almost the entire "professinal pilot thread", yes, I see where he went wrong. It seems he didn't have the "PIC" time to upgrade without this "mentor" program. I don't think I need this mentor program. Besides having the 5200 hrs TT, 1023 PIC turbine, my Total PIC is 2100, and over 3000 SIC turbine. So Again I think I can upgrade with out help from mentors.

Am I correct?

What do you think

wow, sorry to hear you were at one of the guys who went out of business. let me guess, ata? our chief pilot is an ex ata guy. not that it means anything, just side info i guess.

no you wont need the mentor program. anyone with over 3500 hours right off the street can upgrade once they have 100hrs in a pinnacle rj.

hey i am not going to tell you dont come here. if you need the job to pay the bills then by all means take care of business. are things tough here right now? yes. when will we have a contract? who knows. but if you need the job to keep the family afloat then welcome aboard.

airsupport my email is ___deleted____ can you email me with your email address I so I can ask you a couple of questions

I don't want to ask them on this forum. They are about pinnacle.

I would PM you but I am new to this forum and don't have access to that yet.

hey, i wouldn't put your email up on the main pages.. lots of strange people out there. looks like you only need a few more posts to pm, so we can take care of that right here.

so, were you at ata?

OK my email is deleted and again this is what I was trying to avoid is asking replying to perosnal questions on this public forum.

How many post does one have to post b4 access to PM

yes ex ATA

where do you want to be based out of, pinnacle has dtw, msp, atl, and mem

yeah and if the question seems to personal just dont answer it and type some other stuff. i think it is 14 or 15 to be able to pm

would like msp but i here it's full

mem would be good to but it's a longer comute

therefore it looks like detroit

hahaha. yeah msp would be tough at first. you would hold atl and dtw the fastest. maybe if you log off and then log back in. it should let you then.

well i just looked at the faq's and they bumped the pm feature up to 25.
so if you have any general questions that i can help you with in the meantime i will be glad to answer them

infact just post the questions you dont mind asking publicly in single posts and i will answer them the best i can.

yeah one last for now how bout that training contract? I am being told two different things yes and no to the contract. Wich is it.

well 26 posts and stillcan't access PM oh well I give up

Does anyone know what aircraft they start you on if you want DFW for base at eagle? Just turned in my resume to Pinnacle on Friday and although I want Pinnacle since I live in Memphis and gotten to know a couple of pilots from there, I wouldn't mine at least exploring the opportunity at Eagle. Thanks for the info.

Its a crap shoot. It could be Saab, CRJ or ERJ.