Meatball

Eagle will not be hiring for quite a while and you can take that to the bank.

We just had a huge displacement and the only reason no furloughs occurred is because the company agreed to long term leaves of absence and part time/ no time lines.

rollercoaster

'Nuff said right there. Eagle upgrade time might currently suck, but it's the easiest/ best job situation for me right now. I wouldn't move somewhere else to chase the almighty quicker upgrade, especially with the statement you made above. Any regional is susceptible to cutbacks if the major they feed tanks.

As for the hiring pool, nobody knows. All you can do is keep building hours and check here or other forums such as eaglelounge or talkairline for the latest updates. Hiring news is so easy to obtain today with internet forums.

If and whenever Eagle hires again, get that pilot seniority number ASAP! I'm guessing your buddy PP might not be so negative if he/she was hired prior to the summer or fall of 2007.

Pontius Pilot

The place I instructed at, which was a diamond in the rough, is now on the other side of the country from me. I moved shortly after getting the Eagle gig. Otherwise, I would probably go back. Most other schools don't pay as well.

Pontius Pilot

I'm not negative - I simply state the facts. It doesn't matter when I was hired. I would still have the same issues. I'm still going to be on 4 days off 2. Who cares if I have another 100 or 200 people under me? I'm still away from my family - I still have 9 years to upgrade - I still make $22k a year.

So please don't mistake my sharing the facts as negativity. I love the flying, I hate the lifestyle. I actually love the airline as well. I have no bones against Eagle. Its as simple as that. No seniority number is going to change that - whether I was hired prior to the fall of 2007 or the fall of 1987.

This is a great career for the single person. For the soon to be married, currently married or family man/woman it can be a very poor choice. If you enjoy spending time with your family, it can be a very poor choice. If you don't mind being away and you like that - then by all means go for it. If you're going to live in your domicile - then go for it. If you can stand the low pay and long hours for the first few years - go for it. There are great perks (like the travel) but everything comes with a cost. In my case I feel like I've sold my soul. That is not everybody's experience, only my viewpoint. Your mileage may vary.

Rnav

Well said PP. And I don't think your comments are negative, they are from your experience. I would agree on all the points too. Flying the line is great but to some the cost out weigh the benefits(me included in this opinion). I know plenty of friends who are happy flying the line, but they don't have any misconceptions of the reality of the industry. But that's what people need to make an informed decision if this lifestyle is for them or not... the good and the bad.

Flyby1206

Right now anyone who has a job from hamburger flipper to FO at Eagle is lucky to have their damn job. Nobody is entitled to a job, and if you cant appreciate the good things about it then you should walk away from the profession.

Eagle is a great place to work, but there are lots of people here who want you to think they are a prisoner in a POW camp. They want your attention and pity for enduring such "awful" working conditions. Its up to each individual to be happy or not, and there are many here at Eagle on both sides of the spectrum.

WmuGrad07

As a pilot, all I would like to do is have a job that pays the bills, gives me benefits, and lets me fly a plane. After working one flying job, quitting to go to Eagle then having my class cancelled it really sucks. And for you PP to be all negative and say you'd rather be flight instructing, you can come take my flight instructor job from me and I'll take your seat. When the weather sucks, I can't work, so I don't make money. Yes I do have a flying job but it sucks. If we poolies got in two weeks earlier we could be fat/dumb/and happy like you are and complain about having a job that at least gives you a minimum paycheck every month. But as a starving flight instructor when there aren't many other jobs out there Eagle looks nice to me so I don't have to worry about how I'm going to pay the bills, or ****** where is a non flying job when I have bills piling up.

Eagle was going to be a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Now flight instructing is only putting me farther behind where I predicted I should be. I guess it's a job, but it's not what I want to be doing. Thanks for answering the original question about the pool.

Pontius Pilot

If you think I'm being negative, then you're a fool...plain and simple. I'm just putting the facts here. If you can't bother to read what I say, then don't bother to comment on what I say. If you need a refresher I said I loved Eagle, loved flying, but didn't love the lifestyle. I love my wife and family and like being home most days out of the week and for those that do, this is a poor job choice.

Or do you think I'm being negative about the job outlook? Well, sir, that is simply the truth. It does not look good - and nobody can tell you for sure whats going to happen from day to day. That is fact. Oil could drop to $20 a barrel tomorrow, the economy could turn a corner next week and passenger loads could increase by 150% in January - then you'd be called in from the pool most likely. But who can know such a thing? Nobody! You will have to wait until you're called in, whenever that may be. It won't happen a second sooner.

Fat, dumb and happy??? After 9 months? Are you joking? Complaining? About what - the FACTS of this lifestyle!

I don't know what kind of bills you have to pay, but I have many friends who are struggling to make ends meet, even with this super-sweet "minimum" paycheck you're talking about. I have friends who don't have enough money to eat. I have friends who can hardly afford their $450 rent on a place with a car included - they get to chose between having benefits or a place to live (the insurance is not cheap). The first year is rough...the second year improves if you're on one of the jets (ATR increases by a whole $2 an hour 2nd year). Arguably, its probably better than most instructing jobs...but you also have more expenses than your instructing job. Food when you're on long trips, crash pad, transportation, etc. It adds up rather quickly.

Stepping stone to what? Most things you want to step into are going to require turbine PIC time. I have flown with Captains who have taken 8 years to get where they are so they could get some precious PIC time and move on. Eagle was their stepping stone too. Then some of them got kicked back to FO in the last few months.

Apparently there are a bunch of people out there that don't want to hear the truth. They are going to continue to think this job is nothing but sunshine and daisies and fluffy little kittens...they aren't going to listen to the voice of reason. Anybody in this profession who tries and explain that its not all fun and games is labeled as "bitter" or "negative". Why, I must be out of my mind to find things to be unhappy with!!! I get paid to fly! Geez, I should be kissing Peter Bowler's backside for the wonderful opportunity I've been given. You simply don't want to hear the truth. You want to look at this job with your rose tinted optimism-enhanced glasses. You think you just get paid to fly...

...well, don't forget the paperwork, the politics, the BS, the union dues, sitting in the ready reserve room doing nothing going out of your mind with boredom 8 hours a day for a month, spending Christmas eve and day stuck in a hotel room in Witchita Falls, getting yelled at by angry passengers, gate agents with a god complex, evil captains, sitting more reserve, more paperwork, more BS, more politics. All of this assuming you make it through training. If only it were just showing up and flying the plane...but there is much more to it than that. The flying part is just a by-line in the whole ordeal.

Ever notice you never see thread upon thread with nothing but postive happiness in it??? That's because, in the end, this is a job - a job like all others, that can become very frustrating when you see how powerless you are to effect any change at all. If it were so awesome and wonderful the posts would often reflect that. Yes, it can be a great wonderful happy job - but don't think that it always is. You learn to be a chameleon and a politican and a tactician, or you end up on the street. Just flying would be a relief. And you do little true flying. Babysitting the Autopilot, FMS and GPS and changing ACARS paper is more like it. You do what the company tells you, when the company tells you, how the company tells you. You have the freedom to chose your wake-up call in the morning.

Get your facts first, then distort them as you please. I have had contact with hundreds of people in this industry. Very few of them would tell you different. I have seen the smiles wiped off at least 100 faces. Yours won't be any different.

Read Ernest Gann's "Fate is the Hunter", at least the first 100 pages. Even though it took place in the 1930s, I can't believe how similar his experience was.

Telling you like it is from one viewpoint does not make a person 'negative', 'bitter'. Having an airline job does not make one 'fat, dumb and happy'. Preconceived notions about the job are usually wrong. I don't know why I try and help people understand both sides of the story.

olympic

Im so glad I never took the regional route and moved to Europe ...!
Good luck to all at Eagle, have a load of friends there.

fjetter

I've been reading this thread for the past few days and figure I'd throw my two cents in. Lets be honest having the chance to fly for an airline is one of the reasons we all go into this mess of a buisness. Call it naive, starry-eyed whatever. Granted most people aren't entirely aware of how challenging an airline lifestyle can be, but its still a case by case basis. There are plenty of factors to consider when going down the 121 regional path.

Pontius from reading some of your posts here and other threads I know you are speaking from your own experience about how the airline lifestyle have affected you. But the point still is that its not bad enough to make you leave. Is all you cracked it up to be when you interviewed and got hired, probably not.

WMU...I understand your plight as well. You sound like you've done your homework about this industry. You know its a biznatch but you want to give it a go anyways. Nothing wrong with that. I know a guy that left an Asst Chief job at a large flight school to go to ASA. He stayed with them for maybe a year and realized the lifestyle wasn't for him (mid 30's w/kids). Does he regret leaving for ASA only to leave ASA? Absolutely not. He said it was something he always wanted to do, he's done it, checked it off the bucket list, and has no regrets about it.

As for my personal experience having gotten a taste of the lifestyle, I can't wait to get back to it. Granted I was still on the honeymoon of finishing IOE and adapting to Reserve lifestyle before my furlough, so I know I'm not the know all about airline life, but it was a blast. Certainly way better than flight instructing which I have returned to. I am quite glad that I was lucky to find a good school to go to that is pursuing a 135 cert.

Enough of my ramblings now, if you were skimming my point is this: What works for one person might not work for another and no matter how much someone says it sucks, the only way to truly find out is to experience it for yourself.