So does anyone have any ATR experience? What's it like to fly? The overhead panel looks like a mess...

 

Guilty as charged.

Its actually a good flying airplane - steady and stable. Kind of like a big, powerful, fast, twin engine Cessna 182. Its a pain in the backside to land, especially the first few times. She doesn't like to come down and the plane humbles even people with thousands of hours in it.

The overhead panel looks like a lot at first - it scared the hell out of me the first time I saw it. After awhile you get used to it and it makes perfect sense. It's well designed. I don't even think about it anymore. I was comfortable in the plane after about 50 hours.

The plane is great. No big complaints - except the AC doesn't work well until you get some altitude.

 

You must be flying that other ATR. This airplane is a piece of junk! It's definitely not stable and handles like crap in turbulence and windy conditions. It's nothing like a 182. It breaks down all the time and it's not fun to fly. Eagle made a lousy call on parking the SAABs and bringing this pos back to DFW.

 

mmm... beaches.


As Palm said, it was a while ago. I passed all the interviews and the sims. Kinda lonely day since the few other candidates dropped out in the interview portion. For anyone that knows the Eagle interview process, you may remember the part where you sign a release for your former employers where it says: "I release all and everything you say about me". Well, basically my former flight school owner was upset that I put in my 2 week notice and they said they fired me. Don't know what Eagle was expecting when you release former employers of all liability. Eagle thought I lied to them about never being fired and took back the job offer. I spent the next month clearing my name with them.

To make a long story short, I was interviewing with XJT as well, if Eagle didn't work out, and they gave me a job offer 1 day before Eagle called me back and offered me the job again.

I felt bad about it in the end because I didn't want to turn Eagle down, but I had already gone through the XJT process and got the job.

Both really good companies.

 

I flew the ATR in SJU from about August '07 to the end of Feb '08 before heading back to the mainland. Not a long time I admit, and I only got about 200 hours on the plane, but I thought it was a fairly fun aircraft to fly! You could be abeam the numbers for Runway 8 at 8000ft and have no problem getting that thing down while still keeping it inside the bridge (if you go down there you'll find out what I'm talking about)! The flying down there is some of the most fun and interesting you will probably ever do in your life!!! Beef...Nevis...St. Kitts....Canouan (spelling??)....St. Maarten!....DOMINICA!!!! Great times and I definitely miss that flying. The ATR is not at all a bad plane. Yes, it can be difficult to land and will surprise you sometimes, but it's not as bad as most people make it out to be. It is a fairly simple airplane, but yes somethings have to be done manually vs. something like the EMB-145 (my most recent aircraft) where a lot of those items are automated.

My biggest gripe with it (and this isn't the aircraft's fault) is that we were not allowed to use HOTEL mode (for air conditioning on the ground) and it has no APU so it gets hella hot in that cockpit while on the ground!!! Bring one shirt for every day you will be flying The ATR does have some maintenance issues because they are starting to get kinda old and have lots of cycles on them. Plus maintenance just defers everything

SJU is not the nicest place in the world to live, but is no where near as bad as everyone says. There are some areas of poverty that I stayed away from, but you could find almost anything there that you could in the states. I didn't speak any spanish besides words like "salida", "el bano", and of course "PUTA"! Not speaking spanish definitely makes life more difficult, but I still think it was a good life experience and I would do it again.

There are great people down there and I hope you have some fun!

 

Living, commuting to and operating in san juan sucks. Housing blows. Fine wx in the winter...hot as hell in the summer. I remember many times sitting in a 110 degree cockpit with 100% humidity due to the fact that st. thomas cant get their crap together.

Its hot, san juan sucks, the flying is good, the atr can be fun but when it comes down to it I'm dreading going back. With the dismal 2nd year pay (right, yeah it makes sense to pay ATR crews less than our emb counterparts because they have spinny things outside on the wings) and life on reserve, yeah san juan isn't a lot of fun.

Oh but you'll enjoy the beaches! sun! surfing! whatever, got old after 2 months...those good things will soon be diluted by the fact that everything you do in san juan is twice as hard as it would be on the mainland.

I hope we can all get a crashpad together and try to make our own little america to come back to at night, because sometimes you just want to *(&#ing forget you live in san juan

 

Is the pilot that was on the Amazing Race still there?

 

He is back in ORD on the EMJ.

 

Just quit man. Go back to mommys house.

 

I think I'm allowed to wallow in self-pity for a day or two...hell many people here are constantly feeling sorry for themselves.

Give it a week and I'll sack up and do what has to be done, but it doesn't mean I cant ***** about it at first.