Have fun here at Colgan, you will probably hold reserve or get a crappy line for a while. There is a lot of wishfull thinking over here, I personally think that Colgan is done growing for a while and all this hype about hiring is just to get the FO's that where hired towards the end of the year to stick around as long as possible. When I got hired in June 05 they were upgrading 8 people at a time, this last month they stopped upgrades all together, and the current class for May are mostly transisions.

I hope I'm wrong and that we do recieve more planes, but for now I wouldn't hold my breath. The biggest reason that I heard hear at "AS THE PROP TURNS" is that maintenace is unable to handle any more growth at this time, but that Colgan has 10 orders for Saab 2000's next year for Houston.

The one thing that makes Colgan livable is the people you fly with, I honeslty can say I've only really flown with one ********* since I've been here.

 

Just out of curiosity, what makes a line a "crappy line"? Not enough flight hours, late nights? I know that upgrade time will probably not be as advertised, and I'm willing to deal with that. I hear nothing but good things about the good people at Colgan. In the interview I met a bunch of great people and would be happy to fly with any of them.

 

My definition of a crappy line is one that contains any of the following: more than 25% reserve days, blocked at less than 50 hours, less than 3 days off in a row, or 6 am start on first day of work and 10 pm end on last day of work (i.e. not commuter friendly).

 

If you are getting concerned about the longer upgrade time you should remember this. The company just doubled in size. Everyone who just upgraded in the last 12 months does not have enough PIC time to move on. Colgan, just like Great Lakes and Regions, is not a career place for most of the group and as soon as the captains get enough turbine PIC they will leave. ALL of my captains at my base are sending out resumes. One has an interview at NetJets and another has an interview for a corporate job in NYC. Believe me, unless management goes altruistic and gives us huge increases in pay/benefits, Colgan won't become another Piedmont or Horizon.

 

Respectively, I disagree. Something's up. You don't hire to get FO's to stick around. It costs to much to recruit, train, and then pay guarantees. We've started interviewing again like mad.

Agreed! The people are great, the flying is good, the company makes money, and haven't furloughed ever (except for a few months after 9/11). Captains are getting hired to majors. As stated above, except for a few very senior check airman and a couple of guys who have military pensions, it's not a career destination. But for a fast upgrade and great experience, it's a good place to spend a couple of years.

 

My class starts on May 22nd in the Saab. Can any Colgan pilots give me an idea of what to expect in training?

 

Training is ~6 weeks long, Monday through Saturday. Bring a laptop/mp3 player/book if you have one and your headset in case you start IOE right after completing the sim. Also bring black shoes/slacks/belt/tie and a white shirt in case you have to start IOE before getting your uniform. It happened to 1/2 my class and me. You'll get a 2 day weekend twice at most. First day is filling out a lot of paperwork (i.e. filling out tax forms, picking insurance plans, non-rev info), meeting some of the management folks, and the lovely drug policy/sexual harassment/work together nicely spiels. Second day is some of the same and the start of your week of indoc training learning all that is contained in the Flight Operations Policies and Procedures manual. It's more important to know WHERE to find an answer than WHAT the answer is. At the end of the week you have an open book test.

You then have two weeks of Saab 340 systems. Vic will most likely be your instructor in Houston. Find out if anyone has the Saab 340 computer program from FlightSafety. STAY AWAKE IN CLASS!! If you do that you won't have to study much back at the hotel which, if it's the Springhill Suites, is pretty nice with TempurPedic matresses. At the end of the two week period you have another multiple-choice written test, this time closed book. Then you'll find out if you are staying in Houston or leaving for St. Louis to complete your simulator training. I went to St. Louis. The Holiday Inn is decent and has a restaurant/bar in the basement (yes the basement). Simulator training lasts ~10 days. It consists of a Cockpit Procedures Training day (i.e. sitting in front of cardboard cockpit pictures and going through flows), 8 four hour simulator sessions, checkride, and LOFT session (i.e. flying a normal run like IAD-PIT). That's 40 hours of simulator experience before you hit IOE. Remember how I said you wouldn't have to study much outside of class during systems class? Do yourself a favor and STUDY outside of your simulator sessions, but get 8 full hours of sleep every night. Practice the flows/memory items and DO NOT FORGET the FOPP and systems knowledge. The checkride consists of an oral as well.

IOE is done anywhere in the Colgan system. Some in my class stayed in Houston, some went to Ithaca, some to Manasty, some to Charlottesville. I got Norfolk which was great. Some people started IOE right away and some waited a week. I was on a plane deadheading to Norfolk 1.5 hours after my checkride ended in STL. For some reason Colgan forgot it was Colgan and put me up in the Radisson on the 14th floor with a spectacular view of downtown and the waterfront. Nice. I rested there for a full day before starting 3 days of IOE fun flying into LaGordia. After IOE ended I deadheaded back to my home and was given 7 days to get up to my base. **REMEMBER** that you get paid per diem from the minute you successfully pass your checkride, officially becoming a Colgate employee, until they deadhead you back to your home. If you are on duty and away from your Culligan base you get paid per diem. Just want to make sure you don't miss out on at least $150.

 

Since the training is 6 days a week, I take it is very difficult to go home on weekends to see the family. Does anyone have their families come to Houston at any time during training to visit?

What is the daily schedule like?
Are you in a hotel room alone during training?

 

Bender,

Thanks for the detailed overview on training. Where are you based now and how do you like it?

 

If you read the conference call from April, Brinks talks about the people who just got hired, I know of most of them. JetBlue the guy was a check airman with 6000 hrs, and a lot of that was PIC. Southwest, she (hint hint) did my IOE and had another 5-6000 hrs. The guys going to North American are all connected to each other and you know the ones at Continental knew somebody. Im not trying to be negative, I want to upgrade just as as you do but the only way that is going to happen fast is if Colgan grows!

Im glad to see and hear from guys at Colgan on here, especially ones from all over the Northeast who can relay rumors faster.