News at Colgan
 

I was just wondering how things are going at Colgan?
Any rumors regarding hiring this summer?

Specifically- how jr is the Q400 base at EWR? if Colgan starts hiring will it go jr? How are the trips/QOL out of EWR? Long sits? Day trips? Overnights?

I'm not a Colgan pilot but I have heard that the QOL is not so good. I've heard of a few pilots that go just to get PIC jet time then leave as quick as they can. But I would get more info from people who fly there. My real purpose for posting was to say, I will trade you....your law school seat for my PA-44 instructing seat. The way the industry is right now I would much rather have a law degree to fall back on than continuing to HOPE that the industry will get better...especially as a furloughed airline pilot :D. I truly wish I had the money to go to law school right now but instead I get to pay back outrageous student loans and HOPE I eventually get to mainline:D. Hope everything goes well for you in your search and we'll talk with you later.

The idea is to fall back on the law degree... I would much rather be sitting in the right seat sipping coffee at 350 looking down at the suckers pushing papers...

sipping coffee at 350 sounds nice, but then you get done with your four day trip you go home to your smelly condo with two other roomates who are buried in college loans arguing over whose turn it is to buy pizza. meanwhile the paper pushers are frittering their time away sitting in a lawn chair out by their pool behind their 4000 sqft home.

Why must we always try and discourage those who want to be in this proffesion:confused:. The guy / girl is a lawyer they have had plenty of practice researching things and I'm sure they researched the low wages and quality of life as a pilot. At the end of the day although he / she has a law degree their heart is in aviation and our horry stories are not going to change that. Therefore why don't those who work for colgan answer law pilots questions as he / she is researching obviously by said questions.


FL450

q400/ewr is junior for FOs, senior for CAs.
When(if?) they get the 15 Qs, they will need Q CAs and Q FOs. So some of the present saab CAs will transition to the Q, and saab FOs will upgrade to fill those saab CA vacancies. I guess that'll leave FO vacancies in both the saab and the Q. If I had to guess the Q FO will still remain more junior than the saab... unless you live in jersey, I just don't see much incentive for FOs to head over to EWR as long as the pay remains the same. but, that's just my guess.
The more important question is, why anyone would come to colgan for the q. They just increased the upgrade minimums (rightfully so in my opinion) so you will be sitting right seat for a long time. Which is good, I think everyone should sit right seat for at least a couple of years before they get to upgrade... except pay suuuuucks. $21/hr was bearable before because the upgrade time used to be so short. that is obviously no longer the case, and you could be a third year FO making $24,000 (27x75x12) and that is before taxes!!! if you were going to sit right seat for a long time anyway, why not sit at a higher paying regional where a third year FO could make a more livable wage? yes, no one is hiring right now but by the time colgan starts hiring again, who knows who else will be hiring too.

He's a law STUDENT.
Colgan doesn't fly jets!
And those turboprops don't go up to 350!

Specifically- how jr is the Q400 base at EWR? if Colgan starts hiring will it go jr? How are the trips/QOL out of EWR? Long sits? Day trips? Overnights?[/quote]


QOL + EWR = LOL ! They have 5 day trips with 4 stand up overnights right now with about half of the pilots sitting reserve 5 on 2 off, ten days off a month thanks to our new ex-MESA crew scheduler. Long sits is a given, thats a daily occurance, IF you get off the ground within 30 minutes from push its considered on-time. There are day trips and our regular overnights consist of two types, A- show times of 5am ending at 1pm and B- show times early afternoon ending around 11pm so basiclly your too tired to do anything or its too late to even get food. Most new hires get EWR.

I agree with this definitely. Colgan used to be the regional to go to if you wanted to sacrifice pay for a quick upgrade, but this is not so much the case right now. I know of several FOs that will probably be into their 4th year before they upgrade ... it sucks, but that's just the way the economy is right now. Until the new Q's come next year, there won't be any movement. Buuuut, on a brighter note, the next batch of Q's has been confirmed that some, if not all, will be going to IAH. When that happens, IAH will go VERY senior for the Q. IAH is already a senior base for both CA and FO, and I know of several people who would transfer back to IAH in a heartbeat when the Q goes there.

EWR, my guess is, will go junior relatively quickly once the Q's start heading to IAH, and all the new and junior Q's CAs will either stay in EWR if they are already based there, or will transfer from the Saab to the Q. There are quite a few very senior CAs in IAH that have refused to transfer to the Q until it shows up on IAHs doorstep.

Upgrade will not be bad compared to the rest of the industry. I have been here for 2 years and will see upgrade at the end of 2009 or the first of 2010 for the ramp up of the Q deliveries...so still less than 3 years which is great when you look at the times we are in.

Pay sucks but hopefully one day it will be better with a contract. In 2008 my earnings were 27,400 with 4 months of that year being at 21/hr and the last 8 being 26/hr. So it was about 31,400 gross for the year when you include per diem. I averaged 93.5 hours a month credit and a lot of that was when we were short on FO's so I had a few 120+ credit months in there because of the open time.

I am senior at a senior base so QOL is not that bad. I have 14 days off this month, with weekends off but that is not the case for all.

All in All not too bad. Great pilot group makes up for the issues with mgmt. And lets get real, the industry sucks right now so I am happy to have a job right now.

Things will get better with a union on property.