AWAC upgrade time
 

Can anyone tell me what the estimated upgrade time is at AWAC for a new-hire?

I have the chance to interview with them but can't find any info on time to upgrade.

Thanks.

hey kilo how long did it take for you to get the call for an interview???????

I applied about 2 - 2.5 months prior to receiving an interview date.

Upgrade as of today today is about 2.5 years, but then again about 25% of the pilot group quit in the last 12 months. 10-15 captains have been leaving every month, along with 5 or so FOs.

Past results do not indicate future performance.

Good luck in your interview!

Great Point! Current "Most junior Captain hired" dates are useful but not completely indicative of what will happen in the future. My buddy got hired with Colgan and when he got on the upgrade time was 11 months. Now its around 1.5 years I believe

Again, Good luck in the interview

I have a class date with Colgan as we speak. I am just debating which airline I would prefer to work for, AWAC or Colgan. I'm leaning towards Colgan.

Also upgrades are now about 12 months in the 1900 and 24 in the Saab.

i would personally be leaning towards AWAC (ALOT), but that's just me.

[QUOTE=KiloAlpha] I am just debating which airline I would prefer to work for, AWAC or Colgan. /QUOTE]

unless your trying to go for the quick upgrade, get paid **** to fly job, and hope to move on seen, i think this question should be a no brainer?

Yes, dont they all, and yes.. sorry I dont want to risk being a 5 year FO button pusher.

With a statement like that, this *might* not be the best place for you then.

Upgrade time has dropped despite the company downsizing (loss of 16 BAE-146 aircraft) due to ridiculous attrition numbers. If attrition slows and the company doesn't grow, upgrades could increase to 4-5 years. At least when/if that happens you'd actually be able to comfortably support a family and make a mortgage payment while an FO at Air Wisconsin; the same cannot be said at many other carriers.

Good luck with the process, however it sounds like if faced with two offers your mind is made up.

I was faced with the same situation (colgan and awac), although I had a few more offers on the table as well, including freight.

I choose AWAC. I was lucky enough to get hired on at the 'right' time, and have almost 150 below me in less than a year. This is out of a total pilot group of less than 800.

With my senority I don't expect to make less than $44k my second year (even with the concessionairy contract; if we get our old contract back come November I'll be in the low $50's). A 'button pusher' maybe, but if you get the saab you'll be an fo for two years too. Do the worst case scenario there. Yikes.

Will Colgan continue to expand? They've done a lot in the past few years. It's sometimes hard to keep that momentum going.

Good luck - picking a company can be a crapshoot. I've had guys at Colgan PM me about coming to AWAC because their upgrade/lifestyle wasn't what they expected.


P.S. There was a Colgan SAAB captain in my newhire class. That being said, he's probably still at Colgan because he was asked to leave halfway thru training ;)!

I fail to see how you will make $44k your second year.

$35/hr x 75 = $2625/month x 12 = $31500.

... but hey ... you were only 28% off, not too bad :rolleyes:

You obviously don't understand how airline compensation works...and thats okay. You are only looking at guarantee numbers, and not considering any of the other "soft money" you get within the AWAC contract.

The average line is built to 83-87 hours of credit, some up to 95 hours of credit on 88ish hours of block time (as my line was this month). Throw in a weather delay here, a junior man there, PHL delays every day and you can easily credit over 100 hours per month while having blocked much less than that. If you pick up any premium pay flying, you stand to credit even more.

I worked 10 days in April, flying about 40 hours and credited 94 hours of pay.

My W2 for 2006 at AWAC (I was hired in early January) should be somewhere between 25-28K including perdiem.

Sorry, my mistake.... does Colgan have any of those sort of quirks in their contract ?

I should also add that Colgan has a junior base within 1 hour of my current residence; this is one of the big draws.

But hey, to each their own :)

No apologies needed...I didn't understand it myself until about a year ago!

IMO this is the deciding factor: your QOL will be immensely better if you don't commute.

Good luck!

It is almost impossible to commute at Colgan because the NE based crews spend almost all nights at home; i.e. not in a hotel.

wow dude you obviously have an inate understanding of how airline pilots are paid...sorry I tried to help. I won't make the mistake of doing it again.

later

ps i haven't credited <95 hours in a month after getting off reserve (even on reserve I had two months over 100 credit). That's $40k/yr right there @ second year pay, add in $5,000 in per diem (which colgan doesn't pay unless you do an overnight, which are rare, but you are still gone from home 14 hours a day...) and you get $44,900.

dont add per diem

why? what's your reasoning?

Do you live in base and/or pick up alot of opentime, or are you one of those lucky guys that always gets to sit for 2+ hours at a time on the ramp or taxiways in PHL?

no open time, i am lucky enough that i get to bid/fly with captains that have the same ideas as myself when it comes to "making" money...

we turned an 18 hour 3-day into a 22:15 hour 3-day last week. ka-CHING :)

edit: forgot to add I do live in base. ORF. Much nicer than the other two IMO. I might go back on LC and pick up more time, but I make a lot in per diem ($450 last month) so I'm flying a lot these days.

Do you live in base? EDIT: answered...

I had ORF LCs in April. Best.schedule.evar for a commuter. It would figure (more) senior guys living in base would take all the good sh!t! Whats your DOH (PM if ya want).

lol not sure how that helps, the schedules from what I hear aren't very commutable anyway :).

Edit: Delete

close to this time last year.

the thing with relief lines is they are a crap shoot. they could be all LC this month but have all crappy trips next month.

also, if you are one of the bottom people on the relief line bidding you get stuck with the crap schedules. Back in march I was one of the top guys but when I compare my bidding power now to those awarded relief lines I'd be toward the bottom.

i see. so if you can spend it, how is it not income?

if you go to colgan, you aren't paid per diem yet still have to buy food to eat (either in the airports or carry it along). if you were on reserve and not getting per diem, you'd still have to eat, yet you wouldn't be getting paid to do it.

let's compare apples to apples here.

I'm not sure if you've looked at the relief lines for PHL (prob not), but they often have more commutable trips and alot more days off (14-17) with comparable credit (78-82hrs) than the regular crap lines.

that's cool, glad the schedules are good for some people!