10 HOURS!

Damn you must be getting stuck on the couch a lot. Are there any trips in open time that you can pick up?

TC

Haha yea that's for sure. Ill be doing it out of dfw this time. Even though im based out of ord. Are we suppose to get some sort of access to the airport secure areas? All I have right now if my crew badge. Also where do you guys suggest I park if I don't have a parking pass?

Nope there's about 3-4 trips the whole month.

If your doing it in DFW, come into TERM 'B' gate B7. Next to the dunkin donuts, is an elevator. Use your key to call the elevator, or just wait for it. Go down to floor 1, exit to the right and walk all the way to the end of the hall. You will see the crew room, where the IOE CA will be most likely. When you get there, either go to the CP office which is in that room, or ask around, most likely the folks in there probably know your CA.

You might want to try parking at the academy, tell them your situation so they give you a temp parking permit and then take the crew shuttle to DFW, if you are going to comutte out of DFW talk to the checkairman you will be flying with, most of those guys are great about answering our questions to include things that are not related to flying. He will show you how to get your parking pass at DFW.

I only have the gold boeing key... is that the one?

Overstaffed? So why are they hiring like crazy? To be able to furlough? :)
Or are we approaching the end of the hiring cycle?

never said the whole airline is over staffed. Jet side of things are still hurting badly. However the ATR side to me seems very overstaffed, as mentioned above most ATR rsv guys are averaging 10 hours a month. I had a 7 hour month in July out of MIA.

Good to hear flysooner... I am trying to get on board! No luck so far with my low times (830/51).

No, it's a key you'll get when you do your base visit. There's another door close to the security check point where you don't need a key. However,I'm not about to post on a public forum that door or it's means of entry. Try checking on JetNet -> AE Pilots & "Base Info" for DFW. Lots of useful info there.

A properly staffed airline isn't supposed to use many reserves. The ATR staffing is fine if you ask me, although my last few months on it I wasn't able to drop ANYTHING!

Jet side is still super short. Fortunately with the reduction in recall class sizes at AA, Eagle should be able to catch up before the next batch of FTs go (which looks to be December now). Then maybe we can get PVDs and drop/trade requests approved for once.

I don't know Andy. December isn't that far away. I'm going to go with no soup for you! 2 weeks!

TC

Company pays for the class and provides transportation. I am on my own for hotel and expenses for the week. After passing the ATP class I would get scheduled for a training class and get paid.

why for OCT are there so many FO TDYs from DFW to JFK but 2 less lines? Are we going to have 20 guys on reserve in a base that has 26 lines? That sounds stupid.

How's Eagle doing meeting their hiring projections? I've heard the pool of qualified/trainable applicants is starting to dry up for them

Been hearing that since spring. Doubt it will be a problem with the lowered minimums.

Wow, that's no good so what's the failure rate over there?

Quite a few are bouncing out of training. I would say it's averaging close to 1 per class from what i've heard and seen being at the schoolhouse the last month.

I wonder how many of them will have to pay the $5,000 of the ATP course.

They told us today that Eagle expects to hire 720 guys for next year. iPads on the way they hope to get full approval for the EB in 2nd Q 2012, initial 6 months test starts next month.

720 next year? On top of the 500 this year. I better finish my Private license soon. You think they would hire me with 40/0 conditionally? This should get interesting how low minimums go.

720 more pilots next year, on top of the 500 or so this year???
Are you serious? If so, why do they need that many pilots? Did they say?

Guys, is no secret that AA will be the biggest player on hiring the next few years. There are around 250 eagle pilots with AA seniority numbers that will start getting recalled (they have the option to defer and allot probably will) in the next few months. Then there is the 824, this is a done deal. The arbitrator has ruled and we are waiting for the specifics, but as of right now they will take 50% of classes at AA. It is in AMR best interet to move them as fast as possible. Then there is the 35% but we know that is a bit suspicious but the above mentioned is happening (well we know how things are in the biz). Eagle will see allot of movement in the next few months, this is why we are hiring so much. We haven't seen a vacancy bid in over 2 months because the compant is waiting on the final details, and the AA retirements are making things a bit more interesting.

Assuming AA survives...And I do hope they do!
Don't you hear all these talks about Chapter 11? They seem to be really close!

I don't think BK is in the cards for AA. The political and business environment is very different than 2003; there isn't the "sympathy" for distressed airlines.

BUT, AA needs to do something dramatic to break out of its current predicament--poor financials, up against strong competitors, expensive contracts. In '83, they were seen in a similar position, deregulation didn't favor them, the analysts were against them. They pulled "two-tier" contracts out of their hat and changed the industry, combined with an historic economic expansion AA was top dog for 15 years.

What's the next "rabbit out of the hat"? Mainline 95-seaters at regional-like pay scales? A new B-scale? A huge change in its business model--move away from hub and spoke to an SW model?

All possibilities

GF

Hope your right, since my lively hood would be better off with them doing that. If I had to take a blind guess though, I would fear CH11 mid to late Jan is my gut instinct.

You said it yourself. So how is it not in the cards? Your right about the environment being different today. Companies aren't stupid enough to invest money into garbage businesses like they were before the recession. I see the the courthouse the only option. You remember how much UAL had to pay in interest to raise capital a few years ago? I would put AA credit rating inline with Greece. I see the only way out is all creditors refinancing the debt and terming out the note, but this is very hard to achieve. Creditors rarely go down this path. Not to mention all creditors need to be on board.

25 billion in assets and 29 billion in debt. Last 3 year trend is increasing debt, while most airlines were shrinking.

Only positive I see is the net income is increasing.
2 billion dollar loss three years ago to a 500 billion loss today.

Well...I'm an ERJ FO and it has officially been 9 days since I last flew. On any given day I have anywhere from 9 to 14 guys below me on reserve. I keep bidding RAP 2 or 1 and never get a call.

I'm getting so spoiled that I am actually going to bid for a RSV schedule next month again even though I can hold a line. The QOL is much better given my relatively high seniority on RSV.

On the other hand, the only lines I could hold are those horrible ones at the bottom with 300+ hours away from base, early shows, late finishes...you know what I'm talking about.

No thanks. I'll sit pretty here on Reserve until the cows come home....fly when I want and take "days off" when I want! I won't bid for a line until my seniority lets me hold one of those precious 3 day lines near the top of the bid packet...

Or until Eagle begins to furlough everybody below me..ouch!

Agh yes, another one of the new breed of pilots hopeful to be a pawn in the further erosion of the industry.

What you and your parasitic brethren fail to realize is that if the majors go that way outsourcing further and paying you even fewer peanuts to fly larger metal, that will be YOUR career stop. You may be young, hungry and free-wheeling now, but in 15 years with a wife, kids, a mortgage, saving for retirement on your peanut dispensment level will be difficult, if not impossible.

Of course then. You'll be complaining about the very situation you willingly and eagerly cultivated 15 years prior.

If your present hopes actually come to fruition, you'll be the most screwed of all, you just don't know it yet.

As a potential new hire at Eagle, I've been wondering about the 720 number as well. That would be terrific news for a new hire today, as you'd reach roughly 50% seniority on the FO side in only a year. However, AA is only looking at 5 mandatory retirements in 2012, notwithstanding all the early retirements. What am I missing that would warrant 720 new hires next year?

The rapture.

Hahahaha, isn't that exactly what you did and preached at the 20+ years you were at eagle as a parasite. Now that you've flowed you turned into a hypocrite. It doesn't get anymore Me Me Me than you.

The latest vacancy bid has zero, zippo, nada, zilch captains on it. I suppose you haven't heard about the upcoming schedule reduction...

And I guess you werent aware that we are still awaiting the ruling of seat locks for the 824, there has been a few e-mail in regards to this. Also look at the flow plan and see how we are still backed up in upgrades. Could this explain things a bit better. Two months ago there were over 70 captain vacancies, it takes times for them to get these guys typed, just be patient your capatin vacancies will come soon. We are having problems with IOE since an ERJ FO can complete ground school and SIM for the ERJ in about 3 weeks. Moving FOs around is easy with the vacancies, upgrades is a whole different animal, but that's just what I see!!

No, it hasn't.

First, there's no logical way for you to know what I "preached", 10 or 20 years ago. You're confusing irrational assumption on your part with practical reality.

The practical reality is, why would I subscribe to the parasitic desire of the new wave of pilots to seize any and all flying from major carriers if I had a seniority number at one and planned to fly there one day ?

Acknowledging the realities of competitive
scope is not the same as openly advocating the theft of work from other carriers, be they majors or regionals and confusing the two only leads me to believe that you too are among the "new breed".

Sorry to take this off topic, but what do you guys use to organize your Jepps in the ERJ cockpit? In the CRJ I could clip an entire jep binder to the chart holder. Not so fortunate this time around. It seems, at least to me, that the chart holders are not very stable and can hardly hold a few pieces of paper.

You make me laugh so hard with the new breed stuff, I've had quite a few 18+ yr CAs here that tells me that they wish AA would strike so he can go fly the triple there, or bring them to eagle. I can name names if you want so you can ask them about those statements. "new breed" lol, your entitled generation wants to label us as that to cover up your own selfish entitled attitudes that is 10 times greater than our generation.

Use this: CrewAid

No argument there. I knew many of the same senior captains. They were a minority whereas, now most of the new breed gets upset when they're not 27 year old captains flying 100-seat jet airliners.

That didn't exist 10-20 years ago, but it's practically standard new-guy philosophy now. In fact, the ravenous hunger of poaching other regionals is rampant as well. The irony at Eagle will soon be the horrific whining when alas, Eagle becomes the next poachee and the new breed cries to the gods screaming, "why me, why me".