pinnacle interview Aug 29
 

Kind of nervous about this because I am not sure of Pinnacles future. I have a family and dont want to bring them down with a dying copmpany!

What is so appealing about them that you would go interview?

An interview is an interview, not a job offer. Use this opportunity to hone your interview skills and demeanor. And even if offered a job, you don't really have to take it.

I am learning that every airline has its problems, I am just not a bg risk taker , thats all! Appealing?, I get a foot in a door with once was a growing company.

If offered. I want the job, but i am afraid of the unknown. If i dont get the offer it will probably be easier

Buffalo, darling, I hope you get over your fear of the unknown, otherwise you will be afraid your entire life! Accepting or declining a job is something done by millions everyday. Being risk-averse is a different matter altogether, but if you have weighed the pros and cons, and gone into the decision armed with all the relevant information and with your eyes open, you should be able to sleep at night.

If offered a job, you can decline it. If you accept it, you can decline it later. All kinds of options available to you. Good luck in your choice(s).

If you want to even have the opportunity to chose, then you need to change your attitude or it will kill you at the interview. Go all out to get the job offer first, THEN decide whether or not to accept...don't mix those two processes.

I just can't believe that people are still going there when things are so uncertain that pilots that already work there with good seniority are ditching 20 per month. May I suggest the other 25 regionals? Be careful at the interview, they know what's going on and they will grill you to see if you're one of those guys not serious about the job.

Hey, I work here and a couple weeks ago I was as freaked out as you about the future of this place, but then some people on this board helped me realize that everything is not as bad as it seems.

Here is why you will not lose your job if you come here:
The company is completing a second certificate that will allow them to bid for other carriers besides northwest. This is not a go jet thing becuase in our contract it states that all flying must be done by pinnacle pilots.
We are among the lowest cost operators of the crj, although that is not to good for our pay, it is good for job security.
You will upgrade faster here than most places. I have come to accept the fact that FO pay is crap. A new contract with better pay is in the works, but wont be here for a while, but with attrition you really do move quick here. If you like DTW, MSP, MEM, and can live there like myself, QOL is pretty good.
Regionals are regionals, these aren't most of our career jobs, so suck it up, go to one that will get you to where you want to go faster and then worry about which major you want to go to. Who knows, even companies like skywest might feel the heat soon if the majors want lower costs. Not likely, but you never know. Just do what you think is right, and interview for sure, cause that can't hurt you.

Hey FO, any new word on when the next class dates will be. I interviewed last week and still have not heard anything. Still have not gotten a letter so im hopefull.

Hey Baylor, how was the interview?

It was not that bad at all. The gouges on aviationinterviews are right on. They said the callback would be about 5 days. Wish everybody did it like expressjet. They tell you before you leave the building if you have the job or not.

Some rumors flying around the break room say that the next class will be mid-Sept. I can't blame them for putting it off. The past two classes have all had about 24 people in them, and the sims are getting backed up. Our sim is supposed to start sometime mid-sept, but who knows. :confused:

If you are that worried about it then stay out of the airlines period.....cause bottom line any regional could go down at any minute (nobody is safe not even skywest or mesa or any of those other oversized regional borg hives)... my advice if you like flying and want to be an airline pilot then go for it... but if the worry factor is there then go find yourself a better career path and make flying your expensive hobby.

Better get out of this business quick. Every company faces a crisis every few years that can make or break them, especially with the way the mainline carriers play musical chairs with the regionals.

I work here too, and I feel that although Pinnacle has its share of challenges, it has a fairly robust, experienced management team that could possibly positon this carrier to succeed in the future. One reality is that the same business practices that result in good airlines are ones that result in minimum pay, maximum work for the employees. So you can either go with a company that pays its pilots a little more now, then forces concessions on them later when bidding comes out for new flying, or you can go with a company that already pays pretty low and can bid aggressively for new flying. If the reality that we as pilots aren't ever going to make levels of income commensurate with our training time/cost isn't bad enough, there's one more thing. I've been doing this job for about a year and a half now, and I'll tell you, its a lot of fun sometimes. When I'm hand-flying the plane it's the greatest feeling in the world, and there's nothing better than executing a perfect approach and landing in this challenging aircraft. But every other part of this job sucks. Bad. Most of the time we just sit there, staring out the window waiting, waiting, watching the clock tick down. Our only purpose is to change frequencies and follow the procedures if something goes wrong. But nothing ever does go wrong so we sit, and sit. Then you go to the hotel and sit. Call the wife, talk to the kid. Repeat. If you have a family I'd encourage you to consider very carefully how they will feel when you're gone 90% of the time, initially, then 50% of the time from then on, forever. It might be better just to play FlightSim2004. At least there you can do a roll every now and again. I hate to sound pessimestic, but the worst part about it all is, there's no future in airline flying. The oil is getting more expensive every day, and it won't stop. Ticket prices can only go so high. Airlines are going to merge (bad for pilots), big labor has lost its pricing power and now can only serve to make idle threats and drag out the innevitable concessionary pay decrease contracts. There may be opportunities overseas at places like Emirates, or in the corporate/VLJ slots that will remain. But don't forget there will be lots of very experienced ex-airline pilots to fill those spots first. Maybe other opportunities will be created, we'll see.

The pilot's world is dramatically different now than it was when I started my path towards this career. If I had known then what I know now, I would have never done it. But now that I'm here I try to make the best of it, to do the best job I can every day and enjoy what is the greatest view in the world. And I keep an eye out every day for other opportunities, knowing someday I'll have to leave this career. Good luck to you, to everyone.

Wow. And I left Alaska for this? Flying 6 to 8 hours a day, hoping the gear comes down and I don't catch TB from the drunk spitting up pink in the back? Seems that every form of refuge has it's price. Wait, the Eagles said that.

Oh, just pass me some prozac and hide my razor.

Let's assume you want to fly for a regional as your next career move.

Where else would you go? You can paint a doomsday scenario for any regional right now so you just have to bite the bullet and do what you need to do, but any regional job could evaporate in 6 months.

True, but some have better odds than others. I'd rather bet with a Flush in my hands than 1 pair...