Did the same stuff. Not sad. It's just better now.

I'm in the no experience looking for experience category! :) care to give me some? (joke). So what makes wmu such a great school that they can bypass the interview? That's the only thing that really throws up a red flag to me. And this is coming from a newbie that only has 320 TT myself. Hiring people without a judgment of character and personality is not right. You really don't know who your getting.

If you're not careful, a busted checkride on your certificate and a 121 washout on your PRIA

Well.....If they cant perform to ATP standards, then they deserve it. Everybody always has excuses, excuses, excuses........


We're flying jets, not model airplanes.


If they can't be precise, then TOO BAD.

1. What power does the union have to tell the company how many hours the new hires will have?

2. A few things your dues pay for: contract negotiations, contract administration (enforcement), grivence process, implementation, retainers for excellent Aviation Lawyers, an excellent staff of aeromedical experts and doctors to keep you on the line if something happens to you... etc the list goes on.

I don't think that anyone should be getting hired with no interview. This is a job, not a hobby. There has to be some type of screening process. Just because someone when to flight school A, or was furloughed from airline B doesn't mean they automatically deserve a job here. This is an issue to take up with the company. The company is trying to get warm bodies in seats that are going to be comitted to staying at Pinnacle long term (because they do not have enough expierence to go anywhere else). They have to hire hundreds of pilots now and will have to backfill for attrition in the future. The company knows that eventually the feds will put in a higher hour requirement and applicants will dry up fast, I'm guessing the furloughs will get many more offers at that time. Is it right? Hell no, it's reality.

When it comes to having MEC meetings many times they search for the cheapest place to reserve multiple rooms + meeting areas. Vegas is actually a very cheap place to hold a conference because of all the different hotels competing for business.

These guys get no monetary return for giving up nearly all of thier days off (in busy times 3-4 days off a month) to represent us. I have no problem buying them a steak every now and then.

Do you have a problem with Prater getting paid over $500,000 a year while the bottom guy at your company is right around $20,000?

I agree entirely with the sentiment of your post. However, what is the difference between an old-timer that reads a newspaper or book in cruise vs. someone that plays with their ipad in cruise? Heck, I know guys that have put all of their manuals, union contracts etc. on their E readers. If newspaper-reading Captain Krusty tells me to put it away, I too would roll my eyes.

No, I don't even own an Apple product.

I wasn't talking about the package for national officers. But since you brought it up... I don't know what Prater was paid, or what Moak gets in salary, but I don't think a nice round $500,000 is an accurate number. Most of the pilots who run for President are widebody captains making ~ $250,000 per year. Being the president of a union the size of ALPA is a much harder job than doing 6 oceanic crossings a month. If you want to attract talent, you need to have compensation. Would you have us undercut our own leaders who are fighting to keep management from undercutting us? If you think that Prater got to sit on his ass all day and collect paychecks you are mistaken. I wouldn't be a national officer if it paid $1,000,000 per year, its way more work than I would ever want. Those guys are married to ALPA and have virtually no time off.

ANY discipline involving the term "fast track" is bad.