I support this fully, but voted maybe because I don't believe Captains should be part time.

I'd love to do it part time, so I could actually support myself with a much higher paying job that ironically has less responsibility and requires much less professionalism.

Either that, or the regionals need to start providing FOs with dorms, meals, laundry service and so on if they really want to treat it as a 'barely paid' internship.

We really don't need to pay more per hour, they just need to pay pilots for ALL the time they work, and not just when the door is closed. (yes, I realize I don't understand 121 pay, I just know my friends don't get paid when they are working for airlines, and they make dismal amounts of money).

 

Easy we should be paid the Federal Minimum Wage for all time on DUTY in addition to flight pay. This would solve a whole lot of problems. Anyone know how to start a petition?

 

How about allowing multiple bases wherever the airline has enough flights to justify satellite/virtual domiciles? Who wouldn't rather drive 15 or 20 minutes to work over commuting and driving or flying for 2, 3, 4 or more hours? I believe NetJets allows you to be based in multiple locations of your choice... At the very least, airlines should strongly reconsider some of their recently closed and extremely popular closed domiciles. If they want to attract and retain flight crews, bases such as SMF, SBA, MRY and SAN/CLD would be a huge incentive, and a huge cost savings on hotels and per diem at the same time!

 

All the numbers I fabricated were for 2x a year in the sim so we're still at 5k. Obviously some things I left out but I also grossly exaggerated some of the other costs....like 150/hour for instructor and 100/hr avg pilot. This was also assuming 1k/hr sim time, which was pure conjecture but again, my guess is that it's significantly lower for companies that own their sim. As far as training costs for IPs, well that is spread out over the whole company's worth of pilots. Adding more pilots isn't going to make that cost go up, it's fixed.

With 117 it would be difficult to "drive" anyone to 1000 hours because its all rolling....There is no more clean slate on Jan 1. The company isn't going to want a bunch of pilots bumping up on 1k hours every month, a couple weather days and the airline is shutdown from everyone timing out.

They'd also save on health care costs/retirement etc because a part time employee wouldn't be eligible. This could amount to a large savings.

SO anywho, I don't really see this happening any time soon, but to fully disregard it is a little shortsighted. Yea, 10 hours is a little ridiculous but I guarantee that there is a number(hours) that would make it work.

 

So I have 8800 hrs. Part 121 time, 4 type ratings, and check airman exp....and you think if folks like myself came back we would need babysitting?

 

I know i brought this up in the "what would it take to bring you back" thread.

I voted yes, but totally feel and understand the concern of current pilots so if it never happened I'd be perfectly ok with it. What I have seen are quite a few pilots (myself included) who'd love to fly 121, but won't do it for current rates...and likely wouldn't do it even with a pay bump.

I've gotten out of the biz, and have a pretty steady, very stable $90k/yr job that I couldn't imagine giving up just to say I fly a jet again. A lot of guys I work with have mentioned that same thing, that they'd happily give up a weekend or two a month to fly planes.

I think the unions would and should fight this tooth and nail. There is the possibility that it would attract pilots back to the profession who have no interest in making a full on career change...and might allow some current pilots a chance to explore other options, but it could immediately put the jobs of every pilot on property in jeopardy...

In order to minimize impact to the company, or make it more financially feasible, I'd imagine the company have a termination clause in the pilot's contract that requires employment for 3-5 years with no upgrade, and some type of minimal (if that) pay increases.

 

Okay I did some digging. Republic does not hire part time FA's, however they did have something called Guaranteed Low Time (GLT). From what I glean it's seniority based, 10% of lines are offered to GLT, and guarantee is 37 1/2 hours. I imagine it would work similar to this if pilots ever got it. And don't quote me on this but I believe they lose their pass benefits.

 

Doesn't some airline have FA job sharing?

 

It's ok to admit that you don't understand the argument. No worries.

 

They keep their pass benefits.