that's what I thought but flightware.com shows 5214 and 5217 as flights between HEF and IAD. It must be just to get the planes back and forth. I was just curious because I only knew HEF as a maintenance base and then I saw those flights.

They don do united out of hef. THey do take a plane to IAD every morning to start the day and go IAD-PIT for US Airways. All of the United planes overnight at their base. IF you hear United coming out of HEF, It's a repo. They do a lot of those 5212 and 5214 flights a day out of IAD or HEF, to swap planes out, drop one off for MX etc. THere is a crew on a 5 hr sit everyday at IAD now. THis month it's CHO's turn. Next month it goes back to HPN i believe.

Ok, that explains it thanks. I know what is used for repo flight numbers so I just thought it was 121 flying when I saw the 5200's (United flight numbers) out of HEF. Thanks again!

How do you get assigned a base with colgan? I live in ROC and think they are closing ROC and BUF(anyone know why?) so SYR would be my first choice if thats true. Would a new hire on reserve get the SYR base most likley if they wanted it or how do the assignments work. What happens if I get IAH? Moving that far is NOT a option for me at this time in my life, and commuting would be a nightmare......

Several folks in the Noveber class wanted IAH and all got up east bases (ithaca manasas etc.). I think everyone that wanted IAH got it within a month.

What happens if you get IAH? Let them know you want another base, and they put you on the list. Until then, (not to be rude but) you live with it.

And yes, the commute between a NY outstation and IAH is bad. For me it was basically and all day affair.

Does anyone know how hard it would be to get SYR right now and what kinda trips SYR flies during the day? Are they out and backs or overnights?

Syracuse, NY is a Colgan mini-HUB. They have 15 lines or so. 4 Airplanes. Piedmont closed their SYR base and Airways asked Colgan to fly it.

They do both out and backs and overnights. Lines are pretty good up there. Everything but reserve is 4 on 3 off.

Syracuse flies to NYC-LaGuardia, Pittsburgh and Boston.

A lot of the lines at Colgan are just constant round trips. For instance...

SYR-LGA
LGA-SYR
SYR-LGA
LGA-SYR

Thats all you will do all month, sometimes ALL YEAR.

With that being said is SYR easy to get if your a new hire? Does it look like SYR sill stay around for a while? Would it be possible or practical to drive to work from ROC with little problems?

Coming to Colgan because of the bases is a really bad idea. They will close it on you in a heartbeat. We will be all hub based within a year.

For all you Colgan drivers, what type of flight bennifits do you have if your based in the NE with US? Could you and your family ride on PSA, Mesa or even USAirways since Colgan flies for them? Are you in the Cass system (meaning pilots can ride on other cass members for free right)? What about if your based with UA or CO is it the same as for US?