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PenAir Pilots Fortress of Solitude

Old 01-21-2017, 10:25 PM
  #71  
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Originally Posted by DoctorManhattan View Post
Chapter 1: Fat, dumb and happy

You move to Alaska to fly in Alaska, that's the deal. Maybe you get hired low time into the freighter. Things are great for the most part. Home every night, good pay to duty ratio, ability to trade flights and get time off. All that making up for the abysmal pay. Overall, pretty good quality of life.

You upgrade. Down to the bottom of the list again. But hey, you're in the left seat. All you want to do is fly your A$$ off when you're at work and have a livable schedule. Hourly pay sucks, now FO's make almost as much as you do with the new bonus program. But still, every hour is one closer to your next job. Nose to the grindstone. Work hard, go home. "I could do this for a while" you say to yourself.

Chapter 2: What just happened?

Enter....the SAAB 2000 (angels singing). "We need more lift for Dutch" they say. "The 2000 is the airplane for Dutch" they say. "All of our problems solved". The bigger faster, more complicated airplane takes the long legs. It goes so senior you could never touch it. Then it promptly sh&@$ the bed. "Where did all the flying go?" "Wow, my schedule sucks next month." "I barely made my guarantee."

That sure happened fast. All of a sudden, this isn't working anymore. If you leave for another airline now, you'll set your career back 2 years and you know it. "Is it worth leaving? No". You say. That grindstone sure is starting to get old though.

Chapter 3: The writing is on the wall

Rumblings of a new base. You hear something about Portland, then Denver. Questions abound. "Do we even have the crew?" Do we have enough airplanes?" "How can they train the ground crews that fast?" Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain. The voice in your head says "whatever comes, just stick with it, it's not worth leaving."

"Can you go for a week?" Then 2...then a month. You're living in a hotel. Or moving south for the company to be re-based. Some folks aren't getting paid to re-locate. (Which they find out after they've moved) Something about the base being too old. If you're TDY your family doesn't even know who you are anymore. You fly 6 legs a day. 5 and 2's, some 6 an 1's, extensions, maintenance problems, ground crew problems, brand new crew. The paperwork is so messed up and so late most of the time that you spend half of your mental energy sifting through it. The whole place is just a violation waiting to happen. Min rest. You go to bed tired, and wake up tired. Repeat. "Where's the fueler?" "Where's my paperwork? Were supposed to leave in 5 minutes". Delayed out of the gate, trying to make up time all day. To no avail....Taxi is late. Pushing your rest and delaying tomorrow's departure. "Why do we have so many delays?" They say. "We better create a position to figure these delays out." You laugh when you read the email.

"Where's my per diem?" "Where's my bonus?" "I've been denied vacation for the past 8 months." You have 5 hour sits at the airport. They start to take away the monetary perks for the folks on TDY. It's terrible for pilots based there, how are they even doing it? It's becoming un-commutable. Overnights are going away. It WAS doable, not anymore. It's starting to get to you. Where did that grey hair come from?

Chapter 4: Exodus

"You hear so and so is leaving?" "I heard so and so is looking at their options." "I heard there's talk of a union." "So and so put in their notice." People can't take it anymore. You ask yourself that same old question "Is it worth leaving?" This time a new answer... "yes." You are willing to take the hit to your career to leave this place. Resumes everywhere to test the waters. Now, you wait. You know the company can't survive losing these new bases. But you just don't care anymore. You are starting to lose your mind. Who is John Galt?

Just curious, will there be a Ch. 7 or Ch. 11 to this novel?
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Old 01-22-2017, 12:16 AM
  #72  
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Well, this thread is re-enforcing my desire to go to Corvus.
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:17 AM
  #73  
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So what's the story on the 2000? Still flying?
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Old 01-22-2017, 10:36 AM
  #74  
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Originally Posted by Wonder Woman View Post
Heard from a few of the PDX guys and it sounds like a Union Committee will be forming soon. I see things headed that way unless management makes good on some promises.

WW
Pay attention, this is important: if you are in a position where you are starting to talk about voting in a union, then YOU NEED A UNION. Only the most ignorant pilot would simply use it as leverage to make short term improvements. Even if they did make changes for the better (and they won't), you don't have a contract, so they will have you back to status quo or worse as soon as they think they can pull it off. Read up on your airline history and study human nature. You guys need to take the initiative and make the necessary changes.
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Old 01-22-2017, 01:30 PM
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Originally Posted by westbound View Post
Just curious, will there be a Ch. 7 or Ch. 11 to this novel?


I see what you did there.


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Old 01-22-2017, 01:45 PM
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Originally Posted by rocketman3746 View Post
Pay attention, this is important: if you are in a position where you are starting to talk about voting in a union, then YOU NEED A UNION. Only the most ignorant pilot would simply use it as leverage to make short term improvements. Even if they did make changes for the better (and they won't), you don't have a contract, so they will have you back to status quo or worse as soon as they think they can pull it off. Read up on your airline history and study human nature. You guys need to take the initiative and make the necessary changes.


Everything is an economy of scale. Including working at a small regional. I would prefer NOT to go union. I would rather the company respond to changes in the supply of labor based on market feedback. (People quitting, the comments on this forum etc). The market is showing them that the demand for pilots is larger than the supply. Therefore, they have to recreate demand for jobs at PenAir by raising pay and making schedules more livable. If the market was not in the pilot's favor right now I would say that a union is our only option. We always have recourse to unionize but once again, I would prefer that not be our first course of action. I think collective bargaining on the small scale is the best way forward. We just have to pull the trigger. And not get fired in the process...

DM


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Old 01-22-2017, 04:23 PM
  #77  
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Default The Magical Saab 2000

Originally Posted by TallFlyer View Post
So what's the story on the 2000? Still flying?
The 2000.. Where to begin. The captains only got a 10% bump in pay to fly the 2000 and it's roughly 20% faster, the FOs get the same pay and never go over their guarantee. The company thought the plane would be perfect for Dutch Harbor and be able to go direct to Dutch without bumping bags, sadly that's not always the case. The 2000 has the same cargo volume size as the 340, but the 2000 has no overhead baggage so now it bulks out where as the 340 would weight out. The performance is also not suited to Dutch Harbor, it cant handle the winds like the 340 and it cannot land with any airframe ice at DUT due to the performance charts. Not to mention there is only around 60 2000s in the world with a very limited parts supply. The fact that there are very few airframes out there, limited parts availability, and astronomical costs of getting it certificated in the U.S. shows managements complete lack of good decision making.
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Old 01-22-2017, 09:21 PM
  #78  
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Originally Posted by rocketman3746 View Post
Pay attention, this is important: if you are in a position where you are starting to talk about voting in a union, then YOU NEED A UNION. Only the most ignorant pilot would simply use it as leverage to make short term improvements. Even if they did make changes for the better (and they won't), you don't have a contract, so they will have you back to status quo or worse as soon as they think they can pull it off. Read up on your airline history and study human nature. You guys need to take the initiative and make the necessary changes.

Exactly. No company ever got a union voted in that didn't deserve it.

Not to mention that the promises made by management to pilots haven't been kept, so why would any mentally stable person think that additional promises would be adhered to? They can't even pay per diem on time, and won't (or can't) hire the support staff at HQ to handle things properly.

I heard last week that the DO and 2 VPs have to go from ANC to visit the "Lower 48" so at this point it's obviously damage control and an attempt to stop the hemorrhage of quality personnel. We're not just talking pilots here, but FAs, MX and Rampers as well.

Originally Posted by westbound View Post
Just curious, will there be a Ch. 7 or Ch. 11 to this novel?
Interesting thought - "what if" it's a planned failure in the Lower 48 so that they can go back to their bread and butter AK operation.

Last edited by JLTD; 01-22-2017 at 09:38 PM.
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Old 01-23-2017, 09:21 AM
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Originally Posted by JLTD View Post

....Interesting thought - "what if" it's a planned failure in the Lower 48 so that they can go back to their bread and butter AK operation.
It's probably not anything more sinister than a basic bait & switch combined with the fact that pilots' skills and experience aren't very portable, aka "standard industry briefing." The willingness of people to throw good years after bad is what keeps these places afloat.
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Old 01-23-2017, 02:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Ashes View Post
... The willingness of people to throw good years after bad is what keeps these places afloat.
Hope springs eternal. Whatever the bruises, be glad that it does. The converse is deadly!
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