I am just curious if there are any pilots that could pass along any info about Piedmont. I am curious about QOL, work rules, training and base selection if any. The Dash 8 seems like it would be a great plane to fly as I know its a pleasure to be a passenger on board. All and any info would be helpful. Thanks!

 

Not to be a smart alec, but to curtail redundancy, most of what you're after is available on this forum by searching for "piedmont". There have been several threads in the past month alone.

 

Was looking for most recent info, but point taken. Sir ,yes Sir.

 

Things have not changed lately, so what you read elsewhere is still pretty accurate. Here is a quick summary:

Pros:
The Dash 8 IS a great plane to fly.
The flight crews are all really cool.
The contract is one of the best for a regional airline.
The starting F/O pay is one of the best in the industry.
Piedmont is owned by US Airways, which has some benefits, ie non-rev priority and some perks.

Cons:
The fleet is getting old and rumors of new aircraft have yet to materalize.
The company is in no rush to fix broken APUs, which is awful this time of the year.
There have been no upgrades in a long time, right now I think upgrade is 5-6 years (although since we AREN'T upgrading at all right now, that number is really infinity).
Flow through? Who knows when that will happen...

Good luck with your decision, PDT really needs pilots, so you should have no trouble getting an interview as long as you meet the mins and have a clean background.

 

Thanks very much for the update, and yes I will read the archives also. Piedmont's website doesn't post a TT or Multi time requirement......only com, inst, multi ratings. APC posts the mins as 500/100. Did they lower their mins as posted on their website? And whats with the $5,000.00 sign on bonus?

 

Hey, I wasn't trying to be a wise guy, there's a lot of good info into the QOL and goings on in the other threads. Check out FI too, if you're on it.

I think they still want the hours if they can get them, which they can't. If you have a comm multi, fire off a resume, the worst that can happen is they don't call.

$5000 bonus - don't quote me but I think you get $2500 after you finish training and $2500 after your first recurrent. A little incentive to stay, they were losing an awful lot of guys within their first year.

fresno's post is right on, and I will add that if you want to live in one of PDT's bases, life can be alright. If you want to commute, you're not going to be the happiest camper.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the info, its much appreciated. And your right, I could have just searched the archives. I guess I was feeling the need to start a thread. I actually would like LGA for a base and from what I have read many pilots do not. I live near PVD and guess the commute to LGA wouldn't be so bad. Guess I'll think about it. Sounds like a pretty decent place to work aside from the upgrade time being quite long. Thanks again.

 

Someone who still works there can clarify, but when I was there LGA had mostly day trips. That was the problem with the base: Too expensive to live in, but not enough 4-days to make for efficient commuting (if there is such a thing).

 

Not enough 4 days? Did they even exist? I saw a 3 day or 2, but not on my sched and not very often. While I was there (last year), most lines had an average of 2 overnights per month. If you wan tt o live in PVD, you might consider airlines with BOS as a base. I'm not endorseing them, but you might check out Big Sky.

 

The lines in LGA have more overnights now. Next month I have 4 overnights. One of them is a 3 day and the rest are 2 day. Since we have less overnights we also get more days off than the other bases.