One of the jet check airmen just told me that they were authorized to 1000 RVR (Cat II minimums).

Seattle and Portland have been EXTREMELY foggy for the last four or five days. I've done three Cat III's into Seattle in the last three days, the last two to 800 RVR and 600 RVR, respectively. The approach on Monday was probably the lowest one I've ever done at Seattle. The ILS wasn't too bad, but taxiing was very stressful, particularly with the construction at Seattle. My FO did a great job with helping me to maintain orientation as we wound around construction barricades, dodged catering trucks, and attempting to find our parking spot. It was so foggy that I had a hard time seeing our marshaller at 400 feet, lighted wands and all.

At the present time, Seattle is limited to 600 RVR for all operations, due to the construction. This applies to all operators, not just Horizon.

Hello,

I’m moving up to Seattle in the next month and have been taking a hard look at horizon. My biggest issue right now seems to be convincing my wife (weekend warrior) that the experience is worth all the away time, esp. without seniority to have many scheduling options. I guess I don’t really need to worry too much until she prefers me out of town.

I’m looking for some info on what kind of schedule to expect out of ioe. Esp. how hard is it to get a few weekends off per month? Do most lines average 12-13 days off a month? Does expecting about 1 out of 3 every nights avg out of base sound about right?

I saw a post saying to expect res for at least 6 mo out of training- flying 10-20 hrs a month. Does that still sound like a good guess? Still wondering about that elusive delay bet a job offer and a date to start training if anyone has any declassified info.

Would love to fly with you all but trying to get a realistic idea of newbie scheduling.

Thanks for any input.

Should mention I could also be happy in the Q, esp. if there are more scheduling options. Just thinking that the Guaranteed Seattle base is a better fit from what I can tell. Any ideas on how long new Q FOs are waiting to get based in Seattle?

Thanks

From one of our BCPs:

"We have come a long way on our recovery over the last year. In fact, we have just been presented with the opportunity to take on more flying for Alaska beginning Jan 2019. We are still sifting through the details, but the flying is material and mostly associated with the Q400. We are sharing this with you because our CA staffing looks to be the limit on how much of this flying we can take on. So, if you currently qualify and are ready to take on the next step in your career by upgrading to CA, now is the time. The January and February upgrades will be our most critical months in determining our flying capabilities. We hope you find this information helpful as you are determining your bids. As you can see we really need Q400 captains."

The upgrade/transition classes for Jan 2019 are:





Q400

Jan 2- 4

Jan 10- 4

Jan 25- 6



E175

Jan 2- 2

Jan 10- 2

Jan 25- 4


22 total vacancies for Jan.

Any word about new hire training classes? Interviewed in early September and have not heard anything since receiving the CJO.

I am curious what new flying were getting. Whether it's new routes or replacing flying.

Or a ruse to get more junior FOs to upgrade to CA so they can sit reserve forever.

Oooh. Good point. Your thinking has management written all over it.

I can't speak specifically to Seattle, but I know that reserves in most of the bases (especially on the E175) aren't doing a whole lot of flying at the moment, but that's subject to change whenever Air Group comes up with another self-inflicted crisis that slows down the hiring or training pipeline.

I'm pretty sure all of the lines should hit 12-13 days off per month, and even reserve should do that as well.

As for how often you're gone, that's a function of how senior you are, how you set up things in our bidding software, and how the trips in your base are built for a given bid. If you leave the system alone, it'll typically build a schedule looking something like blocks of 2-3 days off, alternating with 3-5 day blocks of trips, where you may be home briefly between trips in the "on" block.

Reserve is normally 2-3 days off, then 4-5 days on, repeat.

If you want to waive some contractual requirements, you can shove all of your flying into the first or last couple weeks of the month and get longer blocks of days off, but that doesn't work as well with reserve, due to how the reserve lines are built.

Weekends off generally requires either a fair bit of seniority, and/or waiving some stuff in building your schedule but since movement in the right seat (especially on the Q400) is pretty quick at the moment, you build seniority pretty quickly as an FO, although it comes to a screeching halt when you upgrade.

I've heard through the grapevine that 2019 classes are being filled? For those who are in the pool, have you heard anything?
I'm applying this week along with some other regionals and wondering how quickly I would be sent to training. Looks like I may have to get a part time job to bridge the gap this winter.