Don't bother with me huh? Man you must have been a great "rep"!!
I forget that you can't break with the status qou here on APC lest you be burned at the stake! Well good luck guys, it's a good time to be an airline pilot as hiring at the legacies is only going to increase which is good for everyone! Sure beats the lost decade...

It seemed to me that you weren't allowing "disillusioned" his point of view without the usual cheerleader comments that basically deny that anything is wrong, or could stand improvement.

Start a union drive?

Exactly. Seems someone sent in the management pilotto protect their SAPA money.

What I honestly can't understand is why any of us believe, for a moment, that SKW management gives a rat's patootie about pilot morale. In fact, it's in management's best interest to force more senior pilots to leave as fast as new ones can be recruited. Since the recruitment faucet appears to remain wide open, SKW management has zero — zero — incentive to do anything to improve pilot retention.

Think about it. A regional airline's entire reason for existence is the D-scale pay rates it provides its pilots. The cheaper the labor, the better the chances of that regional winning and keeping contracts. Now, how do you make those already low labor costs even cheaper? By keeping the average tenure (length of employment) of the pilot group as short as possible. The last thing you want is a bunch of 20-year captains at the top of the payscale. Instead, what you want is a bunch of 2-year FOs and 4-year captains. And you want those captains to leave as soon as possible.

The only danger with this approach, of course, is that if the supply of fresh-faced young recruits suddenly dries up, you can't staff your flying. But that hasn't yet happened at SKW. Until it does, I firmly believe that management will continue to intentionally do what it can to discourage any pilot from staying here one more day than absolutely necessary. Whether it's the laughable excuse known as SAPA, or the fact that us RJ guys are being worked to the max with zero reserves, 90+ hour minimum months, aggressive and harassing emails if you should dare to call in sick, with absolutely no end in sight...it appears to me that management knows exactly what it's doing.

What I can't understand is why any of us think it's ever going to change for the better. There are two, and only two, things that could possibly reverse this trend. They are:

1) Massive exodus of senior pilots, especially CAs, to the point that SKW can't staff the flying it's signed up for, and we start seeing significant crew-related cancellations.

2) The pool of new recruits dries up.

Unfortunately, scenario #1 will only happen if major airline hiring suddenly accelerates, which it does not appear to be doing. Most of us want to remain in aviation, meaning that another pilot slot needs to open up somewhere in order for us to leave.

As for scenario #2, we've already seen how SKW got rid of one of the key gatekeepers in SGU (I speak of CE) who tried to ensure a high-quality stream of applicants. Not being a check airman, I can't speak to the airmanship of the current crop of newbies, but it would appear that SKW is finding it more difficult to find qualified and competent individuals. However, our classes are still full.

No amount of complaining on APC, or writing your rep, or TP'ing Chip's house will fix any of this. There's really only one solution for all of us, and that's simply: Get your time, and get out.

And no, I don't believe a union can help us address any of these issues. The only people who can help us...are ourselves. So update those apps. Shine those shoes. Haunt those job fairs. Get a sex change (I kid, I kid.) Just whatever you do, quit thinking that someone in SAPA, or in management, or the Pilot Fairy is going to improve your quality of life. The only person who can do that...is you.

Gonna share the wealth or keep it to yourself?

Not you first career? Well that explains a lot. We've got a lot of dream jobbers here who are quick to apologize for what they still believe to be a family business as they pay for a confirmed seat to commute home to their Malibu or Bell Aire bungalow. I'll agree that complaining on APC doesn't accomplish much but telling people to volunteer their family time to be part of a broken system is just laughable. His whole point is those who have volunteered have no power. I appreciate those that put their time into SAPA but I'd much rather put my efforts towards something that will give us teeth (baby teeth as long as RLA exists), like a union drive. Or my golf swing. It's amazing how far I've been able to drive since I started using "CC" as my ball mark.

For the bases and pay.

I'm currently typing this from my "Malibu" bungalow! LOL! By the way my first career ended when I was 24 and started flying (late bloomer). I guess I just couldn't see myself continuing my 6 day work weeks doing all manual labor with only a few hours each night at home.... Went to an ALPA carrier for 4 years that got destroyed and is almost unrecognizable from when I started there! I would have stayed except things were so bad it forced a lot of us to start over! There are many who are under some false or misguided perceptions that ALPA is going to have any power to "fix" things.... It doesn't! Our MEC did a lot of big talk but were usually just puppets for management! Oh and the beloved ALPA national prez Mr. Moak wrote a letter exclusively for our pilot group saying how the concessionary contract was the best we were going to get for our "sector" ( FFD carrier) and we should just take the deal! I did get a magazine subscription though! Ask those guys over at eagle how much their "contract" is valued by management! G ahead and start a union drive again! I won't be voting for it, at least not ALPA! I could get behind something in house but My experience with ALPA has not been a good one!
Just don't be surprised when you still can't seem to get things done, even with the "real representation"....
Hey I've still got the old lanyard, if you like I can send it your way so you can represent during the drive!

As a new hire, how feasible is to get Houston out of training? If not, how long it may take to have Houston? How long will you be sitting on reserve in Houston? Thanks.