I really dont think there should be people our age with in reason who should be planning to spend the rest of their life at TSA

but coldpilot, I think you are doing the right thing. Trying to get every bit of info you can to make your choice.

This thread has seemed to stay pretty neutral, and informitive.

I can say right now, that I niether hate it or love it,
and if you have a case of SJS, then it will get it out of your system, and then you will be more interested in what life really means to you.

Even now or after TSA, I still love flying.
Now thinking about the days of airport reserve, bad trips, not being home enough and so on and so on can make it hard to get yourself to the airport without quitting.
But once I am there I have a good time.


I am sure there are others around here that are having the same feelings, and I hope that is semi normal or I might be scewed from the word go if those feelings dont change over time.

It's very funny you mention that. The gentleman from TSA that spoke to us said something along the lines of "Really, now we know none of you want to spend your life at a regional. We know that the regional's are a stepping stone, so where do you really want to go?" He then asked every person in the room what their goals were. Mine is not to make a career out of any regional.

I can assure you it is not SJS. It doesn't really matter to me what I fly. I am just trying to open as many doors as possible so right after graduation I can leave Grand Forks. It just isn't my kind of town. I'm ready to head back to a big city.

Everyone has those days where they don't want to go to work. I have had many of them. It comes from a variety of different things. Not getting any work, problem students, etc. It is one of the reasons I have been digging for information. By no means when I started this thread did I have my heart set on TSA; I just saw it as an option since they will be here in mid-April to do some hiring for future classes. So I decided to look into it. I have the application packet and I will fill it out and probably go interview just for the experience anyway. Only time will tell what will happen in the industry. Many opportunities have opened up for our graduates since January as I am sure many more will by the time I graduate.

Like I said I am just exploring my options and I appreciate everyone's input in helping me explore them. It has been very helpful.

I'm debating on applying in april and taking a late class date, sometime in August. I would like to stay at UND for the summer and see what other options open up. It could be good interview experience, but from what I hear from the March applicants it wont be much of an interview at all. Lots of airlines just dropped their mins., ASA's posted mins are now 400/50 with the crj class which was the same as TSA's posted mins. Defidently lots of options out there. Heck compared to some of the recent pinnacle hires, you could be "high time" :confused: ;)

How can TSA's upgrade time be greater than 4 years if they are losing pilots like crazy? Is it because they may have to hire street captains soon? The guy at the information session made it sound like 2-3 years for an upgrade, but then again he did say CASS would be there within 30 days. Id like to hear from some of the current guys on training and what their scope on the whole deal is.

They said CASS is around the corner a year ago when I was there. Street Captains over the summer? I find that extremely hard to believe. Last time I checked, the only people that left TSA were about five Captains a month and about the last 15 FO's on the list. 3 years minimum for an upgrade at TSA would sound accurate in my opinion. Can someone who actually knows the facts fill us in? I have a friend who was a January 2005 new hire, and the last time I spoke with him he was half way up the list.

Upgrades in Jan 07 had 3 years seniority. I would assume it could go down since they lowerd mins for capt.

That was a year ago.
I jumped up 20 numbers between March and April; I'd say it was probably a 50-50 split between captains and FOs. Pilots have started leaving TSA at an alarming rate. FOs are going to other regionals, and CAs are going to majors or places like CitationShares/NetJets.
As far as the street captains go, I heard it straight from a flight manager.

I find it funny how erveryone claims that TSA will hire basically anyone with a commercial and multi (or at least interview them). My friend who had about 450tt and 50multi sent his resume there about a month ago even though he didnt want to go there and he still didnt hear anything back. Why would they pass him up for someone with 300 and 10 for example? Just trying to figure out how that airline works, any input would be great so I can let him know.

His resume probably got lost in the shuffle.
Why bother sending your resume somewhere you don't want to go?

Just to see if he would get a response because he really didnt believe that people were getting hired with such low times, and this pretty much proves his point.