labbats

It's a sign of the times at Allegiant that people outside of the company know more about what is going on than pilots working here.

Not a peep about newhires or upgrades, just more information on the PBS we never wanted.

Not a peep about forcing all of the airbus pilots that haven't done IOE yet back to the MD80 either.

Packrat

I see they're advertising for A320 sim instructors.

Hovernut

....working here...words from the VP Flight Ops yesterday. 20 NH's in Jan and another 12 by March or June. JC said to keep an eye out for the next NH window.
I just heard about the Airbus folks that did a MD-80 sim check to get re-current. Kind of extenuating circumstances, don't you think? Would you rather keep the flying in-house, or continue to sub-out block hours to Falcon and Sun Country?

CLMP

I think you may be minimizing the burden on these Airbus transitioning pilots a bit. We have cancelled transition classes before and we have kept upgraded pilots in the right seat for months on end. However, never have we sent a group through ground school, FTD, sim, and a type ride only to send them back to a completely different aircraft whose limitations and operating characteristics have long been forgotten. There is a safety issue there.

Also, these "extenuating circumstances" were self-induced. Anyone who has been here more than 6 months knows that AAY plans everything for best-case scenario. There is no slack built into training, certification, or even the daily schedule. Why is that? It's because the people who know what's going on aren't the ones in charge. The operation is run by marketing and accounting, not by the experienced airline managers we have here. The bean counters say "do it" and everyone else jumps. While the government shutdown isn't the company's fault, it's been almost 2 months since it happened and things are still stalled out here with the Airbus. The only ones who have taken the blame for the large disruptions as of late are the government and the pilots (see the press release this week for the PGD fiasco). There has been zero admission of fault by management.

I absolutely agree that we need to stop farming out flying to a 3rd party. However, throwing pilots back in the sim for a practice session and a PC in a totally different aircraft before chucking them back out on the line is a haphazard response to a manufactured crisis.

Hovernut

CLMP...agreed...I've experienced my share of 'crisis-mode' managing in this industry! We just got the schpeel on the sim woes today from E.N.

freightdog

CLMP, agreed here as well. On SWA right now to LAS from MCO for sim refresher. I must say I'm glad to be flying again after 3-months of nothing but sitting on my hands waiting for Airbus OE, but was hoping it would be in the Airbus. Although, I'm sorta secretly glad to get to fly the 80 again for a short time. Talked to RE in the training department yesterday and she said all of us are still on the Jan schedule for OE and another PC because we won't make consolidation on the Airbus.

It wasn't fun to see other operators in our parking spots, in SFB the other day, flying our pax. And my fellow pilots having their 2-leg days turn into unplanned 4-leg days.

eagleatr

These "extenuating circumstances" are the result of the company waiting to the last minute to do everything. They make a plan assuming everything will go perfectly, and there is no back up plan for when it doesn't.

They are only picking certain people to return to the MD-80. No one is quite certain if this is legal, or what training will be required to return them to the Airbus.

MD80driver2day

It's legal.... not safe, but legal.

I'm fairly certain they are picking people who are still within their 12 month recurrent period.

I would guess that everyone from the last Bus class will need another PC because they all missed consolidation.

Packrat

It sure is. Once spent 6 months training on a new airplane. Company had a reduction. 3 sims and two IOE flights with IPs and I was back on the line in my previous jet.

CLMP

As everyone knows, there is a gap between what is legal and what is safe. While I'm sure many carriers have done this at one time or another, Allegiant tends to operate within that narrow margin more than it should. When someone asks what kind of duty and rest work rules we have, the answer (more often than not) is: the FAR's. This is not to say that Allegiant is unsafe, but it is always up to the crew to blow the whistle because there is no padding built into the schedules in the form of more conservative work rules. We are all banking on this to change with a new contract .