80ktsClamp

I'm going to go ahead and stop you right there.

No need to get an inferiority complex on this, as I worked for similar as well as many others on here. It was the devil when I was there, and going to mainline doesn't change that. johnso is trying to make things better for this career along with many others. Having the foresight to see the way things are is not wrong, and you should have the same.

johnso29

Please quote wherever I said FFD contracts where the devil. I simply stated WHY SkyWest is in a financially healthy position.

And I re-wrote much of your post to make it more coherent.

dashdriver22

I'm just saying.... you think you made it and nobody deserves better. three years ago they whee flying for a 50 seat operator and it was fine for them. Anybody flying for them know is the devil. I wish mainline would take all the flying. I hope they do it.

Scoop

Super,

It happens every once in a while. Maybe a guy saw a trip that you had and wanted to ask about a swap - so he wanted to call you. Or it might just be that he was trying to get the phone number of someone with a similar name - with 12000 dudes there a probably a few "Super-Pilots."

Or he could be suing a PD and just selected the wrong name - "Big Thumb" syndrome.

But one thing I HAVE noticed - If you get a GS you will usually see guys check your schedule.

Anyway, I thought there was a function that would allow you to block your personal information - has it been removed?

Scoop

dashdriver22

Johnson- Honest question. I follow these forums and the best I can guess is you are a former XE regional captain. Which is fine but as soon as you got hired at NWA which turned into Delta you think that 50 seat carriers are the devil. Aren't 50 seater where you came from?

80ktsClamp

So now you've deciphered what I'm thinking? Nobody deserves better? Are you drunk?

johnso29

Where did I say 50 seaters were the devil? Are you watching Waterboy? I am a former XE CA, & I have no problems with Regional guys. I remember where I came from. Many, many RJ drivers are still my ALPA Brothers & Sisters. Once again, I simply stated WHY SkyWest is in a financially healthy position.

I've personally witnessed what happens to a Regional airline when the gravy train is being pulled. Had XE not kept those 69 airplanes for Branded I very well may not be where I'm at today. Branded was axed after 2 years due to fuel costs & lack of profitability. FFD contracts are the lifeline of all Regional airlines. Paid per block hour and fuel costs passed on to the Legacy. When Regional airlines are burdened with those costs it makes a 50 seat operation very unprofitable. That's a fact. ExpressJet Airlines and Independence Airlines are both examples of this.

alfaromeo

If you read the definition in the story, included in the welfare state is:

Social Security
Military Pensions (so who is on welfare?)
Medicare
Unemployment insurance
Other government payments

The last significant change to those was when the Health Care Reform Act cut Medicare by eliminating the Medicare Advantage program. The last massive increase in Medicare came in 2004 (just in time for elections) when the Medicare Drug benefit program was enacted. I am having a hard time remembering, so could you let me know who was in control of the House, Senate, and White House in 2004? Elephants who live in glass houses.........

newKnow

All I can say is........

forgot to bid

Dash, complex question actually because there are several ways to look at it.

Are we talking about scope, regional jets or fee for departure? What you're asking in essence is why would a former RJ pilot at Delta feel like they have the right to pull up the ladder behind them? Or maybe why is said pilot being so hypocritical?

fwiw, I was hired at Coex when the props still outnumbered the jets but the jet onslaught was coming. In fact, new hires straight to the jet was a sore subject for a lot of line pilots. Even worse, a lot of line pilots were ****ed that new hires weren't paying $10K for training, got per diem while in training and their hotel paid for. But that attitude invokes a different discussion.

The most concise way I can say this is- regional airlines have always sucked. But they were a means to TPIC time and a mainline job. Post RJ, they got an upgrade in equipment but most still sucked.

Not to rehash, but as soon as 9/11 happened the RJs that were being eyed as possible mainline replacement jets became full fledged replacement jets and operations. What was once a means to an end went from a hopefully short visit to a slit your wrist prolonged stay. And for those prone to Stockholm syndrome, a career.

Now if RJs had never been invented, every civil Delta guy you see here would've still gone that route. We'd flown "regional" legs and done so in ATRs, Saabs and Embraers. Pay for departure wouldn't even muster a discussion given we'd had a smaller fleet and we'd burned less fuel than any other option out there.

So it's not accurate to say a RJ guy now turned Delta pilot is being hypocritical about the RJs. Was it fun to fly at 370 in a nice little jet? Absolutely. Looking back, wish it never happened.

We all knew that while RJ growth meant possible upgrade it really meant fewer jobs at mainline anyways so that upgrade was all for naught. I wish I had been relegated to flying an ATR 42-320 out of EWR up and down the Hudson to Albany instead of flying an ERJ-145XR nonstop from EWR to MSP and Nebraska. I wish instead of a fleet of 600+ jets at DCI it was 200 props and that all of the remainder of that flying was at Delta on Delta jets flown by Delta pilots with the Delta PWA and that we'd been hiring since 03 nonstop instead of what has happened.

It's not that a former RJ pilot wants to pull up the ladder but rather that former RJ pilots, who mind you were willing to take the risk and move to a major, are trying to ensure regional pilots can get off that boat and on to this ship.

Because for the first time we have the opportunity to vote and talk to the powers that be about the one thing, the only thing, that matters most- scope.

There's not a thing an RJ pilot can do about mainline scope. It's our responsibility here and so don't look at it as being hypocritical but about more voices being added to the mainline ranks that want this trend reversed.