Squawk_5543

That what I'm hoping for man. Highspeeds are getting old quick.

bored

Try doing 5-6 weeks in England or Berlin as a new hire without per diem. The sacrifice for no per diem for new hires is that you get single occupancy hotel, paid guarantee from day 1 and all the other benefits you get as a new hire for XJ.

For all you new hires... you need to read your contract. Then, if you have a pilot mentor, all the questions being asked here should be asked to them. If you don't have a mentor, ask your union rep. Isn't it always better to ask questions of people with more knowledge and experience? You guys are so lucky to be joining a pilot group with a lot of experience and will fly with guys that have been through a lot at XJ. USE THEM!! Ask tons of questions and be a sponge. At 8 months, for example you still have a lot to learn. Try not to get too comfortable too early, learn bad habits and become complacent. I have flown with a lot of guys in this boat. You'll have a heck of a time on your first PC if you fall into this category.

I'm not trying to discount this forum for information, but I have been lurking here for a long time and have read many posts with wrong or misguided information.


Bored

xjsf340fo

I assume you are fessing up to your relative level of experience/non experience, and that's very helpful. Before I reported for training I read a lot of info on this site/thread and I can confirm that although it seemed to be coming from knowledgeable sources, some of it was way off. You are correct about directing questions to ALPA mentors and other people with experience, but one must still be careful to consider the source's position in the company, longevity, biases, etc... And then, some things are not knowable; for example, no one I talked to in Eagan and DTW predicted that the wait for OE would be a matter of months instead of weeks.

bored

I have been with XJ for over 7 years. So yes... I am confessing my amount of experience.

I'm not advocating that senior line pilots know more than the average joe. I'm advocating that you don't ask a fellow new hire for insight and guidance. They're probably looking for the same. The only people that can help you are the ones that have been around the block. As I said earlier... USE THEM as tools, mentors and friends. I'm not trying to divide the senior and the junior. I'm just trying to be as helpful as possible.

Use your mentors and your reps for answers to facts. You can't expect anyone to know answers to questions that are based on speculation.... ie OE wait times.

The first rule of working for an airline is to be flexible. What goes on today may not be happening next week. If you expect anything more, you're nuts.
The second rule is to trust only fact and not rumor, which is a disease in this industry.

Bored

ConnectionPilot

Hey, can someone help me out with the way the HRA health plan for Mesaba works? I'm suppose to be going to the doctor on Monday and not sure what I need to do with the insurance stuff.
Thanks.

ConnectionPilot

Also...anyone that can help me out on how pay works here at Mesaba send me a PM, I have a question about training pay

acs020

Today I recieved my Flight Operations Manual in the mail, I plan on reading it cover to cover, but does anyone here have any advice on what to focus on? Tips? What is the first day like at Mesaba? Any study guides/notes that you wouldn't mind being passed down to a new indoc class would be very much apperciated! Feel free to PM me, and thank you in advance.

ConnectionPilot

It was tough to know what I was reading until they explained it. Duty Times is big and so is alternates with 3585. But again, they will tell you what you need to know.


Hey does anyone know if I need my Jepp Charts for SIM?

Flyboyrw

anyone commute from the west coast??

IHateMgmt

Bring your (current) charts to SIM, and CPT for that matter (or whatever they're calling it these days).