UCLAbruins

All regionals will suck the life out of you, but unfortunately its something most of us have to do. No way around it. Before NetJets, I worked at two regionals, I made no money. It basically ruined my credit, it was like, my phone bill is $80, so I'll pay $40, my student loan is $300, I'll pay $200. I did that for 5 years, my credit rating (which was excellent) took a beating.

Those two regionals BEAT the airline out of me. I would never leave NetJets for any of the major airlines, and I've had two opportunities.

If you're at a regional, I don't recomend you leave it for some other regional, it's a side step, big time. Its OK if you leave a prop-regional for a jet-regional to get the "jet" experience, but if you leave for any other reason, won't look good on the resume. In my case, I left a Dash 8 for a regional jet.

Airsupport

sorry things didn't work out for you professional pilot. thats to bad. hopefully you will find what you are looking for. i will tell you all how my life has been here like yzerman.

i was hired late 2005. at the time the contract negotiations were moving fast. the contract had only been ammendable for about 5 months and they were ta'ing things left and right. even when i was in the school house the mec would come in to class and tell us they had ta'd several more things and that everything was moving fast. i couldn't hold mem when i first started so i had to commute to dtw for several months and be on reserve up there. that sucked pretty bad. being on reserve, away from home, in a crash pad is no fun. finally i was able to come back to mem and sat reserve for about 6 more months. reserve sucked then too but my qol shot way up just by being based at home. when we were doing hard line bidding i was holding 12-13 days off a month. when we switched to pbs in i think it was june last year it went up to 17-19 days off a month. i have been doing that since then.

this place doesn't bother me that much. probably because i hardly ever work. do i want things to change? yes. i want a contract and i will do what it takes to get one. am i ready to strike and walk out of this place. yes, i would not feel bad for shutting this place down because of the way they treat their people.

like yzerman i have flown with a lot of great people. in the time i have flown here i have only had 2 captains that really bugged me. the rest have been great and really smart pilots. especially some of the senior guys in mem. we have everything from crop dusters to b-52 pilots and all of them are good sticks and good teachers.

so there is my opinion of this place. its not the best, but it is far from the worst. and all the people who keep saying this place is going to be gone by the end of the year sound like the same people that said we were gone when nwa filed for bankrupcty. this place isn't going anywhere, unless we get to shut it down ourselves.

higney85

My tenure has been much like Airsupport's- Just about half a year shorter. I do not feel I have "wasted" any part of my life but I do wish I had gone elsewhere when I started. Just as Airsupport said about negotiations when he showed up I came when we had started mediations and was thinking things would be wrapped up soon after I arrived. At this point I am a few months away from going to upgrade so I am a bit hesitant to leave. I am here for the TJPIC time! I will say that as soon as I get that 1000-1200 TJPIC I am out of here. I don't care if its a pay cut to fly a BE90, I am gone unless things improve. I do not recommend for anyone to come here at the moment. This company has soo much potential and a great pilot group but with mgmt twisting our arms with the current contract and total stupidity the employees and customers are the only ones who suffer.

I am sorry for your 6 month loss professionalpilot. As far as the mentor program it is designed for the more senior FO's who came in low time. You need at least 1300 at PNCL so you would need to be here about a year and a half (I just now have about 1300 and bid 55ish in MEM out of 230ish). I wish you the best on wherever you go.

Inconceivable

This attitude, possessed by thousands before you, is why PCL and the regionals in general are the way they are.

YOU want change? YOU fight for it. What do you do for the union?

"Oh, it's not fair I should have to volunteer...wah wah wah."

Man up, sunshine. Life ain't freaking fair. You want a better life, use the tools available to you. Become the change you want to see.

Until then, shut the ^&$%* up. You know who cares about your own benefit? You. Enjoy being an army of one. Phil, Clive and David will pick you off one at a time.

mooney

Pro Pilot... "The crazy part about that, is that I would have never guessed why: The "Captain Mentor" program Pinnacle does leads you to ultimately NEVER upgrade. We have here in Memphis 3 Captain Mentors, 1 in Detroit, and 5 in Minneapolis. The deal is that you have to do "X" number of hours with a Captain "Mentor" in order to qualify for a reduced TT upgrade. You have to BID to fly with them, you can't trade unless you're off of reserve. So then take that into account and the fact that you have to do ALL 100+ hours in less than 60 days. It's literally impossible."

Propilot I am one of the MEM mentors. I think we have more than 3 in mem. There were aboout 7 in my class in Jan.
Why are there so few mentors?
1. No additional pay but additional reponsibility.
2. Not alot of communication about the program.
3. The reason our FSDO stopped accepting CFI recertification just for being a 121 CA....too many 9E captains told them "they dont pay me to teach". Yet you want to renew your cfi based on you not having a teaching attitude???
4. This is the big one. A large number of FO's in the mentor program had this attitude that they deserved to be in it, and the CA should have to fly around the FO schedule, not the other way around. I for one am NOT going to give up 8 years of seniority and my valuable family life so I can help you build a bigger paycheck quicker. That why many of the Mentors quit when it was strongly suggested that we should have to bid the FO's line cause FO's were complaining they werent senior enough to bid with a mentor.
5. Only one FO I have flown with has even said "thank you." Damn at least buy me a beer for helping you out!
6. Many FO's dont realize you aren't just flying with a mentor, YOU WILL BE TESTED BY HIM. You will look stuff up in the FOM/CFM. No more USA today.

TheProfessionalPilot

I didn't do the transition courses. I just watched people that did do them that really didn't need to. It ended up being a HUGE waste of $26000 when they could have just gone out and flown a twin for that much cash and gotten real experience, and then learned the CRJ stuff in class like everyone else. I'm not knocking the program, if you REALLY think you'll need it, then have at it. But if you think it will get you hired, there were SEVERAL people in my hiring class that has 350TT/100ME that were hired w/o transition courses, so keep that in mind.

TheProfessionalPilot

Trust me, I did the cargo thing. The lifestyle is the same and you won't have wasted all that time. You won't gain anything from coming here, just lost time.

JetBlast77

I beg to differ. I don't work at skywest and my life so far at my company has been great. In the past 2 months I've had 32 days off (without vacation), I work only when I want and how much I want, I made 30K my first year and will finish my second year at 41K, and I have about 700 below me on the senority list. Upgrade may still be 10 months away, but I'm in no hurry at this rate. Although we are all nervous about our jobs given the economy, I can tell you that I am living quite comfortably at a regional right now even though I commute 1200 miles to work. There are great places to work out there, just don't sell yourself short.

TheProfessionalPilot

I am saying because it won't affect me, not that I don't care if everyone else gets one. Read carefully. I also said right after that, I wish everyone at 9E the best... Seriously man, take this for what it is. If anyone else is trying to do what I THOUGHT 9E was going to offer me, then message me.

TheProfessionalPilot

Mooney, PM being typed. Thank you for responding to this thread. According to my base manager, there really are only 3 that he knows about. I have a list of the entire group that is only 9 people throughout the whole system.

I see why it is not beneficial for you to do the program. I see why they don't want to resign up afterwards. It all makes sense, and it all adds to my point. I am in no way "rightfully" into this program, just that I know I have the time 9E has posted to upgrade, and then I find out that I need to do a program that will take at least 3 months to complete, which is outside the time parameters they set, realistically. So I'm trying to figure out, even IF I am willing to ditch my wife for another 60 days to do this, will I be able to get the hours?

I would have been off of reserve this month if crew planning kept me in Detroit, but they keep bouncing me all over the place and it makes it hard. I am Memphis "moved" but everywhere else worked and reserved. If I could just get used to one place, man would that be helpful in my QOL. I don't live at any base, so the commute is dynamically different for each one.

Let's put it this way, I am big time disappointed for the manner that they communicate what you have to do in order to be a "street captain". I will have almost a year here before I will be able to upgrade. That's the big frustration on my part.

JETBLAST: Exactly what you said, a key point, don't sell yourself short. Don't think "oh it won't be THAT bad".