PDT News and Rumors
05-04-2012, 05:00 PM
#3502
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2010
Position: DHC-8 FO
Posts: 283
I have been here a year now and while i haven't been through the ringer i do see that an imposed contract would be pretty terrible. I will always be grateful to PDT for giving me a chance to start my career with low time. When i got hired at PDT i wasn't able to qualify at most other regionals. But on the other hand the place is on the Nice long ski slope to the end. there is no investment from management.
To answer some of the peoples questions who are looking to come here.
MDT and ROA are most likely the bases that will have open slots the last permanent bid had nine opening, 5 in ROA and 4 in MDT.
They still are failing people. I heard that PDT has failed(a numeric value not a percentage) more pilots going through CQ than Delta/AA/UA this year. The training department has a really self important attitude. Personally I would like to see JK go through initial training and Sim and see if he could pass.
Good luck
To answer some of the peoples questions who are looking to come here.
MDT and ROA are most likely the bases that will have open slots the last permanent bid had nine opening, 5 in ROA and 4 in MDT.
They still are failing people. I heard that PDT has failed(a numeric value not a percentage) more pilots going through CQ than Delta/AA/UA this year. The training department has a really self important attitude. Personally I would like to see JK go through initial training and Sim and see if he could pass.
Good luck
05-05-2012, 07:53 PM
#3503
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Position: bar stool
Posts: 771
I've been gone from Piedmont since February.
PDT made me hate flying and hate my life. It took me a bit to get the poison out of my veins, but its gone, and I am no longer bitter. I used to see PDT Dash-8s and cringe. Now I see them and remember the good times spent flying that great airplane.
Leaving is highly recommended.
PDT made me hate flying and hate my life. It took me a bit to get the poison out of my veins, but its gone, and I am no longer bitter. I used to see PDT Dash-8s and cringe. Now I see them and remember the good times spent flying that great airplane.
Leaving is highly recommended.
05-06-2012, 06:58 PM
#3505
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2009
Position: Ask scheduling
Posts: 384
Interesting rumor I've heard from multiple people in the last few weeks is that Farrow believes we will get a handful of Eagle's 145's as a fleet replacement if a merger does happen. I'll believe it when I sit in the planes, but interesting none the less.
05-06-2012, 07:39 PM
#3506
Kerbal Rocket Surgeon
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: DTW 717A
Posts: 1,099
Come on man, thats a bit of a stretch don't you think? If that's the best rumor the employee retention officer in the trailer park can come up with i think its a sign of the times. You're gonna get a flow through with the new AA too, totally worth waiting for.
05-06-2012, 08:24 PM
#3507
Moderator
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: B757/767
Posts: 13,088
I've been gone from Piedmont since February.
PDT made me hate flying and hate my life. It took me a bit to get the poison out of my veins, but its gone, and I am no longer bitter. I used to see PDT Dash-8s and cringe. Now I see them and remember the good times spent flying that great airplane.
Leaving is highly recommended.
PDT made me hate flying and hate my life. It took me a bit to get the poison out of my veins, but its gone, and I am no longer bitter. I used to see PDT Dash-8s and cringe. Now I see them and remember the good times spent flying that great airplane.
Leaving is highly recommended.
Hated Piedmont. Company sucks. Treats employees lik e crap. Made individual very unhappy.
Said individual left Piedmont, and is now happy.
05-06-2012, 08:26 PM
#3508
Banned
Joined APC: May 2012
Posts: 136
out of piedmont or out of flying completely? And i was just wondering if it was attitude of the crew management pay QOL etc.
05-06-2012, 09:48 PM
#3509
Guest
Posts: n/a
Look people, here is the bottom line for anyone wanting to come here.
It's a regional airline with regional airline problems. Mgt is not commuter friendly so you really need to live in base when working here. We have many pilots that commute but it's a struggle for them to deal with and really not worth the hassle. Commuting on reserve will drive you to drink. You'll see home less than 7 days a month.
Once you get into 3rd, 4th year pay, live in base, hold a line either as an FO or CA then it's really not a horrible job. But the road to get there is immensely frustrating and well beyond that of other regionals that are currently hiring.
Even once you get into a PDT sweetspot it's a day to day struggle to stay positive. Mgt makes it this way. We have a management team that is extremely dedicated to the "management by intimidation" philosophy more so than many other carriers. Not to mention the fact that the folks that run this airline are collectively the biggest group of morons this side of South Park, CO.
Our future and I mean our near future within 1 year is very uncertain. We may prevail, or we may all be applying to our local State Unemployment office for 30% of our pay very soon. It could go either way.
There are very strong aspects to our contract but the language is so vague in some areas and full of "the company may", "the company might", " the company will try" that it just wants to make you punch something. They "invent" contract language interpretations more or less on a daily basis especially when it comes to reserve F/O's. Per capita we have one of the longest list of active/unresolved grievances in the industry and there is virtually no movement there.
For senior people it's not horrible if you live on base. But for junior people it will be a struggle. These guys love to fire probies if they fart in the wrong direction.
Our new hire wash out rate usually averages at around 30 to 40%. Training isn't impossible but they seem to have gotten into a pattern of looking for reasons to fail you vs. finding a reason to pass you. That's a whole other discussion with plenty of history on this thread. The Dash is a systems intensive aircraft with a medium level of automation. You WILL struggle in training if you do not have a very high level of raw data "six pack" instrument flying skills. They will eat you alive down there if all you bring to the table is G1000 or similar systems avionics/instrument experience. Some people that just pick things up really fast squeak through but this is the caveat that causes a lot of training wash outs and the training dept. has zero sympathy for this issue. The Dash is a very easy aircraft to fly once you know it well as it's pretty forgiving in a stick and rudder sense. But it will kick your butt learning to get there if you've got a weak scan or zero to little analog panel experience.
The biggest thing you need to consider is that you get to deal with all this and more....just to log SIC turboprop time. If PDT was an a awesome place to work then to heck with the equipment. But...it really isn't. Go fly jets somewhere else...you'll be happier and so will your resume in the long run.
There is a reason some of us used to have stickers on our flight cases that said "Piedmont Airlines: The cure for hope." Yeah...mgt made us take those off under threat of discipline.
It's a regional airline with regional airline problems. Mgt is not commuter friendly so you really need to live in base when working here. We have many pilots that commute but it's a struggle for them to deal with and really not worth the hassle. Commuting on reserve will drive you to drink. You'll see home less than 7 days a month.
Once you get into 3rd, 4th year pay, live in base, hold a line either as an FO or CA then it's really not a horrible job. But the road to get there is immensely frustrating and well beyond that of other regionals that are currently hiring.
Even once you get into a PDT sweetspot it's a day to day struggle to stay positive. Mgt makes it this way. We have a management team that is extremely dedicated to the "management by intimidation" philosophy more so than many other carriers. Not to mention the fact that the folks that run this airline are collectively the biggest group of morons this side of South Park, CO.
Our future and I mean our near future within 1 year is very uncertain. We may prevail, or we may all be applying to our local State Unemployment office for 30% of our pay very soon. It could go either way.
There are very strong aspects to our contract but the language is so vague in some areas and full of "the company may", "the company might", " the company will try" that it just wants to make you punch something. They "invent" contract language interpretations more or less on a daily basis especially when it comes to reserve F/O's. Per capita we have one of the longest list of active/unresolved grievances in the industry and there is virtually no movement there.
For senior people it's not horrible if you live on base. But for junior people it will be a struggle. These guys love to fire probies if they fart in the wrong direction.
Our new hire wash out rate usually averages at around 30 to 40%. Training isn't impossible but they seem to have gotten into a pattern of looking for reasons to fail you vs. finding a reason to pass you. That's a whole other discussion with plenty of history on this thread. The Dash is a systems intensive aircraft with a medium level of automation. You WILL struggle in training if you do not have a very high level of raw data "six pack" instrument flying skills. They will eat you alive down there if all you bring to the table is G1000 or similar systems avionics/instrument experience. Some people that just pick things up really fast squeak through but this is the caveat that causes a lot of training wash outs and the training dept. has zero sympathy for this issue. The Dash is a very easy aircraft to fly once you know it well as it's pretty forgiving in a stick and rudder sense. But it will kick your butt learning to get there if you've got a weak scan or zero to little analog panel experience.
The biggest thing you need to consider is that you get to deal with all this and more....just to log SIC turboprop time. If PDT was an a awesome place to work then to heck with the equipment. But...it really isn't. Go fly jets somewhere else...you'll be happier and so will your resume in the long run.
There is a reason some of us used to have stickers on our flight cases that said "Piedmont Airlines: The cure for hope." Yeah...mgt made us take those off under threat of discipline.
Last edited by DashGirl; 05-06-2012 at 09:59 PM.
05-06-2012, 10:20 PM
#3510
Banned
Joined APC: May 2012
Posts: 136
I have a few friends that went through dash training as well as crj. dashgirl hit the nail on the head that they want you to know EVERYTHING when it comes to systems on the dash whereas the crj is more about flying.
These guys love to fire probies if they fart in the wrong direction.
im sorry but i have to question this. how is it productive for management to put all that money into newhires just to fire them like a walmart employee because they don't like your face that day. is that not self defeating?
These guys love to fire probies if they fart in the wrong direction.
im sorry but i have to question this. how is it productive for management to put all that money into newhires just to fire them like a walmart employee because they don't like your face that day. is that not self defeating?
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