Trogdor

Upgrades stopped, pilots furloughed, morale non-existant.

steak pilot

At least you still have a job.....

mjte43

Have there been more furloughs since the April 6th class was laid off. If so how many pilots had the rug pulled out from under them?

TPROP4ever

Dont know the exact number of them in that class, but a friend of mine in it told me that they cant even get a straight answer as to where they stand. They wernt furloughed since they didnt do checkride, but they still have employee numbers, go figure.

rickB

ya i dont think anyone was furloughed... just didnt get to finish their class, other than that its just cruising time building out here and upgrades are held for a month or two i think

ImEbee

About 15 were "furloghed" just prior to their systems final. They were given the option to stick around the final two days and take the final. My understanding is that those who passed the final may come back to finish sim/flight training when hiring resumes. The rumor I heard is a September class and a few upgrades in September. Since 30 pilots sounds like a lot for us right now, I imagine the September class will be a recurrent style class for the 15 waiting along with any upgrade candidates.

Trogdor

There is one recall CA who is officially furloughed.

EatSleepFly

Lakes absolutely SUCKS right now. What's new. Morale is definitely non-existent. Half the flights are late or canceled due to mx or lack of crews. Captains are getting Jr. manned to the right seat and we are still short FO's. Our schedules are constantly getting changed/extended for the worse. All of our "good" overnights seem to be disappearing and for some reason we always end up in Garden City Kansas for 9 hours. Oh yeah, gotta love those 2:30 am Denver time wake up calls. Fatigue is a huge problem at Lakes yet HQ throws a fit anytime someone calls in fatigued -even after Colgan.

Sorry, rant over. Is Lynx still hiring?

Trogdor

Finally, someone other than myself speaking the truth about ZK.

1900luxuryliner

I generally agree, but I guess I'm not as bitter about it. Things are definitely different around Lakes than they were a few years ago. Maybe not significantly different, but when people aren't getting out of Lakes after a few years, it makes all the crap a lot less tolerable. I've found that if you fully expect to be broken, canceled, delayed, extended, etc., it makes it all much easier to handle when it does happen. It's when you put faith in Lakes to actually operate as scheduled, that you get yourself all frustrated when it does not. I freely and openly write up things at outstations, like all captains, knowing full well that I may be spending the night there, or ferrying the plane to CYS, because of the prior expectation that the contracted maintenance may be on a fishing trip, or sitting at home drunk...or doesn't have access to the parts we need to get fixed. Don't put any faith in the maintenance/ scheduling system, and don't blame yourself for the total cluster freaks that happen daily....hourly, actually. These airplanes are worn out, and scheduled to their limit, which is half the problem. The other half is lack of planning, and lack of giving a crap on the crew planning side of things. Once we weasel our way out of St Louis, we will free up a few airplanes, and get caught up....somewhat; but, until then, our planes and crews will be stretched to the limit. Expect your 90 hour line to end up below guarantee, and life is good....maybe not good, but tolerable. I try not to get frustrated over things I can't control, even though I do, occasionally...