Saltrs

Do i know you or not? You said you might know me?? Thanks for the info! I hope i do get a break between ground school and sim!

Saltrs

Anyone staying at the Residence Inn on 44th street???

flyflorida2001

2 of us are at the Sleep Inn off 47th and University. See you tomorrow!

Saltrs

See you at 0600 AM!!!!

XtremeF150

Saltrs, sorry I thought you were someone else. I don't know anyone that worked that school right off the top of my head. Oh and if you get the couple weeks off waiting for the SIM or IOE, enjoy it. It will be some of the last long breaks you will see for a LONG time. Good Luck

XtremeF150

Saltrs

Thanks for the info; so what is it like flying the sim? I imagine it's pretty intensive with all types of imagineable emergencies???
Any chance you give us an insight?
Thanks

Frozen Ronin

I just got invited to the groundschool starting on Monday, 21 Aug. Story they gave me was Dash 8, and immediate upgrade to the left seat. I understand that's been happening fairly consistenly. For those that are doing that, what's the real time of upgrade, and how better is the Capt pay on the Dash 8? How quickly does one get that? Is this a bulls!t story to get you in, or what?

capmo38

The truth is that Mesa is hiring a lot of guys for the D8 classes, and they need captains very badly. However, the Mesa Dash program continues to be one of the most difficult programs out there. I finished the training in July and saw that only 2 of the 7 captain applicants passed, both of whom had some serious 121 and 135 experience. This has been the trend for all recent classes (only a small percentage making it through). Fortunately for the guys in my class, they were given the chance to jump over to the right seat after being unsuccessful during captain training.

The only problem, lately, is that they have stopped allowing pilots to train for captain slots and then move to FO if their training is unsuccessful. It's kind of a "one shot" deal now.

My advice... fly in the right seat for a few months. If you meet the ATP mins, you can bid for captain immediately. Just give yourself a few months in the right seat. They are predicting VERY fast upgrades for the Dash program up in JFK (well less than a year).

The pay is much better as a captain... almost double... but you probably don't want to go through all the training and have something go wrong and be out of a job.

If you are VERY comfortable with flying turbine aircraft and have some 121 experience, you might do alright.

Hope this helps. Like is said... it's possible, but not too likely to go directly to the left seat.

Frozen Ronin

What's all this noise about Delta contracting Chataqua to backup the Mesa Dash-8's in the east? No planes, and pilots waiting for an awful long time to get into an airplane just to finish IOE?

capmo38

It's a simple case of "too much, too fast." They tried to get this whole deal put together in only a few months and it ended up being tougher than planned. It's true that there are guys waiting for IOE that finished ground school in April. From what I hear, they are planning on using Chataua through October and then they should have all the Freedom Dash 8's ready to go. That's why they are still hiring like mad for the Dash. They are also very understaffed in PHX and DEN.

There will be some good flying for Dash pilots within the next few months. We have a bunch of guys moving on to other airlines or upgrading to the Mesa jets. Plan on quick upgrades... but be prepared for some bumps along the way.