I know that right now we have 3 Caravan bases that i know of. 1 is based in CMH, 1 will go to MEM and 1 will end up in NEW. I think the MEM and NEW van's start 2/2/02.
Upgrading to the lears from the van's is why a lot of our guys do not want to fly them. It is required that you have 500 multi time to upgrade to our lears, now if anyone can tell me how the heck you are supposed to get that multi time in the van's then please be my guest. Most of the guys who come to us want the multi time and they want to fly the lears, they don't come here to fly singles even if they are turbines.
So you can see this provides a problem. Unless you have the 500 multi then you will never make it to the lear. The only way around this i see is to fly the van for awhile and then move to the twin's for your 500 twin (or less) for your upgrade. I definately believe that this will be reviewed by our pilot board in the near future as to how to integrate our van drivers into the lear without requiring them to have the 500 multi, but it will definately cause a stir within the twin crews as to having to meet different requirements.
We can only wait and see, for now the vans are new to us, having flown them in our system for only a few months now.
The bases above for the vans will increase in the future because i believe we are slated for a total of something like 8 or 9 of them. I know we have taken over several delivery spots from other companies who after 9/11 saw no way to continue with the purchases.