Any Corpex Pilots?

[SkyBoy1981]

Hi all

I am considering applying for CorpEx within the next few months. I was hoping there may be a few current CEA pilots on the boards that could provide some info. How are the upgrade times? How is the overall morale and QOL with Corpex? I know its a small operation with small airplanes, but I'm looking to work with a group of people that, for the most part, are happy about where they are and what they do. I have searched the boards and have noticed a lot of negative posts from former 3C pilots...but was hoping to hear from someone who is with them now. In any case, any information is appreciated.

 

[AV80R]

“...but was hoping to hear from someone who is with them now. “



Sorry, I’m not there now but I’m sure my response will be corrected by current corpex’ers very promptly.



You’re right, there are lots of negative posts from former 3c pilots (I’ve been guilty of that myself every now and then Even though I’m not there anymore, many of my friends are still there so I try to stay updated on the news. This is what I know: their domiciles are in BNA or STL, aircraft in use is the JS32 (they have 12 I believe). Upgrade times have been anywhere from 2+ years to less than 3 months, currently they are losing many pilots (mainly f/o’s right now) so you shouldn’t have to wait very long. I’d say no more than a year at the very most. Schedules are usually 4 on 3 off. Of course, all this could change tomorrow.



As far as looking for : “group of people that, for the most part, are happy about where they are and what they do.” Well, here is my take on it. At Corpex, you’ll find a fantastic group of people who are great to work with, fun to be around and who are very proficient at what they do. In other words, you’ll find a bunch of good friends over there. I know “they are happy at what they do” because they all have a passion for flying. Believe me, no one would work for $17,000 a year (1st year f/o pay), being away from home 4 days a week unless they liked what they were doing.



I think lots of the negative comments you’ve been reading are pertaining to the quality of life issues, such as the low pay, the frequently changing work rules, not knowing if you do or do not have any vacation, not being able to ask for a personal day for a family emergency without “planning ahead”, etc, etc. Most of those issues could be easily worked out by the management and the pilots if they decided to work as a team and I think they might be working on something similar right now. My point is, personally I had a great time while I was there and I think you can too. If you come with NO EXPECTATIONS AT ALL, you might even love it -



Ok now - belchfire, flyfastdieslow, jyz737,firebird, skyypimp, 10early, jet_pig_wench & co – y’all correct me now on everything I screwed up in this reply…



Ps. The best part of 3C is dispatch, maintenance, and training department. (ok guys, I was typing it in alphabetical order, no favoritism here lol). Seriously though, I think those departments are doing a fantastic job.

 

[probablecause]

The best friends I will ever have came from Corpex. I miss my co-workers very much. The people you meet you will enjoy!! The job well... Its what YOU make of it.

PC
JETPIG

 

[SkyBoy1981]

AV8OR,

Not only was your reply thorough and honest, but it was professional and mature at the same time. I can see why you have been able to progress quickly to bigger and better things. Thanks again for the info.

 

[belchfire]

Skyboy...

Read two threads.

1) Corporate Airlines Attrition

2) Corpex Future???

Further required reading was posted
a year ago by throttlejocky, and
his/her essay was one of the most
eloquent and honest pilot perspectives
ever written concerning corpex.

Please, for the sake of your future
consider the ramifications if you
cannot move on. There are many
regionals hiring now that you could
retire from. Sadly, Corpex is not one
of them nor do I think that they
ever will be...

I do not know how they manage to
attract some of the people they have
in the trenches...really good and
criminally undervalued.

PS...Probable and Av8tor! Dudes,
good to "see" ya...help get me
outta here! And no arguments!
Actually, pretty well said...

 

[BoilerUP]

Belch, I know you wanna fly orange tail airplanes, but drop an app in at the chicken taco. PH just finished 170 indoc, SK is in systems right now for the 145. And Denton from LAF told me MC and DC are now at NetJets!

CHQ has been hiring like nutz all summer and if its half as much in a year or two that it is now, it'll still be crazy.

[/thread hijack]

Skyboy,

While I was only a lowly ground agent, I had a blast while working for 3C. The pilot group was (is?) full of awesome guys & gals that have a passion for what they do. They are a very unified group...unified by the constant BOHICA all the minions of the company had to endure. Bitching was constant, but overnights sure were fun.

Belch speaks the truth, as does everybody else on this board. You'll probably never work with a better group of people. As long as you know what you are getting into (and the people here on this board will make sure you know), you can make a decision that is in your best interest, either for or against.

I wish you the best of luck!

 

[SkyBoy1981]

Thanks for the helpful info guys. I was considering 3C primarily because I heard they had quicker upgrades..but the overall concensus seems to be that there are still better opportunities out there if I keep researching. Thanks again.

 

[BoilerUP]

Skyboy,

With your time, you should be competitive at ANY of the regionals that are hiring, IE Chautauqua, Trans States, Piedmont, PSA, Eagle, Mesa, ASA, Expressjet, Pinnacle, Skyway, Air Wisky, etc. Because of attrition, the upgrade at 3C could be poised to become very quick, but maybe not. If you have no other options, 3C probably wouldn't be a bad place to get some quality training and flight experience while waiting for bigger and better things to come in the near future.

I'm gonna shoot a resume in to Burley over winter and see if I get a phone call. I think I'd have plenty of LORs from former and current pilots as well as my former manager. And I almost forgot...I didn't get fired, I got "furloughed"

You are in a MUCH better position than me because you have more time, therefore more options. Consider all the airlines I mentioned above and make the best decision for you. Once again, best of luck in wherever your career may take you.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

“...but was hoping to hear from someone who is with them now. “



Sorry, I’m not there now but I’m sure my response will be corrected by current corpex’ers very promptly.



You’re right, there are lots of negative posts from former 3c pilots (I’ve been guilty of that myself every now and then Even though I’m not there anymore, many of my friends are still there so I try to stay updated on the news. This is what I know: their domiciles are in BNA or STL, aircraft in use is the JS32 (they have 12 I believe). Upgrade times have been anywhere from 2+ years to less than 3 months, currently they are losing many pilots (mainly f/o’s right now) so you shouldn’t have to wait very long. I’d say no more than a year at the very most. Schedules are usually 4 on 3 off. Of course, all this could change tomorrow.



As far as looking for : “group of people that, for the most part, are happy about where they are and what they do.” Well, here is my take on it. At Corpex, you’ll find a fantastic group of people who are great to work with, fun to be around and who are very proficient at what they do. In other words, you’ll find a bunch of good friends over there. I know “they are happy at what they do” because they all have a passion for flying. Believe me, no one would work for $17,000 a year (1st year f/o pay), being away from home 4 days a week unless they liked what they were doing.



I think lots of the negative comments you’ve been reading are pertaining to the quality of life issues, such as the low pay, the frequently changing work rules, not knowing if you do or do not have any vacation, not being able to ask for a personal day for a family emergency without “planning ahead”, etc, etc. Most of those issues could be easily worked out by the management and the pilots if they decided to work as a team and I think they might be working on something similar right now. My point is, personally I had a great time while I was there and I think you can too. If you come with NO EXPECTATIONS AT ALL, you might even love it -



Ok now - belchfire, flyfastdieslow, jyz737,firebird, skyypimp, 10early, jet_pig_wench & co – y’all correct me now on everything I screwed up in this reply…



Ps. The best part of 3C is dispatch, maintenance, and training department. (ok guys, I was typing it in alphabetical order, no favoritism here lol). Seriously though, I think those departments are doing a fantastic job.

I agree with everything you said Homey....EXCEPT....you had to know I was gonna say that.....the morale was/is terrible. THe people are great to work with, and they love the flying, but most of em hate the job (read: the company).

 

[AV80R]

"...EXCEPT....you had to know I was gonna say that.....the morale was/is terrible..."


Oh, I agree with you 100%. My only point was that I still think it could have been prevented by the management’s better understanding of our guy’s quality of life issues. We all knew we’d never become rich flying junkstreams but at least we were hoping for nice schedules, commutable lines, descent hotels, overnights longer than 8 hours, etc, etc. I think some of those issues could have been worked out by the management without costing them lots of, if any, money. But that’s just my perspective, I might be wrong.

“…but most of em hate the job (read: the company)...”

Ok, how ‘bout a compromise? “most of em hate the job but love their career?


“…I'm gonna shoot a resume in to Burley over winter and see if I get a phone call…”

BoilerUP – did you work for us out of LAF? Do you have 100+ ME now?


“…And I almost forgot...I didn't get fired, I got "furloughed…”

Was this when we closed the station? Sorry, little lost here.

 

[AV80R]

SkyBoy1981 -


with your flight time you really shouldn't have any problems getting a job at any regional airline. Frankly, at this point I think you should look into your goals. In other words, are you willing to do whatever takes to get the PIC experience or would you like to have a life while you’re building that experience? Either way is ok, but you must decide what you really want and make a commitment to yourself.

If you have no family, etc., and want to focus on an airline where PIC might happen very soon but earning potential is pretty low you might want to give Corpex a thought. The worst part about flying is probably commuting to/from your base. Therefore, if you live in or around St. Louis for example, you might want to focus on TSA or Chautauqua maybe. In Nashville Mesa just opened a small base from what I hear (United Express).

Not having to commute makes ones life so much easier and I personally believe that’s why most BNA pilots at Corpex were/are not as miserable as the STL guys. Most BNA pilots live within an hour or so of the airport and you can put up with MUCH MORE crap if you don’t have to worry about commuting.

So in my personal opinion you need to look into where you’d probably be based working for a specific airline and then decide if that’s ok with you or not. Look into your options (moving to the domicile or commuting) and focus on that airline. Send them your resume once a week or so and you’ll be surprised how soon you’ll get a call for an interview.

Good luck to you,

HomeY ​

 

[BoilerUP]

Homey,

I did work as a GSA in LAF, from first day of service to the last flight out in Feb. Official word from the company was all of us were on "indefinite furlough" or some such. 20 years old and I was first in my class to be furloughed from an airline; I almost framed the letter as a precursor to the rest of my career.

I don't have 100 multi (yet), but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night! Seriously, I should be within spitting distace of that after getting my MEI plus flying Purdue's Beechjet around this fall (leaving for Flightsafety ICT this morning, actually, but I digress). We'll see in Jan-Feb where I stand. I hear CM from CGI got hired on there at low time, in fact I had more time than him when he interviewed. Not looking for special treatment per se, just an opportunity to put my foot in the door.

[/thread hijack]

 

[wings421]

Skyboy,

With your time, you should be competitive at ANY of the regionals that are hiring, IE Chautauqua, Trans States, Piedmont, PSA, Eagle, Mesa, ASA, Expressjet, Pinnacle, Skyway, Air Wisky, etc. Because of attrition, the upgrade at 3C could be poised to become very quick, but maybe not. If you have no other options, 3C probably wouldn't be a bad place to get some quality training and flight experience while waiting for bigger and better things to come in the near future.

I'm gonna shoot a resume in to Burley over winter and see if I get a phone call. I think I'd have plenty of LORs from former and current pilots as well as my former manager. And I almost forgot...I didn't get fired, I got "furloughed"

You are in a MUCH better position than me because you have more time, therefore more options. Consider all the airlines I mentioned above and make the best decision for you. Once again, best of luck in wherever your career may take you.

I think that you should be able to get an interview pretty easy. I sent my resume in about a year ago, before I got hired at my current job, and haven't updated it since then and got an e-mail for an interview a couple weeks ago. Sorry, but won't be attending....

 

[SkyBoy1981]

Av8or

You're right...airlines like CorpEx offer quick upgrades and PIC time, but the QOL apparently isn't very good at all. After giving it some thought I think I would probably be better off spending 4 years in the right seat of an RJ flying for a decent company than 2 or 3 years of hell just to build more PIC time. Thanks again for your advice...I really appreciate it.

 

[AV80R]

Skyboy-
“…than 2 or 3 years of hell just to build more PIC time…”

If I made it sound like its pure hell at 3C than I failed. I meant to say the QOL could be much better but once again, I had good time while I was there, I can think of many other places that are far worst. I think you got my main point & regardless where you end up, good luck to you.

BoilerUP-
“…I almost framed the letter as a precursor to the rest of my career…”

LOL, hope that’s gonna be THE only furlough for you.


”I don't have 100 multi (yet), but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!”

Dude, if you switch your car insurance to Geico, you’ll be set!


“…I hear CM from CGI got hired on there at low time, in fact I had more time than him when he interviewed…”

I was involved in that ordeal so plz talk to CM and he’ll explain to you all the details. Keep buildin’ that flight time and when it’s time to decide, PM me and I’ll be glad to put in a good word 4 u 2. Good luck man!

 

[SkyBoy1981]

Homey,

"Hell" really wasn't the best choice of words on my part, but I understand what you mean. I'm pretty confident that I have a good chance with most regionals and I've been spending a lot of time on this site and others researching to decide which one will be best for me. From what I've gathered considering domiciles, overall morale, pay scales, and opportunity for growth, ASA or Continental Express seem as though they would be good choices. The cities in which these airlines have domiciles would be a fairly easy commute for me from my home. If I could be ATL based with ASA I could even make a fairly short move to Atlanta and not have a commute at all. Thanks again to all of you for the input.