Colgan thread

[BRA]

think twice before PFT here. I have a nice story. I am starting my day by cleaning the airplane, preflighting, checking all the seats, (this is your job here...no flight attendent) The captain is checking the weather, checking MELs, and write ups etc. This is the stuff we do an hour before the flight is scheduled to depart. The company requires we show up an hour before departure. While we are doing this, a chautauqua pilot comes over...said he wanted to check out the 1900, he had never been in one before. We were cool with this, we said he could look as long as he wants. The interesting part.........guess who was the only one getting paid in this transaction. The chautauqua pilot. They get per diem. Colgan does not. Two pilots are working to get a flight ready to go for free, one pilot is being paid to go sight seeing. We do a lot of things for free at colgan. A lot. The FO does 2 jobs at colgan, flight attendent, and pilot. You of course are barely paid to be the pilot though. remember this. If i lost this job tomorrow though i would beg to get it back. I do appreciate what i have. But i didn't pay 18K for it.

 

[Riddlebratt]

Bra what is the upgrade time looking like for you and how long have you been at Colgan. I also can say I appreciate the honesty in your statements on the board....Its nice to hear the real side from the real pilots flying the line. Although I wish I was there as well.

 

[chperplt]

The FO does double duty at every 1900 operator. Plus, what are some of the other 1900 FO pay scales out there? I bet if you add base pay at Great Lakes, Commutair, ect.. plus their per diem, it wouldn't be over your $20 an hour.

No perdiem here yes.. BUT, don't make it sound so horrible. $20 an hour as a first year Beech FO is probably the highest in the country. Still sucks... but the highest in the country.

 

[tittyjet]

Hey, BRA:

You forgot to tell him about sitting hot reserve in ManASSas on the sofa of the waiting room in the main office.

That's right folks -- you sit on a fugging couch with no TV, no computer, no peace to rest, and people coming and going all day long for TWELVE hours waiting on them to use you for a trip. BTW, don't even think about asking to be released early, or you'll wind up in the CP's office getting your ass chewed.

Or, how about having to drive (not ride in) a company van from ManASSas to Charlottesville (about 1.5 hrs) in order to do an afternoon round trip to LGA. IT'S AN ACTUAL LINE, PEOPLE -- it happens every day!!! (I will be fair, however, they do pay crew members for their time riding in the van). The other poor schleps who did the morning trip have to drive the thing back just to get home.

One more..... I have on very good authority that they sent out a fugging ALERT BULLETIN a couple of months ago saying that flight crews are not allowed to drink anything but bottled water in the cockpit. No coke, no coffee; not even with a lid!!! Air Line pilots not allowed to drink coffee to help them stay awake while in the cockpit during a fourteen hour duty day. They probably put that one on the 'joke-of-the-week' wall down at the Dulles FSDO when they read it -- what a hoot!

The morale has got to be one of the top five worst in the airline industry! Run -- do not walk -- away from that place! Everyone whom I know that is still there is fighting and clawing with all of their might to get out.

All my respect to my former comrade CHPERPLT, though; he seems to keep a good attitude about the whole thing. Good for him -- that's the onlty thing that will keep you sane around that palce.

Keep the faith, brother.

 

[BRA]

I am not comparing us to other 1900 operators. I am happy i have this job. Beats flight instructing. What i am saying is do you really want to spend 18K to work here. Do you want to spend it at a 1900 operator period. You could do a lot of things with 18K. Wine and dine your girlfriend with it for a few years. Save it. Learn another trade while you flight instruct. Become an EMT, a personal trainer, something! But don't give it to colgan without thinking long and hard about it. Once it's gone, it's gone. Wait a little bit and see if the UAL express carriers start hiring again. If airline hiring just gets worse, i would imagine the colgan PFT deal won't go anywhere. Commutair seems to be taking people the old fashioned way still. Low time guys too. The economy is showing signs of life. I would hold onto the 18K a little longer. Remember: no union at colgan, no APU in the 1900. You will freeze in the winter, and bake in the summer. Should you get the saab..upgrade will take forever. This is fact. Many of our beech captains bid saab captain, and many get it. Captain pay on the beech is less then 2nd year FO pay at Comair. Colgan Air "flying yesterdays technology into tomorrow"

Good things: flight benifits with mainline are great. And you can jumpseat. No flight instruction. Steady pay check every 2 weeks. 121 Multi turbine time. We often get just about half the month off. Multiple bases to chose from. The pilots you work with are all pretty nice people. They do give you a pretty good schedule at a lot of the bases. 4 on , 4 off for example. 1900 will give you a very good instrument scan.

 

[Mungusaurus]

Hey Bra!

Thanks for your positivity, I hope you and I get to fly together some time. Maybe we already have.
Yeah life sux but what'cha gonna do.

 

[BRA]

To answer the question...it is hard to tell my upgrade time. If we expand it will change for the better, if other airlines start hiring....pilots will leave here like crazy. But that would probably include me too. Before i got here..you needed 1000 in type, 2000 total, and have been with the comapny a year. When i interviewed they said you needed 2500TT, and 700 in type. In january they said you needed about 2000tt (seen all the seasons), and 500 in type. Need, and whatever they feel like are 2 different things. Colgan changes all the rules to however they fit them best. They may have hired all the street captains to keep insurance costs down...or they hired them because they had too many 500 hour gulfstream people here. You pick. So with that note...i could upgrade sooner because people senior to me just don't have enough total time. But by the time they do more upgrades, i would guess most here will have about 2000TT, with a lot of that total in the beech. So if upgrade was one year..just to pick a number....if you got in here tomorrow. it would be more then one year for you, because you are lower time. As of right now, i have been here around a year. My upgrade is no where in sight. It would be another few years. No sign of expansion, and many FO's senior to me. And upgrades are at a snails pace. But who knows what the future holds.......one year ago today...ACA was the hottest place to be. everyone was ready to kill to get an interview there. Not too many people knocking on that door now. And the ones that got in right around now......didn't last too long. If you could have paid 18K for that a year ago...it probably would have looked like a safe bet. Now imagine doing it at colgan now.

 

[tittyjet]

Mung:

Check your lexicon (know what that is?), sport, "positivity" is not a part of the English language.

If you cannot communicate effectively in this forum, how in the hell do you expect to communicate the merits of your King Air driving to BELOW minimums effectively in an airline interview?

You need to get a clue. BTW, do you have a twin sister named Eden???

 

[Mungusaurus]

To the Mighty Tittyjet

Get a life muppet boy!< I was trying to give Bra some support and you come in and take your slow lumbering whale driving negative trip. As for below mins, visibility is governing when commencing an approach so as long as I have the min vis I can start an approach. At night with a 100 foot ovc it is very easy to pick up the runway lights at which point I can continue another 100' and pick up the runway and land. Here endeth the lesson. And Lexicon, Ne Te Confundant Illegitemi, my old sock!

 

[chperplt]

All my respect to my former comrade CHPERPLT, though; he seems to keep a good attitude about the whole thing. Good for him -- that's the onlty thing that will keep you sane around that palce.

Tittyjet

Thanks man.. I sure as he!! try. Just got back from 3 days in LGA with 45 minute taxis, very little or no A/C, and 19 people that let me know their feelings about the situation along the way. Now I'm home for 36 hours before I have to go back and do it all over again.

 

[ATRCA]

Mung,

Are you serious dude? No doubt you guys work hard flying that light twin around, but is that something to brag about. Its all about gettin paid more to do less. There are plenty of other 1900 folks on this board who quietly go about their business like the rest of us. Come on, get real.

I guess mom and dad can afford to support you even after paying for that high priced Riddle education. Good for you, but I think I'd want to keep that to myself. Probably still live at home at 27, proud of that too?

 

[tittyjet]

Hey ATRCA:

I like to jump on Mung's ass just as much as the next guy, but you need to back off on this topic. Here's why:

I have no idea who the guy is, much less if his parents help him out, or not. Or, even if he lives at home. I do know this though, that's what parents and loving families are there for -- to support their kids in their dreams in whatever ways they deem fit. That's one of the many things moms and dads do.

Before you jump on my ass about mommy and daddy helping me out, they don't. I had a real job for years, and saved up lots of money to be independent enough to support myself while being a regional pilot. But, I can tell you this: my family would help me at the drop of a hat if need be. That is what family is for, pal. That's what being a parent is about -- children before self; help them all you can, then be d@mned proud that they are spending a life doing what they truly love, whether it's being an airline pilot, being a garbage man, or, even (God forbid) being a TSA employee.

Seems to me that you may be just a little jealous of those whose parents are in a position, or just willing, to help them. If his parents help him eat and pay his rent, that does not make him a bad pilot.

Get that chip off your shoulder, or it'll get that attitude of yours out of CG one day and get an airplane load of people killed.

I need a drink.

 

[chperplt]

I guess mom and dad can afford to support you even after paying for that high priced Riddle education. Good for you, but I think I'd want to keep that to myself. Probably still live at home at 27, proud of that too?

Are you upset that mom and dad didn't pay for your high priced education? Maybe you couldn't even qualify to get that high priced education. Some of us, me included, paid for that high price education ourselves. Some of us even paid for all of our certificates ourselves too. And sadly enough, some of us will be paying off that high priced education for years and years and years and years to come.

 

[pa56pa]

mmmm... if u have parents willing to help out... u better dang well take advantage of it.... !! you are stupid not to... and if you dont have parents willing to help out... it's just the cards you're dealt with... there's no need for you to put others down.... sounds like u need some growin up to do....

anyway... i would be more than happy to have my kids live with me even if they're past 18... your antiquated american nuclear family mentality is inferior compared to the world view of family elsewhere.. i wiped my kids' butts.. they better **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** well clean and wipe mine when i get old... i'm definitely not gonna be living in a rest home to rot... there is definitely nothin wrong with it...

Proud Papa!

 

[T-REX]

This thread is starting to sound like a sad country song...quit your whining and pass the whiskey.

Nevertheless, I hope your situation gets better at Colgan.

 

[WrightAvia]

Thought the CHILD LABOR LAWS prevented children from suffering such a fate as having to work at an airline. Drive a bus. Sit on a couch. My first job was washing dishes and bussing tables...not much to whine about there, you just humped ass or got fired.

This morning I picked a book up off of the coffee table of a retired NWA Captain's. It was called "Death on the ice". It was about a tragedy in 1914, where some Newfoundland Sealers were killed on the ice flows hunting seals because they got left out there for three days on foot. The pictures of the corpses filling the deck area on the bow of the recovery ship were chilling none the less.

Long story short... people on this planet and in this country have jobs and have had jobs that were not comfortable, not clean to do, not easy to do and were life risking for pennies on the dollar. I say take your complaints about your little airline job, that you BEGGED to get at the interview, and go tell em to a West Virginia coal miner, a commercial fisherman, a person that debones chickens or renders hides, drives that huge bull dozer in a land fill in some hot southern climate where it stinks like sombody SHlT on death. Go tell them sombody made you drive a company van to go to work. I bet when that budwiser drinking, blue collar worker hears your whine, his answer will be to punch the teeth out of your mouth and F@CK the bloody spot.

There are alot of people out in the REAL world that are laid off or fighting a war in a foreign county right now, so keep your whining to yourself. You interviewed there, it's your dream job to be an airline pilot, quit whining and get to work.

 

[WhiteCloud]

There are alot of people out in the REAL world that are laid off or fighting a war in a foreign county right now, so keep your whining to yourself. You interviewed there, it's your dream job to be an airline pilot, quit whining and get to work.

The chick in your picture has a nice ass.

 

[WrightAvia]

Not only that, but when she lets go with some wholesome, .223 caliber, belt fed goodness from that stoner, her nice boobie knockers bounce around pretty good too.

 

[Mungusaurus]

Mungus' life

Hey ATRCA, I am 27 years old, did not attend riddle, own my own home ( yes on a Colgan Salary, no its not a single wide!) Have a wife who is in college and a child. Have not been supported by the family since I was 21. Just to clear things up!
T-Jet, thanx for the props mate. Cheers to you!

 

[ATRCA]

I'm proud of you.

BYW, livin at homw is BS! My parents would probably let me, but give me a break.

Tityjet, its ok bro, you live at home no big deal (wink wink). I moved out when I was 18, went to college and I've never been back. No chip by the way, my parents are not poor and I did not have to climb up hill both ways to get to school. My parents have been there for me just as much as anyone else, I just happen to have a shred of self respect and at 30 I would NEVER live at home. Sure it would be easy to go home, but come on. If you've got to live at home to have this career than is it really worth having? If you say yes, then your whats wrong with this industry.

BTW Tity, I'm professional enough to do my job well regardless of whats going outside the cockpit, so spare me the "people killing" BS. Just flew 50 people safely from MCI to EWR about an hour ago, so you can rest well, they'll be no dyin if I have anything to do with it.

Chow