If you like having only 8 days off a bid sitting reserve (probably out of domicile)... then being jr assigned into your day off just to deadhead into another domicile to pick up one leg of flying, then Mesa is for you! If you like having to fight blatant abuse of an already horrible contract on a daily basis, then by all means come to Mesa. If you like having to constantly fight with crew trackers to keep yourself legal, then come to Mesa. If you like having to meticulously watch how many hours you credit because the company almost always shorts you money, then come to Mesa.
I don't know much about Colgan, but please do NOT under any circumstances come to Mesa. I came here because it was my first class date offer out of the three I was hired at back in March of 06. I stayed because I was awarded my hometown of Charlotte and thought, how bad could it be living at my base? Boy was I wrong! Mesa stole any bit of a life I had left and stomped it into the ground. I'm not even close to holding a line after almost a year, and I routinely have to sit reserve in Dulles which isn't my domicle, and where there are at least 70 FOs junior to me, most holding lines. I am illegaly jr assigned almost every time I have a day off and have to fight with the trackers and chief pilots to prove that I am in fact NOT the most jr. The fear of jr assignments has pilots and fas bailing out of airplanes on the end of their trips, out onto the ramp, and into the adjacent gate, just to escape the tracker or cheif that is probably waiting for them.
I've got my interview at Republic coming up this week and I couldn't be more excited to get out of this hell hole of an airline. There is a reason the attrition rate is so high here. Keep instructing and go to the regional you WANT to be at. The idea of "get your time and get out" may not work for everyone. You want to be at a place you don't mind being 2, 5, 10 years down the road.
