Commutair ..............the latest

[WSurf]

Here's the bottom line. Hand flying a beech in the Northeast is good experience, well it was about 5-10 years ago. Now, that flying doesn't mean squat to a pilot that is trying to move on to a major. Plus making 15k as a pilot really sticks.

So if you can get hired by the ton of airlines that are getting new nice RJ's, go there and fly that for 30k(you can then afford you own apartment, instead of sleeping in a crash pad with 20 other of our pilot nerd friends. Plus, these days majors want to see Glass Flying, Auto Pilots and FMS's on the resume. Hand flying is now for the Crazy & Insane.....

It's almost to the point that PIC in a 1900 was awesome a few years ago, but now it doesn't mean as much as the FO flying the new video game Cockpits of the RJ's.

Good Luck However in this Profession you has chosen...... You'll need it.

 

[AftCG182]

You know, calling someone's home a "$hithole" might offend the people who grew up here. Having lived in several regions of the US, I can say that the Northeast offers the best combination of climate and lifestyle. For my tastes, anyway.

 

[burrito]

I'm soooo glad that Laxpilot knows what CO mgmt thinks about CommutAir's operations. And I'm soooo glad that beech1900kid is giving him a reacharound.

Is the company perfect? No. Do they pay a ton? No. However, it's gonna be hard to find a better all around compensation package. I do enjoy having my medical insurance paid for me.

Look, it's a small plane and you know it's not going to have APU/FA/AP. etc. etc.
The plane is a blast to fly and you'll learn a ton doing it.

There's no doubt that CommutAir has it's problems, but you talk to any pilot group and you'll find people that love their airline and people that hate it. It's what you make of it. It seems to me that the people who are unhappy with CommutAir either have jet envy or feel they are entitled to much more just because they think they're special.

As far as Cleveland masquerading as a city, it just isn't true. I think I saw one chick last week who wasn't 300lbs, missing all of her teeth and totally covered in tattoos.

I really didn't want to get sucked into this. What a moron.

 

[Smacktard]

You failed to mention only 12 day off no matter how senior. Long sits without compensation. Non commutable lines ( for the most part) awful bidding system. Nazi scheduler!!! no veriety of flying. No APU/FA/AP. etc. etc... Most people are pretty fun to fly with though.

Yeah the 12 days for everyone would be nice to change but 12 out of 28 still isn't bad. (Considering where you are.)

CA has no control over the long sits, Tues/Wed is reduced schedule, even the Coex guys are sitting. Talk to your basic Coex guy, and he's bitching about 18 hour overnights and nothing to do. It's all relative.

Non commutable lines? Who are you kidding? As for an awful bidding system, I have to disagree. You get to pick your days! Most places you pick a whole months worth of flying. If you aren't brand new or recently upgraded, how many OFF days are listed in your bid? I know I could get anything I wanted and I was middle of the pack.

The easiest way to deal with Te...the nazi, is to not make stupid requests every month. As for the no variety, no APU...WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT WHEN YOU TOOK THE JOB@! It's a small commuter with THE SAME PLANE THAT THEY'VE ALWAYS HAD. Did you forget that when you took the job?

 

[I.P. Freley]

There ya go, interrupting a good rant with "facts".

Seriously... Where else do you get to pick your days off? And never you mind the "only 12 days off" thing, it's actually 13 of course. While we're on that topic, at least the guarantee is around 82 hrs/mo (76 hrs per bid period, 13 bid periods per year).

More o' dem pesky facts...

And truly, having ALL your health insurance paid for is SWEET. That's worth a buck-fifty an hour right there, at least compared to most "we'll pay half" operations.

Yes, it's "only a Beech". Unless you start getting too worked up about your friends flying CRJ's, it's not as bad as many would have you believe.

 

[B190Captain]

About 2 months ago I jumpseated on Commutair from FWA to CLE and spoke to a Captain that commutes from Titusville FL to CLE. I forgot his name but he asked me if Gulfstream is hiring off the street Captains. Well, they are.

Good luck!

 

[Obi-Wan]

Yeah the 12 days for everyone would be nice to change but 12 out of 28 still isn't bad. (Considering where you are.)

CA has no control over the long sits, Tues/Wed is reduced schedule, even the Coex guys are sitting. Talk to your basic Coex guy, and he's bitching about 18 hour overnights and nothing to do. It's all relative.

Non commutable lines? Who are you kidding? As for an awful bidding system, I have to disagree. You get to pick your days! Most places you pick a whole months worth of flying. If you aren't brand new or recently upgraded, how many OFF days are listed in your bid? I know I could get anything I wanted and I was middle of the pack.

The easiest way to deal with Te...the nazi, is to not make stupid requests every month. As for the no variety, no APU...WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT WHEN YOU TOOK THE JOB@! It's a small commuter with THE SAME PLANE THAT THEY'VE ALWAYS HAD. Did you forget that when you took the job?

I will try to clarify what you said above a little.
1) Except the first two months of reserve i have had a line with 14 days off and this worth about 85 hours. i could have personal droped down to 75 and had 16 days off. senior guys here get as much as 20 off. At CA its 12 for everyone.
2) CAL does dictate the schedules to a degree. But ultimately its up to CA to make the actual schedules. They are just to short handed to properly do the job. Bids came out late all the time and you have to do them on the phone, many times on your day off. If they wanted to play nice they would fax you the left overs though. At coex we have 2-3 hour sits. However, those trips are still worth about 20 hours. Even the long mexico overnighs are still worth close to 20 hours of pay for the 4 day and you 1 day off to kickback in mexico. The coex guys are bitching because they want more pay for the sit time and we will get it.
3)The lines are commutable at CA mostly for people who live near. ie PIT,CVG, or some of the northeast cities that are on the same time zone. Across the country is a different story.
4) the scheduling is bad, because there is no computerized bidding and you have to bid between 60 to 63.567890 hrs or they wont accept it. As far as getting the days off you want you might get lucky but then you have to take whatever trip is available. At coex we can do the same thing. We bid the schedule that gives us the days we want and if we dont get it we can trip trade as much as we want and i have always got what i wanted(I'm really junior)
5) I took the job because I had nothing else to do and wanted to stay current while on furlough. It was not to long so I dealt with it.
What i'm trying to say is that CA is not a bad place but there are better places out there, lots of them. The first day a newbie walks in there they will tell you how its the best company out there. %95 of people however have never worked any where else or they have worked at a worst company. What i'm saying is you should go out there and see for yourself, only then you will realize what you are missing. We have had a few CA capt hired here at coex recently. These guys where against a union at CA and truly believed that he comany was going to change things. They also believed in the system when they had not seen anything else. Well you should talk to them now and see what they after being here. I dont claim XJT to be the best airline out there, I'm just saying there are better options for everyone. For me it was a personal decision to come back to XJT. I did not have a PIC fantasy and did not want to whore myself out as a CQF and after 2-3 years just have the mins to apply to SWA(I also dont have 10k for a type) I did enjoy flying with most people over there and i'm glad that i run into them from time to time. I also wish ya'll the best. Last year everyone wanted to give the company a chance and said if things didnt change they would vote to have a union in 1 year. Well, the year is up, have things changed?

 

[beech1900kid]

You know, calling someone's home a "$hithole" might offend the people who grew up here. Having lived in several regions of the US, I can say that the Northeast offers the best combination of climate and lifestyle. For my tastes, anyway.

I didn't call the Northeast a $hithole. I called Alabany and Plattsburgh $hitholes. Why do I feel like Rumsfeld all of a sudden?

 

[beech1900kid]

And truly, having ALL your health insurance paid for is SWEET. That's worth a buck-fifty an hour right there, at least compared to most "we'll pay half" operations.

I think it's safe to say that most of us don't mind paying the $22.50 for medical when we make $36/hr as second year FO's.

I can hear the replies now..."What about my upgrade, man? It'll be less than a year." Well, I'll still be making more than a sixth year captain there. "What about my PIC, man?" The big boys want you to have glass. The gig is up guys. Quit drinking the kool aid and move on.

 

[Obi-Wan]

The uprades are not as fast as you think. There are some CQF'f and many others are doing resrve on a regular basis.

 

[NEDude]

You guys mean to tell me that Southwest doesn't call you up the day you get a thousand hours PIC? I was even under the impression if you didn't answer the phone when they called, they came in the middle of the night to drag you away. Man, I guess I have been wasting my time.

Look, CommutAir isn't the greatest company in the world. But it works for most us. I commute long distance and rarely have to travel on a day off, and I am in the bottom 25% of seniority for captains. There are a good mix of commutable, and non-commutable trips.

To compare airlines such as ExpressJet and CommutAir is a waste of time. ExpressJet has ten times the airplanes and pilots. They fly a much larger route structure and much larger aircraft. Of course pay and benefits are going to be better there. Most of us here are not under delusion that we should get $75/hour with 20 days off per month to fly a Beech 1900.

CommutAir is what it is, a small airline with a fleet of Beech 1900s. If that is not for you, then don't apply here. If you are here and don't like, then feel free to leave. But CommutAir has been good to me, and I think most of us here feel the same way.

"What about my PIC, man?" The big boys want you to have glass. The gig is up guys. Quit drinking the kool aid and move on.

Funny, thing about this. The guys who are at majors all say that turbine PIC is the important thing. The guys who say that glass/fms/jet time are important are RJ F/Os. Hmmmm, I wonder who to take career advice from.

How do you know what the majors want? Has any "legacy" carrier hired in the last three years? During the last hiring boom, people were flying out the door from CommutAir to places such as United, American, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, USAirways and such. Since September 11th, people have been hired from CommutAir to Southwest, FedEx, Alaska, AirTran and others (just about everyone who is hiring). So in other words, your statement of majors wanting glass just doesn't hold water. You have a theory based on what you want to believe is true. But when compared to past history and current trends, your statement just isn't true.

Now you can argue that others have faster upgrade times, which may be true. But by all reputable accounts, turbine PIC is still the most important thing when building a resume.

 

[Obi-Wan]

You are right about choices, everyone has a different preference. jet blue is one of the airlines currently hiring that does not count B1900 time, but not because its a prop. I remember a few years back when the mjors were hiring, most wanted you to list your time in Type and A/C weight. The heavier the AC the more points you got. We have many capts with lots of jet PIC, 737 type, and friends at SWA and they have not been called yet. Even if they where called their chances of getting hired are 1:5. I think B1900kid was saying that for some it might be better to have a better QOL while waiting fot that opportunity. i have flown the 1900 and have seen that side. Maybe You should come and see this side (after you get your 1000 pic ofcourse )

P.S. This is not a flame bait, but with almost a year past the ALPA vote and things not changing, and the mutual interest BS not working as well, Are you guys going to try to organize again?

 

[NEDude]

I think B1900kid was saying that for some it might be better to have a better QOL while waiting fot that opportunity. i have flown the 1900 and have seen that side. Maybe You should come and see this side (after you get your 1000 pic ofcourse )

QOL is very important, obviously. But everyones' opinion of QOL are different. Just because a certain airline may offer person A a better QOL, doesn't mean it will offer the same for person B. Of course the option to go to a large RJ airline is there for myself and anyone else, and maybe at some point I will explore that option. But for me, and a lot of us here, it just doesn't make a lot of sense right now.

As for ALPA, I don't know. Not much noise being made about it. However, this message board is certainly does not paint a great picture of ALPA. So you'd be hard pressed to convince anyone that ALPA would be great for a small airline like CommutAir when most on here bash ALPA.

On another note, for the record, most of the April and May 2003 new hires are holding full captain lines as we speak.

 

[Obi-Wan]

You have a choice of many unions as well as an in house. The 40 or so people who bit** on here constantly are not representative of what the average members thinks about the union. The complainers are the ones who never show up tp meeting, never write their elected reps etc.... Just like politics. overall they have done a geat job. Its the same on the coex boards, a few with too much time are always complaining. The other 2500 pilts are happy.Your choices are many, it does not have to be ALPA. You are the union. Just remember that mgt likes to take the U and the I out of union. Most last year said that lets give the company one more chance and if things dont change we'll come back in one year. i was just wondering if the company has kept their promisses and if those pilots will keep theirs.

 

[AftCG182]

After combing through the the thread a couple of times, I can't seem to find any info on when another group might get called to interview. Anyone care to offer a guess?