All jokes aside from GIA haters and those who don't have a clue what it's like to work there: QOL is pretty good in comparison to other BE1900 operators. Home nearly everynight, usually work 4-5 on and 3-4 off, varies with the line and if you're a blockholder. They never hire street FO's, ALL FO's go through the program...and despite what former disgruntled folks may say about thier training program, I found it second to none in quality and the systems portion by Rocco is superb. Street Captains are only hired as a last resort when projected manning and lack of future projected upgrades of FO's requires street captains. However as a street captain you can expect to be on reserve nearly the entire time you are there, it's not bad at all if you have a good relationship with scheduling and live in base...that is key. You go there with the idea of building 121pic time as fast as possible and moving on. It is an incredibly great flying experience and if you have the right attitude and expectations then it is also a FUN time as well. Who doesn't like to do a visual to Key West 27, crankin it around the Boca Chica chanel to stay out of Navy's airspace...or being the last ones in and out of Nassau before the feeder bands of the hurricane come in, landing sideways pounding it on, doing a 10 minute turn and the airport shuts down as you rotate. If you want REAL experience and a great environment to build your 121pic decision making skills GIA is the place for you. If you want to bitch about everything, expect everything to be perfect, expect your FO's to all be CA material from day 1, expect to fly with NO mel's and expect management, the union or dispatch to hold your hand then this is NOT the place for you. There were plenty of days when I didn't want to be flying, po'd at maintenance or management...but I sucked it up, got my time and got out. Even while I was on rsv I never had less than 100 hours per month, with alot of that being ot. For a small operator the contract is decent and the work rules are better than most other places, including DAL. Personally I don't think you will see hiring at the majors until late 2011. When the window of hiring does open up it will be for a short amount of time...12-18 months. Do you want to be one of 10,000's of guys with all RJ time chasing the same 500-1000 jobs? When I was picked up at DAL there were over 12,000 resume's on file that met the mins. You need to to something to make yourself stand out, widen your horizens and your flying and work experience. Sitting in an RJ, flying the line and doing nothing outside the box is not going to make your resume stand out from the others. If GIA isn't your cup of tea then do something else. If your still an FO wasting away in an RJ, hoping to upgrade in a year or so....you WILL miss out on the next hiring cycle and if you do then you can count on a 10 year career at a regional before the next hiring cycle. Think ahead, do something different....Check airman, management, asian or african flying, alaska bush pilot, military...SOMETHING to set yourself apart from the other 20,000 CRJ drivers with the identical resume'. For those of you without a BA....forget about it. And don't waste your money with "online" colleges, the degrees aren't worth the paper they are printed on. DAL has a list of colleges and university's they will accept degrees from, and not a single one of them is an "online" university. I have had an incredible amount of luck in my career to date, and my timing has been just right...again, through no brilliance on my part...just luck and in the right place at the right time (like flying the DAL CEO to his island retreat). I could very well be one of the guys still stuck at PCL...but I took a calculated risk and stepped OUT of my comfort zone and left when the leaving was good.
Is YOUR comfort zone helping or hurting your career and goals? It is for YOU to decide.
