Help drive a stake through Gulfstreams heart

[CA1900]

... slamming GIA and PFT at every opportunity.

I slam Gulfstream because its business model puts inexperienced people in the cockpits of airliners who have no earthly business being there.

Are there exceptions? Of course; I'm sure you know one of them very well. We have a few working here.

But after being paired with a couple dozen "graduates" of their program in my previous life, the overwhelming majority simply lacked the genuine experience that an airline pilot should have. That's not a slam on those pilots, but of the business that makes its money by accepting $32K in lieu of the experience that other similar operators require as prerequisite.

Being fined for falsifying records and putting car parts on the airplanes just reinforces what a crappy operator they are. Defend them if you like, but you'll never catch me in the back of one of their planes.

 

[jppt2000]

Being fined for falsifying records and putting car parts on the airplanes just reinforces what a crappy operator they are. Defend them if you like, but you'll never catch me in the back of one of their planes.

Forget about the other airlines doing some of the same things that folks might consider dangerous i.e. 300 hour new hire pilots and disregarding AD's.
Arguments about the GIA business model, IMO are both arbitrary and convenient.
Many folks that I've seen with such a strong disregard for GIA are either angry about the slow or plateaued progress of their own career, (blaming their career decisions on other folks) or envious of the career progression of the folks that finished GIA's program.
Some of the posts in this thread are simply a rehash from a union message board thread.
Amazing, another candidate for a board member-business model analyst of the committee of the righteous.

 

[CA1900]

:laugh: Not angry or envious. I quite enjoy what I'm doing and where I'm living. Wouldn't change a thing.

Many folks that I've seen with such a strong disregard for GIA are either angry about the slow or plateaued progress of their own career, (blaming their career decisions on other folks) or envious of the career progression of the folks that finished GIA's program.

Most folks that I've seen defend Gulfstream with such vigor are trying to rationalize paying $30K for a job they could have gotten paid to do elsewhere with just a few hundred hours more time.

Don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye on this one, but I've enjoyed the spar.

 

[jppt2000]

:laugh: Not angry or envious. I quite enjoy what I'm doing and where I'm living. Wouldn't change a thing.




Most folks that I've seen defend Gulfstream with such vigor are trying to rationalize paying $30K for a job they could have gotten paid to do elsewhere with just a few hundred hours more time.

Don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye on this one, but I've enjoyed the spar.

Yup, we won't see eye to eye, but I believe there were much bigger airlines fined last year for doing much the same thing, but I understand it would weaken your argument(s) if you included their cases.
It seems over the past few years, folks on message-boards have adopted the tactic of throwing as much mud as possible at topics-people they disagree with, in the hope as much as possible will stick.
Also, many of those people who paid $30K, have earned that back many times over.
PS, many didn't pay $30K, but it adds to the weight of your mud.

 

[CA1900]

Hope we'll get to discuss it (or something more entertaining) in person one of these days. :beer:

 

[COOPERVANE]

Arguing that "other airlines are breaking the law" is not a valid argument to defend an airline that is doing it.

 

[General Lee]

Montana group drops Great Lakes Airlines trib.com | Posted: Sunday, January 16, 2011 12:00 am




By a near unanimous vote, the Montana Essential Air Service Task Force has selected Gulfstream International Airlines of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to serve seven Eastern Montana cities, rather than renew the contract with Great Lakes Airlines of Cheyenne.

The recommendation now goes to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is expected to make a decision this week. The Transportation Department has always honored the task force's wishes, said long-term Chairman John Rabenberg of Wolf Point.

So, beginning May 1, he expects to see Gulfstream fly to Lewistown, Havre, Glendive, Wolf Point, Glasgow, Sidney and Miles City, as Great Lakes did. Great Lakes has been using Denver as a hub.

"It all hinges on service," Rabenberg said. "(Great Lakes President) Doug Voss wanted to put all the emphasis on going to Denver, and the Montana people wanted to go to Billings."

The vote Thursday was 6-1 in favor of Gulfstream, Rabenberg said.
Mickey Bowman, Gulfstream's vice president of corporate development, said his airline will have three planes to serve Montana, plus one spare.
"We'd also be looking to establish a maintenance base in Billings, probably around the first of April, and we'd be looking to hire 15 to 20 individuals," he said.

Gulfstream flies half-a-dozen EAS routes and has generally hired almost all of the previous carrier's local employees, a pattern that will continue for Great Lakes employees in Montana, he said.After watching the Eastern Montana EAS situation for a few years, Bowman said he started making some calls when the contract came up for bid.

"I made a couple of cursory calls and was told that Billings was an important destination and that reliable, on-time service was a top priority," he said.Gulfstream's bid for the two-year Montana EAS contract was $10.9 million and Great Lakes' bid was $10.7 million, Bowman said. The federal government heavily subsidizes EAS flights to cities that don't have enough business to attract commercial air service.

Big Sky Airlines, which flew to Eastern Montana for nearly three decades, went out of business in March 2008. Commercial air service didn't resume for nearly a year until Great Lakes started flying the routes in early 2009.
Great Lakes officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but Rabenberg said President Doug Voss was upset at the vote.

"I don't blame them for being unhappy, but when that big a percentage of the communities feel that way, we're voting the wishes of the people," he said.

Gulfstream International mainly flies in Florida, Ohio and the Bahamas. The parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year to restructure its debt brought about largely by high fuel costs and fewer passengers during the economic downturn.

"It's a change in ownership and in order to get previous debts cleaned up, they had to do that (declare bankruptcy)," Rabenberg said.
Billings Logan International Airport, which also has seen air travel fall off during the soft economic times, should get a little more business if Gulfstream starts flying these routes, said Kevin Ploehn, assistant director of aviation.

"We'll get a few more landing fees and more fuel," he said.






Flying in Montana is just like Bahamas flying, right? And, you can't PAY enough for that kind of experience, like doing the VOR/DME ARC into Miles City, MT in the weather. That will be fantastic for 200 hour wonders and their CFI Captains.



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[CX880]

Those poor folk that only have one way in and out of there. Will they use windshield washer fluid for de-icing?

 

[jppt2000]

Arguing that "other airlines are breaking the law" is not a valid argument to defend an airline that is doing it.

That's not the argument.
Just like the media, facts are are slanted and/or misrepresented to support folks' personal jihads, holy wars, tirades.
One's argument would seem different, if that bit of info was included in one's tirade.

 

[rtmcfi]

That's not the argument.
Just like the media, facts are are slanted and/or misrepresented to support folks' personal jihads, holy wars, tirades.
One's argument would seem different, if that bit of info was included in one's tirade.

And, at the end of the day, all jihads aside, Pilots trained by Gulfstream will have been in the cockpit of the the last 3 fatal domestic airline crashes, taking with them around 100 innocent lives. One's defense of Gulfstream would seem a little different, if that little bit of info was included in one's tirade.