Mesa or Eagle?

[Ralgha]

I've got offers from both Mesa and American Eagle. Eagle says possibly a class date in January, may not be until March. Mesa says possibly a class in December, definatly in January. Eagle will probably be able to tell me more after the holidays, Mesa probably next week.

So, any advice on which to go with? Good, bad, ugly. Let me have it with both barrels please.

 

[mmmdonut]

Both are shiattty!

 

[WWEfan]

Go with the quickest upgrade, build your PIC time and get out.

 

[Steveair]

I'd personally pick Eagle... Mesa's management isn't very nice but if you can go there, get your time, and bail it might be worth it. Personally I think the management at Mesa is lower than rat excrement...

 

[amcnd]

Dont come to Eagle!! 5.5 years and I am still going to wait at least 3 years. Thats if AA recalls, longer if they dont. I was in the same boat 5 years ago Mesa or Eagle. My choice was Eagle I would of been a RJ captian after 2 years and gone from mesa buy now. but instead im stuck at Eagle. Go to Eaglelounge.com and you will find all you need to know about why not to go to Eagle.Mesa may be bad but atleast you will get the PIC time you need to get out.

 

[Sir Humpalot]

niether...

but if you had to pick one, i would say the best advise is to go to eagle, get the experience, and apply to skywest, chq, or anyone else. My former student is in skywest ground school and he tells me that half the class is people from mesa and other regionals.

 

[CitationLover]

the "quick" upgrade at mesa is done. it is now running about 3-4yrs for jet captain. beech will be going away come 05-06. dash is stocked w/ captains (and if the FL displacement bid goes down it will be stocked with more senior pilots) and thus upgrade on that is based on jet upgrade time.

eagle has stopped hiring at this time due to 450 "potential" flowbacks coming down the pipe. the telling time for eagle will be in july when the last ERJ is delivered. if they furlough, my guess will be around that time frame. they are anticipating a 25% acceptance rate on the 450 and are waiting to see what the actual one is to decide whether to start back up with new hire classes.

take the class at mesa and see if you can get through CRJ training. see how you like mesa to decide if you want to goto eagle or not in march. also look at coex and skywest as they are both hiring quite a bit now.

 

[wntsouthwest]

Dude, are you serious!! Neither

 

[Xdriver]

Mu buddy told me the upgrade at Eagle is 8+ years FORGETABOUTIT

PUNT DUDE

 

[buckdanny]

I'm at Mesa, so far so good. Pay starts here on the first day of training. I don't have any experience with Eagle, so I don't have any grounds to compare. I think Citationlover's idea is good. At the Mesa the training agreement starts after your checkride; so you can always come here, go through groundschool and then decide if you like it or not. Kinda harsh to the company and mean to your sim partner if you bail during sim, but if you don't like it then you don't...

Buck

 

[Caveman]

"Go with the quickest upgrade, build your PIC time and get out."

That's outdated thinking. This isn't 2000 and no major or LCC is hiring in significant enough numbers to pretend that any jet national is just a stepping stone. Go to the one that you would be most comfortable with for the long haul because chances are you'll be there a while. At the very least you'll probably be there 5+ years and I wouldn't rule out a 10 year stay. Depending on your age, after 5 or more years with one company you may decide to stay there for the duration. If you don't think that Eagle or Mesa is a place you could be comfortable at for that length of time then take the first class date offered and keep looking for a jet national that you would be happy at for 5 - 10 years.

 

[Swaayze]

Go wherever they call you first, then decide whether to switch if the other one ever calls. Chances are Eagle's done hiring for quite some time.

 

[Vik]

A jobs a job. Pay sucks at both, both treat you like dirt, so go the one that has bases where you are living or would like to live.

If someone can accurately give you upgrade times I'd be surprised because things change overnight these days.

 

[igneousy2]

To say that upgrade time at Eagle on the jet is 8 years is misleading. There is NO upgrade time at Eagle as all of the Jet Captain positions are going to AA flush backs and jet captains who have been previously displaced. There are no turbo-prop captain upgrades as they are DISPLACING turbo-prop captains. The junior jet captain at Eagle has 7 years with the company, but the guy one junior to him ALSO has 7 years with the company, is not a captain and will not be one for awhile. In the latest vacancy bid, a tubo-prop captain with a DOH of 6/99 was displaced back to FO for the SECOND time. With the exception of the flushbacks, There has not been a new captain at Eagle since before 9/11. On 9/10/2001 captain upgrades were going to DOH's of 10/'99, and even then it was considered long as there were regionals at the time that were FORCING people into the captain seats. Eagle has not caught back up yet. All of the recent captains have, or could have held captain at some point in the past.

Eagle is not a fun place to be right now if you have a choice. They are ONLY going to hire 100 pilots in 2005, that is a snails pace at Eagle, they usually hire 100 pilots in about 2 months. Don't forget they have about 3000 pilots so 100 pilots is about 3%. That's like ASA hiring 50 or Island Air hiring 2 all year.

If you take a job at Eagle you are making yourself furlough foder. Or worse, they'll ship you to the rock. If Eagle calls you first go to Eagle and wait for something else. If someone else calls you first, take the job and don't ever look back.

Later.

 

[RJP]

Iggy, didn't we just talk about this? It's deja vu all over again.

Go with the first guaranteed class date. No promises from any airline at this point in time. Take what's offered and make the best of it.