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Mesa--senority not required

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SliceOfPIE

Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Posts
16
14 NEW HIRES...not even finished with FO training were awarded Dash-8 Capt...these are people with senority numbers exceeding 1600. UNBELIEVEABLE.

Alpa rules
 
And you know this how, altima? You knob. Many of those upgrading to Dash Capt. are UAL Jets for Jobs new-hires who more than qualify for the position. Those with less than Capt. upgrade requirements cannot bid Captain. The fact is there is so much growth that 2-month upgrades are a neccesity.
Like any other airline, there is an equipment lock, so while there are senior pilots on other equipment, they are unable to bid over to Dash captain. It would just be insanity at the explosive rate of growth Mesa is going through.
The majority of pilots recently hired at Mesa are NOT 200-hour San Juaners. There are plenty of furloughed major airline pilots who are happy to take the upgrade.
 
aviatrix correct me if I am wrong but what would a jet for jobs person be doing in a dash? Last time i checked the dash had props..... whos the knob now? no wait its mesa, i forgot things are so screwed up at mesa that they probally would stick j4j in a prop. wow your parents must be so proud you work for the most hated company in the industry.
 
Actually....

J4J is a term used for the US Airways program which placed furloughed pilots on CRJs out of PHL only. The program in place with UAL is not technically J4J. The furloughed UAL folk (through 'a different kind of agreement)are offered the choice of jets or props. They start at a slightly higher payrate. Of the UAL guys who chose the Dash, one was a former Mesa Dash Captain. The others would rather either be guaranteed a west coast domicile, or prefer to make more money serving as captains.

As one of the 14, I will tell you that it is not a cakewalk. About half of the class is furloughed UAL. The rest have either military or 121 experience with the exception of one freight dog and one CFI. The CFI is going to be an FO as he does not hold an ATP. It is tough and we've already lost one...

As for the origional poster, this is not some uncommon or unheardof event. Many regionals have hired street captains at times. The fact is, that the reason Management has been forced to hire street captains is the lack of folks that are able to upgrade. There is a "training silo" that only permits Dash FOs to become Dash captains (in other words, Beech or Jet FOs can only upgrade on the beech or the jets) Everyone will eventually upgrade on the jet. This saves the company tons of cash on training costs by preventing a flow forward and backward from jets to props. At mesa when one upgrades to captain, we are held to an 18 month seat lock on the props and a 36 month seat lock on the jets... Because of this, many of the more senior FOs on the Dash are hanging tight for Jet captain slots to avoid the 18 month seat lock...

Hope this helps to explain the logic.

Oh and onetuffguy, regarding your comment to aviatrix: before you try to educate others, educate yourself.... The parents comment, give me a break... You my friend are a douche,,,
 
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Any idea what the washout rate is for newhires going directly to Dash Capt.? (That is, newhires who have no prior experience on the Dash) Just curious.
 
Prop guys (both Dash and Beech FO's) can upgrade to Dash CA. It's the jet FO's (all of whom are senior to this new class of Dash CA's) who can't bid over.


Beech fo can only upgrade to 1900 capt or jet capt
im a 3 year beach fo, i should know!!!! Our mec rocks !!!
 
the new contract states that a pilot may only upgrade in his current equipment or an RJ.

There is also no transitioning FO to FO in other equipment.



We all know it sucks. There are plenty of fairly senior jet FOs, Beech FOs, and beech CAs that wouldn't mind sliding into the left seat of the Dash.

Like all the other **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**ty details in this contract, you can thank 90 or so Freedumb guys who thought it was more important for them to get into a 70 or 90 seat RJ rather than fight for a better contract for us all.
 
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What's the washout rate of the J4J's that came over from United and are any of them stacked?
 
What a freekin lovely situation to be in!! F/O's sitting next to some disgruntled UAL guy who is already pi$$ed that the UAX carriers have already taken his job (in their tiny minds at least) plus he just goes straight left seat of a prop!! I can see CRM being extremely high at MESUP!
 
Aviatrix,

One Tuff Guy bent over is waiting to pounce on ANYTHING to do with YV. I wonder if he is "pitching" or "catching" in his avatar?...not that there is anything wrong with that. BTW all,the most hated airline part must be true!... so much that you'll never get hired EVER, by ANYONE!! Except for these friends of mine who have moved on from YV in the last year or so: 6 Frontier (including a VERY happy ME!) 6 Aloha, 5 Jetblue, 8 America West (aka Big Mesa) a boat load to WN before the hiring lapse, 7 AirTran, 5 ATA, 2 Alaska. Maybe we should all be a part of the most loved airline, like One Tuff Guylover's wholly-owned USAirways h ell. They are some of the NICEST people in the industry, smiling gate agents, happy crewmembers, masses of satisfies customers and a nurturing parent company. I guess the wholly-owned guys are expecting that SOMEDAY the shafting from on high will stop, I doubt it!
 
Re: Aviatrix,

ChinaClipper said:
Except for these friends of mine who have moved on from YV in the last year or so: 6 Frontier (including a VERY happy ME!) 6 Aloha, 5 Jetblue, 8 America West (aka Big Mesa) a boat load to WN before the hiring lapse, 7 AirTran, 5 ATA, 2 Alaska.



Wow, I thought Alaska hasn't hired anyone since pre-9/11? And you have two friends that went there "in the last year or so?"

I guess I'm out of touch with what's going on in airline hiring these days.
 
well said clipper!


don't forget to mention all that professionalism and courtesy demonstrated towards us by the wholly owned guys during these trying times.

such a nice bunch of guys
 
Also....

The previous comments were not ment to change the fact that 77% plus of my previous brethren made a HUGE mistake by ratifying that POS contract. A huge chunk of the blame for that could best be placed on the MEC, Negotiating Comitte and the ALPA infrastructure as practiced @ YV. They "enabled" the fear campaign engineered by Johhny Lorenzornstein, hook, line and sinker. Bad leadership isn't a complete excuse, ya still shoulda voted "NO." One can only look to CHQ and Mesaba for proof that ALPA "leadership" @ YV sold out the masses for personal enrichment etc. Vote the S.O.B.'s out this spring, Zippy the Chimp coulda done a better job.... BTW, ALG and PDT et al may soon be on Mesa's senority list, the more vocal wholly-owned Mesa bashers may wanna tone it down a bit, makes an otherwise good group of guys look bad to the uninitiated...PS
 
Hey im one of the 14 also, the United guys in this class are some of the nicest guys around. And Rottweiler, CRM with any of these guys would be incredible compared to someone with your attitude (CRM is a group thing -you were probably the chump in back sleepin that day of ground school). Tiny minds? You are a dork.
 
I believe Alaska has hired a small bunch. I'm not sure if they ran any classes but I know someone in the pool.
 
The same thing is going on over at Island Air. They are hiring a bunch of pilots for an expansion and I'm sure a lot of them will hold captain out of the gate because the current f.o.'s might not have enough time to upgrade. About being a 3 year Beech f.o. at Mesa, what ever. If you want to wait until you can hold jet captain in PHX then go right ahead, but not being able to get Dash captain isn't what is stunting your career or pay. The UAL guys are great and so far some of the nicest pilots I have met in the industry. I don't blame them for not wanting to be stuck in the right seat of a jet. The PIC time is worth ten times that if they need it later. Alaska hired 35 last year.
 

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