truce?
WMU Bronco - didn't mean to slam Western. Its a great program, I looked into going there myself. Great group of students, and I consider the guys on the flight team friends (our flight teams had a ball at UND last May). I was trying to get under your skin cuz you got under mine by flamebaiting. The "my penis is bigger than yours" university wars are for another day, over beers, during an overnight. Truce?
I find that most people who slam the MAG pilots are grossly misinformed of the circumstances surrounding their contract, and instead focus on the $$$. I agree their contract sucks - so would everybody at Mesa. Its really easy to say that if you were in their shoes you would have gone on strike, but what if you went on strike and all your jobs got shifted to a NON-ALPA, alter-ego airline? Why do you think they hate the Freedumb A list pilots so much? I must give CHQ their props for holding strong against Republic, but it wasn't the same situation. I also agree with Crizz that the Mesa MEC and ALPA National didn't help much - they could have said NO to the contract, but didn't. The MAG pilots got a better contract than what they had and killed Freedom - and I honestly think that was their biggest concern.
I will NOT whore myself out and lower the bar of this profession, but I don't think working for Mesa constitutes either. That being said, I would like to fly for Airnet before getting hired on at Comair, but I'll use the Purdue hookups I have to try to get on at Chautauqua. I don't want to risk moving out west to work for Mesa, but I will NOT discount any airline at this point, in this current economy. To do so would be to sell myself short. I think PFT, nepotism and "golden kneepads" are bigger concerns. Also, it seems to me that Mesa pilots don't hate their jobs unlike their counterparts at Eagle. To some people, I suppose happiness means more than $$$, and the two aren't mutually exclusive.
One could make the argument that American Eagle lowered the bar by signing such a long-term contract, people constantly make the argument that Mesa lowered it with their contract, and the same could be said if Mid-Atlantic pilots fly those EMB-190s for as low wages as claimed on this board. I think people take out their anger at Jonathan Orienstein on the MAG pilots. Everybody who has any sort of stake in the future of commercial aviation should be hoping and praying JO gets taken down by the Feds over his aborted ACA takeover.
I wish everybody at XJET the very best on their upcoming contract. Just please, leave the Mesa guys alone. They know what you think of them. You can only beat a dying horse so long.....