Pinnacle Airlines

[acaTerry]

As a side note... If Jet Blue, Continental, NorthWest, or Delta tomorrow came out and said.. Hey, if you have 3000/1000 and $30K we will give you a job in the right seat...

There is a difference here....you can make a darn nice living at these airlines. To pay tons o' money for a job, not for training, for a regional that pays so low is not a good gamble. It just keeps others from raising the bar.

 

[dondk]

Originally posted by acaTerry

There is a difference here....you can make a darn nice living at these airlines. To pay tons o' money for a job, not for training, for a regional that pays so low is not a good gamble. It just keeps others from raising the bar.

Yes and no... if your in a postion as a CFI or even unemployed, a regional job which is steady work is better than what they may have.

I am not for PFT, but it is a circle that I do not see being broken anytime soon.

C'mon.. we all know at least one dude who works somewhere for peanuts. Sleeps in the hangar, on call 24/7 and makes LESS than a regional pilot. This GIA thing is actually a step up, albeit not much, but it is still a step.

Keeping the bar low is those regional's taking concessions or signing contracts with little to no improvement. That is for another thread though...

 

[DTWFO]

The P-F-T complainers always seem to hijack any thread they can and turn it into a bitch fest. However, it always seems to revolve around GIA.....what about the other similar programs like Flight Safety's with ASA. You paid 30,000 dollars and flew a seneca around for a couple hundred hours and were GUARENTEED a job as an FO at ASA. Of course that ended when they stopped hiring after 9/11, but for some reason no one ever mentions these programs. Also the Mesa training academy out of Farmington NM had a similar deal with America West Express and the 1900. My point is why do the haters always focus on GIA.....maybe some of them have personal issues with GIA...who knows. But the fact is there are crappy pilots and great pilots from all different backgrounds at all different airlines and the crappy ones aren't all from P-F-T places. We are living/working in a new industry and times now post 9/11 and the rules have changed. So GET OVER IT and move on with your life. Those that P-F-T have to live with it so I don't see why you all make it your lifes mission to complain at every opportunity you get about P-F-T?????

 

[Riddle momma]

I agree

I totally agree with DTWFO. Life is a b!tch sometimes and we just gotta smile and take it.

Sure it's cheap for those of us sitting in a 172 stall after stall for 6 hours a day to watch some little rich kid pay for an FO slot at a regional. But if I have learned anything in my short little 23 years at life is that things have a way of coming back at you.

There are a lot aces out there that were just meant to be birds you know? I mean flying just comes natural to them and they learn really quick. These kids don't deserve to be judged just because their parents were able to afford the FO seat for them. They are lucky, and if they are descent beings, they will thank their lucky stars each and every night before they go to bed.

BUT... there are the pilots that are completely arrogant and set the stereotypes. Little rich brats that are more of a hazard at 600 hours than they were at 10! It is them that we can bash on.

NOT ON ALL THE PFT!!!

Hopefully they will scare themselves to death and lighten up a little on the Mavrick thing... Or...their cockiness will one day get them in trouble.

I've been paying my dues for almost 2 years, and I admit, I get jealous of those that find their way to a regional with 1000 hours, but you know what? In the end it will all equal out. Relax, and enjoy your life. There is much more than PFTers. Let it be!

 

[DoinTime]

Re: I agree

....watch some little rich kid pay for an FO slot ....just because their parents were able to afford the FO seat....Little rich brats...

I'm asuming because of your handle that you went to Riddle. Being a graduate myself I know exactly how much it costs and I still owe $65,000+. I could have went to the state university and then went to GIA and come out $40,000 cheaper. Seems like we, Riddle grads, were the little rich kids and the guys that went to GIA were the ones on a budget.

 

[Riddle momma]

TRUE, but you and I will be paying that debt for another 10 years to come. I worked two jobs in college to afford supplies and my appartment. Besides, Riddle didn't garantee an FO slot anywhere, only in you did internship were you sometimes garanteed an interview and low mins on hiring (500 and 1 or 600 and 1).

Also, I am probably being biased here, I THINK, at Riddle they don't just fly the hell out of you, but put you through 4 years of aerodynamics, performance, meteorology, safety, human factors, CRM, commuter/corporate/majors operations, blah blah blah...

I will say this though, we had plenty of kids that were just in love with the idea of "being a pilot", and all they did was waste the instructor's time and aircraft time. Honestly the drop out rate there was fennomenal. People there weren't shy about telling someone they weren't mean to be pilots. There are those that escape the system though. The ones that give the rest of the hardworking "brats" a bad name.

But then Again, maybe ERAU and UND and OU and WM were all a disguise of PFT. They sure aren't anymore though. That brand name on the diploma means nothing anymore.

 

[DoinTime]

TRUE, but you and I will be paying that debt for another 10 years to come. I worked two jobs in college to afford supplies and my appartment. Besides, Riddle didn't garantee an FO slot anywhere, only in you did internship were you sometimes garanteed an interview and low mins on hiring (500 and 1 or 600 and 1).

I guess I'm not following what your saying here. I also worked very hard through school and will be paying for my Riddle education for the next 15 years. I take great offense when people call me a 'rich kid that went to Riddle.' I know some of our GIA guys that also worked very hard through college and will be paying loans for years to come so I'm failing to see why calling them 'rich kids' is any more justified than calling you or I 'rich kids.' There are people that take both paths that have their parents paying the way. It is no more likely that these people will end up at Riddle then as they will at GIA.

If you look at it from an outsiders point of view we were the ones that got screwed. We paid twice as much, got half the experience, and they didn't even get us a job when we were done. Go figure.

 

[Riddle momma]

I know some of our GIA guys that also worked very hard through college and will be paying loans for years to come so I'm failing to see why calling them 'rich kids' is any more justified than calling you or I 'rich kids.'

Hmmmm.... good point. I stand corrected I guess.

And I do totally agree that there are many GIA or whoever PFT out there who are probably better pilots than me (I can be a little cocky right?). Those people are the ones that I am saying for people NOT to pick on. They deserved it you know?

I think that's what my point was originally. Not to generalize all the PFTers because there are plenty that can handle themselves well enough to be worthy of an FO slot.

 

[sf3boy]

PFT is PFT. The airline gets the quality of pilot that IT pays for.

 

[aewanabe]

You dumbass GIA apologists are missing the point. P-F-T is bad enough (Colgan, for example, and just about every regional during the mid-nineties). When you go to Gulfstream and pay for your 250 hours, you are paying the airline for the privilege of filling a seat that must be filled by law. That is even worse than PFT. You have whored yourself out and instead of the airline hiring someone, and paying them for the work performed and the revenue generated, they're taking your money instead. You are nothing more than a passenger that has paid quite a bit extra to sit in the front seat, and in the process you are making sure that there is one less PROFESSIONAL pilot position in the marketplace. At least after Colgan rapes you for the 18k they pay you and let you stick around.

 

[Cadillac]

aewanabe

well said

 

[Data]

aewanabe

Exactly right. And for all the PFT apologists, just remember, I'll be the one you're trying to convince when you sitting on the other side of the desk in an interview. You're going to love that rejection letter, because you will never get by me. Keep telling yourself that it's 'just the way things are'.

 

[1.3XVso]

Well then its a pretty good first class eh? I get to play with buttons and the flaps, gear oh and the radios.Sounds like fun to me. I hate to be aggressive and violent but i bet none will say anything about PFT in my face. All you can do is cry give little faces and walk away.Typical for bone heads that have nothing better to do then to talk about nonsense.

 

[Smacktard]

I hate to be aggressive and violent but i bet none will say anything about PFT in my face.

They won't have to be aggresive to your face, the rejection letters will be enough!

 

[T-Gates]

They won't have to be aggresive to your face, the rejection letters will be enough!

If you don't have enough balls to say it to my face, you are just a worthless pu$$y....