Pinnacle class on Friday needs pilots...

[Wowjack]

would they even look at a guy with 1400 and 2? what's up with there contract, smells fishy

 

[Vrefus]

To hell with them if they're doing that stuff. They need to be paying everyone from day one... That is awful!!

 

[pilotyip]

Class filled

The Express One rep at Air Inc said they filled his class with 5 people they interviewed and hired off the floor at Air Inc.

 

[dondk]

You HAVE to be kidding!

Last word from corporate was 170 left in the pool... Stephanie mentioned that September or October would be the EARLIEST any street hiring. I will add that 170 "sounds" high as classes through July were supposedly full. We started taking from the pool in March with 2 classes monthly with each class about 10-15 N/H. Add that we took some 37 Gulfstream dudes lately and according to GIA we are taking more in July.

http://www.gulfstreamacademy.com/index.html
Contract sucks, but what regional who did not get a new contract in the last year does not suck?

We have about 3 years left in the contract.
We are "due" to get 83 jets by April '04 at 2 per month and all Saabs are off of the property by end of the year.

Currently about 550 pilots on the line, reserve varies by base and THIS was the ONLY month that DTW and MEM had little or NO reserve. Otherwise reserve is about 6 months or better at all bases for FO, Captains are about 6 years or better in MEM, 14-18 months in MSP and about 14 months in DTW. I would expect them to rise quickly in the upcoming months.

As for the comment of quick upgrade... if you have 3000 with 500 in type you can upgrade. But... all of the SAAB people are coming over to the jet, and ALL of them will be senior to ANY new hire. Therefore it is without saying there are plenty of people with close to 3000 but may be missing 500 in type (Saab Captains and senior Saab FO's, not withstanding the senior jet FO's and let me not forget the current Street Captains in the jet.

So, anyone who really thinks that upgrade will be quick really needs to look at the big picture. We have had some anomalies that upgraded quick but as the above people "catch up" you can easily say reserve for a VERY long time in all bases and that is IF you are able to upgrade and ARE able to get 500 in type.

Planning and scheduling is almost non-existant. Schedules are really designed to make the lives of the top 30% of the pilot group nice, everyone else averages 10-11 days off with non- commutable lines. Company is big on airport reserve, so the new guys can plan on spending the first 3 or 4 months living at the airport of 10-12 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a weeks for 18 days a months (they get 12 days off a month)

Pay is $19.54 per hour based on 75 hour guarantee, to give an idea of how LITTLE a new hire actually fly's the month of August they are looking for people to give line checks because no one can get 100 hours in 120 days.

An average month for a reserve guy is maybe 10 hours and that is IF you beg scheduling, most reserves and airport reserve fly nothing in a month (add this to getting 500 in type IF you already have 3000).

Finally, yes you do pay your own room and board while in training, and that averages about 12-14 weeks based on senority and sim availability. If you have 1500/300 you do not pay, less than that you do pay. Also, washout rate is about 25% and at one point this year it peaked at 75%. We have some serious issue's in the training department and they are currently trying to fix the problems.

I guess a question someone should be asking... why did many of 170, or the 200 we HAD in the pool say no thanks? We have not added 200 to our pilot roster yet and they claim they have hundred's of resumes on file...

 

[Anaconda]

Re: You HAVE to be kidding!

Currently about 550 pilots on the line, reserve varies by base and THIS was the ONLY month that DTW and MEM had little or NO reserve. Otherwise reserve is about 6 months or better at all bases for FO, Captains are about 6 years or better in MEM, 14-18 months in MSP and about 14 months in DTW. I would expect them to rise quickly in the upcoming months.

Company is big on airport reserve, so the new guys can plan on spending the first 3 or 4 months living at the airport of 10-12 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a weeks for 18 days a months (they get 12 days off a month)

Pay is $19.54 per hour based on 75 hour guarantee, to give an idea of how LITTLE a new hire actually fly's the month of August they are looking for people to give line checks because no one can get 100 hours in 120 days.

An average month for a reserve guy is maybe 10 hours and that is IF you beg scheduling, most reserves and airport reserve fly nothing in a month (add this to getting 500 in type IF you already have 3000).

Finally, yes you do pay your own room and board while in training, and that averages about 12-14 weeks based on senority and sim availability. If you have 1500/300 you do not pay, less than that you do pay.

wow...

i guess i can stop complaining about comair now...

off reserve in six months, max of six ready reserves at six hours each per bid period...

21.75 per hour to start @ 75 hours...

$230/week during tng, although i was one of the last to get hotel and per diem the entire time in tng...

i've averaged about 40 - 50 hours per month flight time...

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

I interviewed there last year.

In training, they don't pay you, they don't pay for any housing, they don't pay perdiem, AND, even though they are 100% owned by NWA, you are not allowed to jumpseat anywhere until you are done with your training.

However, if you were an off-the-street captain, you will be paid in training and have housing paid for. Pinnacle is to be spun off and sold (like Continental Express) sometime soon.

When I was interviewed, I was told the CRJ failure rate was at about 50%.

A guy from my airline was at AirInc this past weekend and said they did hire 5 guys from the conference to fill this upcoming July class. They are getting a lot of CRJs and upgrade is relatively quick.

Cliff
GRB

 

[dondk]

Yes.. as a N/H FO your are 100% on your own. The only passes you get are the ones from home to class, if you flunk, your taking Greyhound home!
Although they would occassionally give you a pass to get home if there was sufficient time between class and sim or something else. No JS, no pass benefits until passing the checkride.

As for the N/H Captains, that program was stopped sometime in July, a few N/H captains got screwed on the pay but they did get the hotel paid for. If you were a MX, you got hotel, pay, rental car. If you were a FA, you got pay and hotel, but a FO you got screwed....

Our IPO is becoming "doubtful", it seems NWA does not want to take a bath like COEX did in this poor stock market. I would not count on us being spun off anytime soon!

Last I heard through training (about 6 weeks ago) we were still at 25-30% washout rate in the sim, that number has been relatively constant for the year I have been there..

83 CRJ's by April '04... Upgrade quick? maybe up to 2 months ago a guy could do it in less than a year, but they already had some serious time before coming to us. I would speculate we will top 2 years by the end of this year and probably move into the 3 year mark sometime next year. Unless we get alot more CRJ's, or nationals, fractionals, and majors start hiring.

We have about 40 jets on the property and 550 pilots on the line, a good 60 or more Captains are sitting reserve and about 30 FO's are sitting reserve and those number increase monthly. We train more per month than we need in the aircraft we get and that is with the failure rate we have!

We are not known for our planning!

 

[Wowjack]

Hoop Dream

Wow...and I thought just maybe there would be some light at the end of the tunnel.