The New JetRide

[DAS at 10/250]

This is FYI for those of you who may be considering applying to the new JetRide. The new JetRide is comprised of the old Airnet Jetride certificate (Windrider) and Pinnacle Air Executive Jet Services (Pinnacle Group).

New hires are expected in 2007 for fleet expansion, proper crew staffing, and attrition. I do not have any hard numbers.

Street captains are hired at this time. Requirements are 3500TT for the left seat and 2500 TT for the right.

Pay is all over the board. Pay is scheduled to be standardized in 2007. Now, FO's are 35K to 90K and CAPT's are 60K to 125K.

Fleet is currently three LJ31, four LJ35, two LJ45, one LJ55, ten LJ 60, two C650, three DA50, one G3, and one G4.

Bases are LAS, CMH, ASG, BHM, BED, LNS, DAL, SDL, SUS, MDW, ERI, BDR, and home based on the remote aircraft.

Beenies include 401K, medical, vision, dental, FSA, Day care, company uniforms, short/long term disability, life, spouse life, and cancer care. Medicals paid by company.

This is FYI and not intended as an arguement for or against. Our website is not up-to-date and I thought some might like to know. www.jetride.com if interested.

 

[psysicx]

What about schedules?

 

[DAS at 10/250]

Currently, based crews work 14 on and 7 off. The 14 on you may or may not fly. I have heard grumblings that the based guys are doing more overnights and less out-and-backs. But, I can not back that up. The 7 off are hard days off. Any flying done on days off is strictly voluntary and you will be compensated accordingly. I believe it is currently 150%. The company is planning on going to a penalizing system for days off flying. Such as $300 the first day, $350 the second, $400 the third, and so on.

The remote crews are working 15 on and 13 off. This occasionally goes plus or minus. This schedule is pretty screwed up right now. If a crew goes off due to MX, and sits five days, the next crew will have 20 off and then come on for 15. What this does is it does not allow you to long range plan. You can't go down the calendar and say on, off, on, etc. The plan is to set up hard schedules. So that you can go down the calendar and know your days on and off. There are rumors, and rumors only, that we will be going to 8 on and 6 off. Or 7/7 if you don't count the travel day as a working day. I think the company will eventually be forced to something like this. First, to slow turn over. 14 days is a long time on the road. Second, our contractors don't like crews out that long. They get burned out and customer service suffers.

We're expecting major changes in the first quarter of 07 as these two certificates merge. Some could be good and some could be bad. We'll see.

 

[johnsonrod]

How is aircraft selection determined? If you have no time in any of the aircraft, is it determined by need and domicile? For example, to be placed in a L45, would I need to be located at a specific domicile and would a seat opening in that aircraft have to exist?

Also, is Spirit Aviation out of VNY included in the mix too?

 

[CFI4LIFE]

Spirit has nothing to do with JR.

 

[DAS at 10/250]

Well......

Right now on the PCL side it is what is open. If they need a 45 CPT they go and hire one. They don't offer it to inside guys. None of our 30 series captains were offered this job, nor were any of our qualified FO's offered the upgrade. They just hired one off the street.

On the WDR side they do actual open bids. If you have the time (for CPT upgrade) and seniority then it is yours. If no one bids it then it goes to the street.

If the airplane you are bidding is in another city then you have to move. WDR used to pay relocation amounts when they were attached to Airnet. This has not been addressed yet.

Both certificates should be going to WDR style bidding so that everyone has an equal chance to move up. Prior to the merger your seniority number meant squat. That should change.

Probably the biggest monkey right now is what will happen to the crews on the remote airplanes once they are based. We have pilots spread out all over the country. This alone is the reason that our remote pilots should have a back door. If you airplane winds up on the other side of the country and you aren't willing to move then it may be a "thanks for playing, we'll see ya" type of situation. JR has stated that we will have fewer remote airplanes in the months to come. This affects the PCL certificate pilots. About half our airplanes are remote. WDR has two remotes but they are "based" in cities with the crews living in those cities. They don't do home baseing. So, if theirs is pulled and based it doesn't matter because they already live there.

JRod, one 45 is remote and the other is in ASG.

 

[DAS at 10/250]

EDIT: All CMH ops have been moved to LCK. Apparently for some time now. Sorry for the error.

 

[JJET44]

Well......

WDR has two remotes but they are "based" in cities with the crews living in those cities.

What two airplanes are you talking about?

If its the Gulfstreams Then your wrong about the pilots living where the planes are based. They're from all over the U.S. and if your talking about the 35 and 60 that are on exclusive use, then your wrong again. Two out of the three pilots live in the south and I'm the only one that lives where the plane is based.

 

[DAS at 10/250]

Thanks JJet 44. I'm sure my list has some errors in it. My info is based upon bits and pieces from the company and our other pilots. Nothing I have is offical but hopefully with corrections we can give others a more accurate and better picture of the company.

PM me the call sign for the 650 in Erie if you know it. It doesn't seem to be filing using our standard call signs.

 

[psysicx]

15 on is a long time on the road.