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this company needs a pilots union!!!

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My duty day just changed to 10.5 hours a day from 13.8. I feel like I'm on vacation....nothing like a 50 hour week to help you relax.
 
I don't recall Publisher stating that a King Air doesn't need deice boots in Florida. On a related note though, didn't a Comair (pretty sure I got the airline right...my sincere apologies if I am incorrect) Brasilia almost CRASH somewhere in the carribean due to a severe icing issue...yep. You can get ice ANYWHERE.

Flying at a regional is much tougher than a 9 to 5 job. Sure, we may only be flying 6 to 8 hours in a day with a 14 hour duty day (sometimes longer)...but during the sits between flights, you are checking weather, grabbing a bite to eat, conferring with MX, etc. We may gab in the crew room but it certainly isn't "restful". And let's not forget the Part 91 repo flights at the end of a 16 hour duty day. Name another profession when they put you on a double shift, don't pay time and a half, and then "ask" you to drive a multi-million dollar piece of equipment safely. I can't think of any...can anybody else? Thank god flying airplanes is fun. It's pretty sad when a 96 hour work week is legal for a transportation professional.
 
Flydog,

Calm down. Publisher made a common sense statement. He was responding to a comment that seemed to imply that working five days a week is tough duty. He pointed out that many folks would consider this a real treat, and he is right.

Many 135 jobs, even five days a week, have crews home most of the time, and few jobs have crews away all the time. Most are home every night. There are exceptions and some jobs are tougher than most. However, it's well to remember that despite the crying most pilots do, there is little physical labor involved in flying an airplane, and it's far from the most challenging assignment in the world.

Imagine yourself for five minutes without a medical certificate, and working in a steel plant or a factory. Then imagine yourself spending the same time doing what you do, and tell me that there is no clear line of decision there. Where do you want to be? How many others would give their right arm to do the same? A tough life? Not hardly.

You can be concerned with time away all you like, and I can show you a dozen jobs (even in aviation) that have it far tougher. We read of a man that cried because he had no shoes...

Someone comes from a 121 environment to 135 and they may be shocked. They may want the backing of their union, the protections, the cushiness and pomp...and be shocked when they don't get it. This doesn't mean the world is falling down around them; it's just different, and it's time to adapt.

Years ago a senior pilot with a major freight forwarder contacted me about getting into aerial firefighting after he retired. He had a full military career, and a full career at the airline. He thought it would be a fun change of pace. I laid it on the line, told him what to expect. He was shocked. He said he would go to the FAA and expose such a terrible dangerous industry; he wanted to make officials aware that such things go on. I told him to mind his own **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** business and not to bother me again. I never heard from him again, and it didn't hurt my feelings a bit.

He didn't realize that there is a whole other world, and that he needed to be very grateful for what he had...he didn't know what it was like in the real world, and when he found out, he couldn't deal with it. Nine to five isn't so bad, and neither are fourteen hour duty days. It's a long day to be sure, but it's nothing to form a union over.
 
135

You are right, how could I possibly know anything about a business that I ran for three years.

We had 20 aircraft in a 135/corporate situation. Most pilots worked M-F for 12 hour days or flew night check runs which had a shorter work day for 4 nights a week.

That being said, most were day trips out in the morning. If the aircraft was to be on the ground all day, the crew was provided a day room if one was available. An average day was a 7 to 8 am departure, fly 1.5 hours or less, sit until 4 to 5 pm and then home. This is typical corporate flight department stuff. They were paid in line with Midwest BCA pay.

They and no one else in the 2000 person company got sick days.

They did get regular vacations and we did fly some weekend and charters to places where the crews did not suffer much as they rented cars and stayed in nice resorts.

Most of our pilots were also A&P's besides ATP's and we paid for training although required a commitment. We also required all crew members to be current and able to take trips in all types of aircraft.

In our case, only about 20% of the pilots were really trying for an airline career. While they all wished we would buy bigger jets, the fact is that they were not bitching about the life.

I did say that you can get by on training flights in Florida without working de-ice boots, as I flew single engine in Florida all over the place without much problem. The King Air's we were talking about are used in training and rarely go above 9k.
 
You guys complain about pay for training, but will still go to work for a place like Avbug describes, which is worse in my view. Perhaps if nobody agreed to work there, the company would decide to follow the rules and treat their people better.
 
A place like I described? What did I describe? A place that follows the regulations (have you read them?), has few nights away from home, has virtually no physical labor, flies well within duty hours, and only works five days a week? Is that a bad thing? What are you talking about?
 

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