Trans States Upgrade Mins?

[Tram]

Hey guys-

A friend of mine just interviewed there...

The guy told him he could be CA in about 8 months or less..

Basically, you need 500 in type - with Trans States.. My friend has around the same time as me ~2000 total..

Does this sound right? I know PCL will bump the total time from 3500 to 3000 with 500 in type, but you still need the 3000tt..

Can anyone confirm what TSA is looking for?

 

[Tarzan]

With waiverable time, it used to be 3000 about a year ago. I wouldn't believe a word they told him in the interview. Many of those in positions of authority have integrity issues when it comes to dealing with prospective and current pilots. Basically, they will lie to you to acheive what they need.

 

[andym037]

When I left (Feb 07) they had just lowered it from 4000TT to 3000TT with 1000ME and 500 in type. ALthough it may have changed since.

 

[stooge]

Mins are 3000TT w/ company time counting 2 for 1 for 400 hours, which basically means 2200 hours if you fly 800 for the company. I know that the current upgrade class is over 3 years for upgrade. That will come down some, since over 100 f/o's left last year for other regionals, but that is a good indication of why you would never want to go there.

 

[rjacobs]

since over 100 f/o's left last year for other regionals, but that is a good indication of why you would never want to go there.

Thats a bit of an understatement, I think the number was closer to 200 or even 250. They furloughed 48 and I think less than 10 came back. When they furloughed those around 100 quit in a 2 month time frame.

 

[Tram]

Yeh, I sorta thought "8 months to upgrade" sounded a bit fishy.. even coming in with 2K TT..

 

[great cornholio]

Right now its 3000 TT. I forget the number of Turbine hours you need, but 800 comes to mind. If your buddy doesnt have any turbine then he will need to fly 800 hours at TSA before he can upgrade. If he has the turbine time then all he needs is to get close to the 3000 Total. He gets credited 1 hour for each hour flown in a TSA plane up to 800 hours. So the min time really needed for upgrade is 2200. Not sure how true the 8 months would be. They told me that upgrade was gonna be 1.5 years when I got hired 3 years ago. Right now we are hurting pretty bad for pilots and are having a hard time filling new hire classes. Also a lot of FOs just come here to get the time to go to CHQ or Skywest. We are currently losing about 10 capts per month. A lot of the new hires here are really low time... just under 300 total with 15-20 multi. These guys will take forever to get the time needed for upgrade...if they dont bail to CHQ in a few months. As far as upgrade time goes its gonna be just like a few years ago. Guys that upgraded in 2004 had over 3 years with the company because of the hiring stop after 9/11 Then all of a sudden overnight the next guys had less than 2 years with the company were in class...then we furloughed and downgraded and it got messed up again. There is a rumor that we will run out of qualified FOs to upgrade within the year. Not sure how true that is, but I could see it happening. I would say that to know how long to upgrade at TSA is gonna be anyones guess soon. I'd bet that your buddy could be in the left seat within 6 months of getting the time to upgrade. So if hes got all the other reqs like turbine time and has 2000 TT he would need to fly 500 hours in TSA planes to get the time needed to upgrade. That would take 6 to 7 months then he could expect to be in the left seat 2-6 months after that so my guess is 8-12 months on the line so if you take into account the 2-3 months in training then you are looking at 11-15 month "upgrade time". But by then we will probably hire street capts and will no longer need to upgrade as much and he could be stuck in the right seat forever...just ask some guys how the whole CQFO thing went a few years ago. Hope that helps.