Travel Management-Elkhart IN. ????

[Dumbluck]

Don't forget that training is on your days off and you don't get day off pay. So your 15/13 turns into 18/10 every 6 months if you are a CA. Also there have been rumours of doing away with vacation. I don't think that 65K is reasonable for spending half my life in hotel. Its reasonable if you are young and dont have a life, wife, friends or family. My condolences to all TMC guys bound to this company by "golden handcuffs" Good luck to all, get as much rest and be as safe as you can.

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

I guess it all depends on if you are a glass half full or half empty guy. Also whether you live in the middle of nowhere or in a place that you may actually get home on your rotation. It would be an ideal place for a guy from the NYC area. Also, if you luck out every now and then and get on an airplane that goes to MX towards the end of the tour. That way you pick-up a couple of extra days off...or at least on-call at home. Not to mention that the new schedule came with a $5K raise, one more day off every 28 days, and two less days to have to travel. From what I hear the travel days are the toughest part about the rotation. I personally would rather spend two weeks on the road and not have to be the guy that is on 24/7/365 call. I admit though, the grass is always greener on the other side...at least until you get there.

 

[Dumbluck]

You sound like some one who doesn't live the life, but has to sell it to the guys on the line. Counting on a broke airplane in a convient location to get home more? Are you jokeing? I live within a marginally driveable distance to one one of the largest BE400 shops in the country. I often picked up or dropped off A/C but only got to go home early once and never started late. I did have the advantage of living in a location that allowed me to drive to about 1/3 of my travel days,however. 5K sounds nice, but after taxes, divided among 24 paychecks isn't much and just as a nice "reach around", insurance costs went up, negating any small increase in pay.

"I personally would rather spend two weeks on the road and not have to be the guy that is on 24/7/365 call. I admit though, the grass is always greener on the other side...at least until you get there. "

This sounds like you have a choice, but choose not to. The grass IS greener. I am out of aviation as a full time gig. Companies like TMC have dicked up the industry so bad the S*ty operators are now the main stream, instead of the stepping stone. Well, maybe that TMC's turn-over is growing and they are hiring un-rated pilots; maybe pilots, even young, inexperienced ones are realizing that being a pilot is worth more than pop riveting campers together, unlike the owner and his lap dog mgt team.

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

Well, enjoy Home Depot where raises come in nickels and dimes and not $5,000 at a time.

 

[Dumbluck]

Not that I work at Home Depot, but I would rather have steady employment and be home every night. btw, is there still enough room in the hanger for the Bonanza, or have all the Gulfstream and Legacy's taken over the hanger? Kidding.

I really do hope the best for TMC and the crews that fly for them, but serious changes need to be made in the mindset of the owner. Apperently, he doesn't realize tht the guys running TMC for him are no more qualified than any of the line pilots to run a buisness. I doubt he would take a riveter off the line and make him CFO of his main buisness. But that is exactly what he did at TMC, with the expected results. Good luck to all, and to mgt, go back to school, get a buisness degree, find a mentor, learn a few things then come back and try again. Hopefully, TMC won't be such a collosal FAIL when it comes to morale. Seriously, I hope for all those there, it gets better.

 

[Dumbluck]

hey everyone, this the sixth day I have been home alone, my wife is on a buisness trip in Canada for 10 days. Just thought everyone should know, it sucks being home by yourself. In the nine months since I left TMC, this is the first time the shoe has been on the other foot. This sucks, seriously. There are no other words for it. Scott, Scott, Dave and Marc. Stop doing this to the families of your pilots. If you woudn't do it yourself, then you shouldn't make your pilots' families go through it either. TMC mgt, walk a mile in your line pilots shoes. Good luck, I hope the best for all there.

 

[Flex-ible]

hey everyone, this the sixth day I have been home alone, my wife is on a buisness trip in Canada for 10 days. Just thought everyone should know, it sucks being home by yourself. In the nine months since I left TMC, this is the first time the shoe has been on the other foot. This sucks, seriously. There are no other words for it. Scott, Scott, Dave and Marc. Stop doing this to the families of your pilots. If you woudn't do it yourself, then you shouldn't make your pilots' families go through it either. TMC mgt, walk a mile in your line pilots shoes. Good luck, I hope the best for all there.

Laughed my butt off! Read this to my wife, whose look in response was someplace between "I told you so" and "Welcome to my life". I will have more sympathy for her next time I go out on the road.

 

[johnsonrod]

Fleet update?

What's the latest with the fleet situation at Travel Management? Are more Hawker 800XPCs being added while Citation SIIs are on the way out? What about the older Beechjet 400s? Any talk about new aircraft being ordered? At one point someone mentioned that Citation Ultras might replace the older Citations...

Also, are pilots still out on the road for 14 days at a time or is it back to the 8/7?

 

[Dumbluck]

It won't go back 8/6 until pilots stop submitting resume's. Don't know about equipment. If you don't already know, TMC mgt LIED about the schedule. 8/6 to 15/13 was voluntarey; until it wasn't. They will lie again. Oh, and to respond to the 5K raise, thats only if you prostrate yourself to the 15/13 schedule, when I was there that was the only way to get a raise. Has there been a "across the board" 5K raise since then? By the way, how much money did TMC save by cutting the travel budget in half? So, TMC makes more on the backs of their pilots and disrupting the pilots family life. Nice. Mgt Lies and misrepresents their inexplicible treatment of employees. Good luck to all there, I don't want TMC to fail, I want it to be the place I was hired at. Not the place it turned into. I can tell as many great stories about TMC mgt as negative, why did you guys change? I remember when you were on the side of the line pilots, what changed?

 

[G-force]

At this outfit???????

Does Jeff Crosier still work at this outfit????

 

[groundpointsix]

What's the latest and greatest?

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

I've been out of the loop on the forum, so let me go back and answer some question as best I can.

TMC currently has 4 Citation IIs, 21 Hawker 400 XPs, 3 Beechjet 400s, and 6 Hawker 800 series, and 1 King Air 200. There are still plans to increase the fleet size. However, the owner makes those decision and it would seem that even the GM isn't given much notice before new aircraft show up on property.

As far as a raise, yes it was a $5K raise across the board. Starting CA pay is now $65K and starting FO pay is $45K on the BE400. Yes TMC saved a lot of money by cutting their travel department's expenses in half. If you say they move every pilot every two weeks, that's roughly 140 airline tickets. So they are now buying 140 less airline tickets per every two weeks or roughly 3,640 tickets for the year. At an average cost of $200 for a last minute one-way, that would be $728,000 saved over the course of a year. However, if you multiply $5,000 by 140 pilots, that equals $700,000. So on those numbers I would say the over all savings is not all that much. Granted however the average airline ticket is probably a bit over $200.

Jeff Crosier does not still work for TMC. As I don't work there and just know people who do, I have no details on his departure.

The latest? Same old same old. The biggest complaint is the schedule. Most of the people who complain are folks that were there during the 8/6 days. The people that come in knowing they are going to work 15/13 seem to be okay with it. Also, you still go to recurrent during your time off. It would also seem that if you need extra training at FSI for some reason, that TMC has decided it is better just to cut you loose. TMC's benefits have never been good and recently they switched their health insurance and the new coverage is more expensive with less coverage. On a positive note, TMC just opened a maintenance facility at TEB and is currently looking for mechanics. So if you guys know any, tell them to send their stuff in to the DOM.

You have to hand it to TMC though....with all the problems over the past two years, they didn't lay anybody off. Although they did park a couple of aircraft and thus lost a few pilots due to attrition.

 

[Demonspeed]

Why do I suddenly feel like someone just pooped in my Christmas stocking?

 

[Skippy]

that email was pathetic, poorly written, researched, and raised more questions that it "answered":

they just raised the attrition level-- if they lost over 25% of their pilot group in 2010 in a down year, 2011 will have them lose even more

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

Wow, I just heard...that' crazy! How is anybody going to stay there or want to work there for more than a few months if your pay isn't guaranteed? This amounts to extortion as to try to get the crews not to MEL anything and send the aircraft to maintenance. So much for the safety culture that they seem to be so fond of....they seem to want to run an airline, but only the parts that are convenient to them.


I heard they recently lost two FOs that have been there less than 6 months...I wonder if they go after them for the contract? I bet this becomes the norm!