USA JET Has Mass Layoff

[wmuflyguy]

8-10 days off per month, bad commuter job, for local guys few pilots spend as much time at home as guys living within 20 min drive of KYIP.

Could someone who say live in Farmington Hills/Livonia/Novi or is that too far?

 

[Freedom]

It is probably not by chance.....

...that PilotYip mentioned living 20 minutes away from Willow Run Airport.

Back in the day, my first paid flying job was out of there, and if I recall correctly, we had to be at the airport literally 20 minutes after the pager went off, the fo would do a 5 minute preflight, the captain grab the paperwork, at 25 minutes after pager went off we were taxiing out, with the goal of being airborne literally 30 minutes after the pager went off.

This was for a different company than USAJet, but we were still flying auto parts. Back in the early 90's when I was doing this it was quoted to me by the company owner that it cost the auto manufacturers $12,000 per minute when the assembly line shut down due to lack of a part, I can't imagine what that would be in today's dollars.

I remember we had a few guys that lived a little outside the 20 minute range during rush hour, and they had to preposition themselves closer to the airport during those times in case the pager went off. Not much fun.

For my part, being the spring chicken I was 20 years ago, I bunked up with a bunch of pilots in the apartments just down the road.

Ah, yipsy.... Dimitri's, Old Depot Town, the Girls at Eastern Michigan U. Some fond memories, but not of that pager. I wound up living with a few Mesaba guys and they use to torment me with a pager sounding device they would set off to see how quickly I'd jump.

You think chicks putting their makeup on behind the wheel are dangerous; try putting your Pilot Uniform on while you are driving.

Oh, the memories....

 

[Lear70]

Dimitri's is still there... not sure about the Old Depot Town, never heard of it. And yes, the EMU girls are still hot... although a bit out of my age range at 38. Much under 25 or 26 and they don't pay me much attention anymore (and they talk too much at that age, anyway)... but they're fun to look at.

 

[pilotyip]

depends

Could someone who say live in Farmington Hills/Livonia/Novi or is that too far?

we have had guys live in all three places with no probs, however 13 and Middlebelt, not likely, 9 and 275 no problem

 

[Redmeat]

Dimitri's is still there... not sure about the Old Depot Town, never heard of it. And yes, the EMU girls are still hot... although a bit out of my age range at 38. Much under 25 or 26 and they don't pay me much attention anymore (and they talk too much at that age, anyway)... but they're fun to look at.

Depot Town is in Ypsi, East of the EMU campus. The heart of Depot Town is Sidetracks and was the official watering hole of every owner of every operation out there and every freightdog that flew out of YIP.

Connie could be seen there, Ricky Reliant, the Murray Bros. Even a Fed from the FISDO on occasion.

It's a shocker that a person that flys out of YIP isn't familiar with Depot Town. Boy, how times must have changed out there...

 

[pilotyip]

Pizza

Depot Town is in Ypsi, East of the EMU campus. The heart of Depot Town is Sidetracks and was the official watering hole of every owner of every operation out there and every freightdog that flew out of YIP.

..

and Albry's accross from Sidetrack, is a great Pizza Place with lots of different beers.

 

[Lear70]

Been to Sidetracks, but when I go out, it's usually over in Ann Arbor or further into DTW (Novi, Livonia, etc) with friends from my days at Pinnacle...

I don't beat myself up to stay within a 15 minute calling distance. I keep my bag with me if I venture out and if I'm 20 minutes away, I'm 20 minutes away. I'm not driving 90 mph to get there, nor do I shorten my preflight duties. Safety comes first. I also have a life. Not going to just sit there and wait 2/3 of my life on "ready reserve" doing nothing...

That said, even at 20-25 minutes drive-in, I call and get the weather while I'm driving there, so I know what I need for alternates and fuel before I ever pull in. Shortens the preflight paperwork time and 99% of the time I STILL get the paperwork done and get to the plane before the F/O is done preflighting.

No one's ever complained... I'm still one of the faster-responding guys/gals we have, so I guess it works for them. As a previous poster said, I don't work for USA Jet either, so our callouts may be a little more flexible than theirs. I wouldn't even *attempt* to claim I could be standing by the plane 15 minutes from the time they called my phone, and our people are realistic enough to know better...

 

[Gearmonkey]

No one's ever complained... I'm still one of the faster-responding guys/gals we have, so I guess it works for them. As a previous poster said, I don't work for USA Jet either, so our callouts may be a little more flexible than theirs. I wouldn't even *attempt* to claim I could be standing by the plane 15 minutes from the time they called my phone, and our people are realistic enough to know better...

Do you know how long it took for them to realize that they were being unrealistic? It really helped when one of the certain flight followers moved back to the pax sales office! You should have been here back then. Callouts went from 45 to 40 to 35 and eventually to 25 and she kept wondering why we were later and later.

 

[pilotyip]

because the other guy told the customer that his airplane would be airborn in 20 minutes, so now XYZ has to tell the customer that they can be airborn in 19 minutes in an attempt to get the trip. Yes we can fly non-stop from CLT to ELP in GE powered Falcon, oops! had to make a fuel stop in KLIT. None of this was realistic but it is part of the on-demand sales business. The is like rug merchants in sidewalk sales, whatever you want it is in this rug.

 

[Freedom]

Too Funny...

Things must have relaxed a bit in the last 20 years. Maybe someone got hurt zooming to the airport, who knows?

But at least at the place I was at (not saying I liked it), you were running through the door after the pager went off 20 minutes prior, or if not, you didn't have a job very long.

This was not in the days of 250 hr pilots walking into the right seat of an RJ. It was the early 90's and as I recall, there was not much hiring going on back then either.

I had a wet commercial ticket and felt lucky as hell to be a copilot on an MU-2.

I too liked to go over to Ann Arbor, although it was definately a risk distance wise. I remember they had an old fashion movie theater right in the middle of town that played cool movies all day; was a great cheap way to burn time on my then poverty level wages.

As for doing much partying in downtown Ann Arbor, as a MU-2 fo, there were not many funds for that.

On a charter jet trip not too long ago, I brought my fo over to trackside and had us sit outside right along the iron fence. You should have seen the look on his face when the train came roaring by with its whistle blowing loud as hell. I was laughing my ass off. But like a sharp crewmate, he paid me back later that same tour.

Certainly haven't gotten rich as a Professional Pilot; But there have definately been some good times. I hope that makes up for living like a pauper when I'm old and gray.