The Good= If you are low experience, you will get baptised by fire, but only fly about 20-30 hrs a month, not really a good time building job. Maintenance was OK, I think for the most part they try thier best, when the plane was broke, that was that and FAX the log page, about 20% of the time you would get the come on its not that far type of responce. The Falcon and DC-9 are trucks, you cant really hurt them.
The Bad= Your at the whim of management (whats new huh) the management is at the whim of the auto industry, which by the way other than a few PAX ops on the 9's, they refuse to diversify to other areas, no matter how bad the auto business gets, which in the past they would lay off, but as of rescent history, they will just cut your pay around 30%.
The Ugly= As previously stated, you dont fly that much, so there will be no overtime unless you sell back one of your 10 days off. They want you to move to YIP, but I dont think it is in writing that you have to, so if you commute, your definetely not going to want to sell days off. Upgrading is hit or miss, some of the guys last year upgraded quick, some have taken 3 years. If you take a 9 upgrade(FO), then your going to be a proffesional 9 FO, years before you upgrade on the 9 to captian from the right seat. So if you wait for the Falcon, and you finally do upgrade, it will take you a few years to get to the coveted 1000 hr PIC turbine mark, unless business picks up, but also as previously stated, they will not budge from the auto industry.
Pagers= 24/7 on your days on. If your #3 at 12 noon and you got up at 9am, by the time midnight rolls around you might be #1 on the rotation. If you got into bed at 10PM or so and then the pager goes off, you have 20 minutes to get out of bed, get your uniform on, head to the airport at 3F degrees in the snow, preflight the airplane, get the clearance and be off the ground in 45 minutes on your way to Mexico, then to wherever, and your legal to operate well into the next afternoon, hence "baptism by fire".
Summary: Long hours, low pay, may be lower if pay is cut, OK airplanes, most of the guys you fly with are cool, there is also fun to be had. By far the hardest working pilots in some of the most demanding situations that can be found.
I think though if you had a regional job lined up, you would be far better becuase of the time you would build there, nice equipment, human schedule, airline benifits, quality of life, but of course low pay, but heck, first couple of years at UPS you dont make anything either.
