Virgin America cleared to fly!!!

[Ralph Cramden]

Hey, I flew that plane, with that paint job! Long live the Fokker, what a battle ship.

 

[Golden Falcon]

Hey TC nice picture of the Air Willy whistle-pig thats going back a few years..

 

[ExFokkerFlyer]

Fokkers kick a$$

 

[jonjuan]

Some aircraft pictures

http://www.engadget.com/photos/mega...airbus-a320-with-red-in-flight-entertainment/

Looks pretty cool...........................for the passengers.

 

[Say Again Over]

No where can suck as bad as Mesa

How bout Mesa's non union counterpart! lol

 

[AA717driver]

Falcon--The next one will be an Iowa Airways E110.

Ralph--When were you at Willie? I was based in FWA in '88. Great company but the AW v. MVA smackdown every friggin trip was too much to handle. TC

 

[Dodge]

and they want to know if you will pay for your type rating....

That sounds familiar. Where have I heard that before?????

 

[Ralph Cramden]

Falcon--The next one will be an Iowa Airways E110.

Ralph--When were you at Willie? I was based in FWA in '88. Great company but the AW v. MVA smackdown every friggin trip was too much to handle. TC

I am a Mudder. MVA 5/80, went to RIC in '86, then ACA on April Fool's day '93 flying the Dash 8. Was flying the bus for Indy when it died. Did you ever fly east coast for willie?

 

[Juvat]

Exactly.

Plenty of bastards who will fly for them and let them thrive. It's one thing to scab your airline, making it difficult for the pilots of your airline to maintain or improve their quality of life. Another thing to support an airline that will essentially make it difficult for every pilot everywhere to maintain and improve their quality of life/standard of living.

Good job. So where are these VA pilots coming from? If they ever want to call in a union, f*ck 'em. They had their chance.

This is the most idiotic post I've read here in months. According to your flawed logic, a person should not seek a job to feed his own family so that other nameless pilots whom he's never met can enjoy less competition. Brilliant.

 

[Lear70]

TC is pretty spot-on about guys going to VA, especially if they get hired in directly as CA's.

Not to say that 9/11 or the resultant furloughs was ALPA's fault (although they've dropped the ball in about 100 other areas since then), but if a guy got booted to the street and had no other job offers except a CA slot at VA, or even an F/O slot with an upgrade less than 1 year, do you REALLY expect him/her to stay on the street or at a crappy regional making $55 an hour as an RJ CA?

Yeah, right...

I wouldn't go to work there for those wages, not to mention the unknowns of trip construction, commutability, overnights, days off, etc.

Like someone else said, the only thing that really matters to me at this point is stability (so I'm not in the same boat as some of these guys), pay, and QOL (commutability and days off with family). Period.

These guys aren't taking anyone else's flying, they're not taking people's jobs, they're not Scabbing. They're U.S. Citizens working in this country for a Part 121 carrier.

Do I like that it increases capacity? Nope. Do I like that the pay is going to be on the low side of Pax 121 carriers? Nope. Do I feel it necessary to persecute the pilots for it?

Nope.

Might want to take a look in the mirror and see what YOU would do if you were suddenly unemployed. I went to a crap-hole regional that I SWORE I'd never work for, albeit as a Street CA, but went nonetheless. That's my low point in aviation. So, having been there, I can certainly understand where these people are coming from.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[AA717driver]

Hey, I wanted to go to VA since I heard what the concept was. If I was making less than CA pay there, I'd do it. I can't take the pay cut. Bummer.

Lear's right. For those who got kicked to the street, exactly why should they take one for the team and stay in some crappy job when they can get something better? Guess no one should go to work for a Regional, either...

Ralph--Virtually all of my classmates went to RIC (11/87). I thought I would but one spot opened up in FWA. (In retrospect, I should have gone to RIC...)

Take care. TC

 

[The Victors]

The issue is that these guys/gals are going to work for below standard wages and bennies, which allows V america to charge $5.95 for a ticket from SFO to JFK or whereever, which forces everyone else to charge the same, which will eventually force you and me to except below standard wages and bennies, or worse, out of a job.

 

[Lear70]

The issue is that these guys/gals are going to work for below standard wages and bennies, which allows V america to charge $5.95 for a ticket from SFO to JFK or whereever, which forces everyone else to charge the same, which will eventually force you and me to except below standard wages and bennies, or worse, out of a job.

The same could be said for every pilot who went to a regional job...

I don't see everyone blasting them in one specific thread.

Believe me, I don't like the constant lowering of the bar. I'm one of the most vocal advocates for trying to get low-time guys to stop hiring on for $18.50 an hour.

But, at the same time, I recognize that people have to feed their families, and if it's not Scabbing or a HoJets maneuver that DIRECTLY takes flying jobs away from people, then I have a hard time getting upset at people for improving their lot in life after a pretty crappy last decade.

Just my .02 cents.

 

[pipe]

"Good job. So where are these VA pilots coming from? If they ever want to call in a union, f*ck 'em. They had their chance."

Oh, let me see, can you say, Independece Air, United, TWA/AA, Skywest, come on! I am not one of them but, these people I guarantee you have all been somewhere previously that they paid union dues to ALPA, APA, Teamsters, or, an independent union and that union f!@#!@ them at some point. I know I am on my third union and oh boy is it wonderful.(Inject sarcasm) The point I am making is these guy's wouldn't be there if, 9/11, if they were not layed off, if their previous job didn't suck, if going back to USair wasn't more of a gamble, if........................................We as either former or current ALPA/APA/Teamster/indepentdent union members are to blame for a large part of this current mess. If we had the balls and stuck together as pilots first, and not show up for work just one day to protest the further eroding of the pilot pay and work rules we might see something turn around. A lot of us like to think of ourselves as a professional like a medical doctor is and that is fine, but as my brother(the smart one) who is a medical doctor told me after I explained what I have to go through every six months to keep my job, commute to work through TSA, line checks, etc, he said the doctors would shut the hospitals down.
If we as a total pilot group would yield a fraction of the power we have we could drive the industry. Just mho.

MACDU is right on the money.

The APA who stabbed the TWA guys, the United "mainline" guys who sold out the "LCO", the 59 year-olds who are cramming age 65 down everyone's throat - these are the reasons that VA can find plenty of pilots.

The aforementioned groups will spend far more political and financial capital fighting the VA and JB driven salary wars than they ever would have spent if they had maintained some unity in the first place.

I loathe what is happening in the industry, but it isn't too difficult to see why it's happening.

PIPE

 

[Notorious PIC]

What's the starting pay going to be at Virgin America? I hear it's supposed to be $95/Hour for Captains and $45/ Hour for FO's according to AirlinePilotPay.com. Any truth to this?

 

[Lake Alice]

All the original LCC's are to blame but in the end it all started with the regionals and for that we are all guilty. A good majority of all airline pilots started at a regional. The irony here is they are also the most vocal. In reality this started many, many years ago and not in the post 9-11 environment.

Virgin America beginning to fly domestic is just another chapter in the further erosion of a US airline career.

 

[AA717driver]

I know the $95 figure is correct. TC

 

[The Victors]

The same could be said for every pilot who went to a regional job...

I don't see everyone blasting them in one specific thread.

Believe me, I don't like the constant lowering of the bar. I'm one of the most vocal advocates for trying to get low-time guys to stop hiring on for $18.50 an hour.

But, at the same time, I recognize that people have to feed their families, and if it's not Scabbing or a HoJets maneuver that DIRECTLY takes flying jobs away from people, then I have a hard time getting upset at people for improving their lot in life after a pretty crappy last decade.

Just my .02 cents.

Agreed somewhat, but taking a regional job at 23 years old is alot different than someone with some actual experience going to skybus for a 60K CA spot.

 

[Occam's Razor]

Somewhere, the decomposed skull of Milton is smiling.

It appears I'm the only one who's read Paradise Lost.

"It's better to rule in Hell then to serve in Heaven"

 

[Lear70]

I did... in High School. almost 20 years ago.

Can't quote it verbatim, sorry.