Virgin America

[Ralph Cramden]

Sounds like all the former independence air check airmen are over there at VA.

That means the pink slip percentage will be around 80% or so.

Yeah, come on over and we will give you another one to add to your collection.

 

[DH2WN]

Yeah, come on over and we will give you another one to add to your collection.

I'm surprised you would say something like that Mike. You know the CRJ dept. was a debacle. What was the final pink rate? It had to be in the 70-80%. Don't you think it's funny how Duckless would never give out the actual percentage?

Though you were apart of it you weren't one of the ego maniacs who had to pump themselves up by failing people. Yet you and many others didn't step up and call them out.

By the way, I passed just a few months before I left for SWA. Probably because the pink boys were demoted to the line cause they were costing the company boat loads of cash for no reason. I didn't care anyway, I was already in the pool waiting for a class date.

 

[DH2WN]

I guess maybe you aren't Mike. Well, Mike wasn't part of the problem. Sounds like you were with that attitude. You know the statistics and if you spent any amount of time at another airline you would realize how bad the ACA CRJ dept. really was.

It's so nice to be at a real airline with an awesome training dept. Can't say enough good things about the SWA dept.

 

[HA25]

I'm surprised you would say something like that Mike. You know the CRJ dept. was a debacle. What was the final pink rate? It had to be in the 70-80%. Don't you think it's funny how Duckless would never give out the actual percentage?

Though you were apart of it you weren't one of the ego maniacs who had to pump themselves up by failing people. Yet you and many others didn't step up and call them out.

By the way, I passed just a few months before I left for SWA. Probably because the pink boys were demoted to the line cause they were costing the company boat loads of cash for no reason. I didn't care anyway, I was already in the pool waiting for a class date.

I had heard of people failing check rides for making comments that were not "Related to the operation of the aircraft" type stuff..

I was up in Montreal doing my RJ Training with ASA in 1999 and the joke was ACA's training dept and pass rate, so you're not making this up I can tell others here... We had guys bust for lack of systems or jet operation understanding, while ACA had busts for saying "hey, so what time did you get up this morning?..

 

[DH2WN]

I had heard of people failing check rides for making comments that were not "Related to the operation of the aircraft" type stuff..

I was up in Montreal doing my RJ Training with ASA in 1999 and the joke was ACA's training dept and pass rate, so you're not making this up I can tell others here... We had guys bust for lack of systems or jet operation understanding, while ACA had busts for saying "hey, so what time did you get up this morning?..

It was a complete and utter joke. There were some good guys in the dept. but they never did anything to quell the majority who failed people for things like saying, "gear down" instead of "landing gear down". I had a friend fail because he did an orderly deplanement after they simulated nose gear collapse after push back. They claimed the 'book' stated you must 'evacuate' for any structural failure of the aircraft. Something like that. You get the gist. They were head hunting for no reason. 1999 I went into ground school with 10 pilots. I quit after they published the check airmen assigned to our class. 9 got pink slips. I was the lone survivor. Passed the RJ just before I left for SWA in 2004. I just wanted the type on my ticket and didn't care if I pinked or not. Made it out alive, however was talked to in a closed door session about going 255 in my descent through 10k. That check guy is at JB now. Makes me laugh every time I got in the sim at SWA. Seeing how professional and great the people are in contrast to the complete dysfunction of ACA. I remember one guy going to AA was taking his last recurrent. The check airmen failed him and said he is like the kids on the "short bus" in grade school. He went to AA a few weeks later. I don't think he ever redid the sim ride. He is still there. Riding the AA 'short bus', I guess. The check airman that said that is at Netjets now as an FO.

My Freudian estimation is they were pretty angry over their careers or lack there of. Being stuck at a regional when people they were giving rides too were moving up during the hiring boom. They get pretty defensive about it even as we speak. I imagine they are frustrated because they are now being blocked at the majors by people who they treated poorly at ACA. It seems though some have slipped through at JB. I know of only one though. None have gotten in at SWA but I don't think they have applied either. I know one BWI FO, who got a pink, checks the list put out each month by the PD. He says, "We need to protect our investment in our people and not hire bad apples." Though I know it's revenge that keeps him warm.

There were two real notorious bad apples but it seemed to spread in addition to the fact management hid the statistics of the fail rate. They claimed everyone made it through but in actuality the pink slip rate was a very high percentage. I would guess it was around 80%-90% when the RJs first arrived down to 30% just before the demise of the flyi experiment.

It seems like they will be running the VirginAmerica training dept. or at least the first Captains on line when they start. Fun...Fun...Fun...!!

 

[Mookie]

Anyone know where B Silverstein is now? sounds like he would have fit in well at ACA and would jump at the chance of VA. We shared the same sim building for the 328 prop at psa as the ACA guys on the dorkjet. sounded like it was just as bad on that side of the house as well.

Mookie

 

[Cappy]

Sounds like all the former independence air check airmen are over there at VA.

That means the pink slip percentage will be around 80% or so.

It's unfortunate that you haven't taken the time to look into the facts. VA currently has some of the A319 cadre at former IDE. Let me see now...the pass rate was over 99.8% in the Airbus at IDE.

Please don't even mention those of us here at VA in the same breath with the monsters that destroyed careers at will in the CRJ program. That's another thread. There is a good mix here of IDE, USAir and USA3000 guys. The pay scales are FIRST year and minimum guarantee only until operations start.

For those of you expecting 20 year rates on day one...won't happen. It doesn't happen at any company, or airline. Sure, we would all like life to be rosy and sweet, but it ain't.

For those of you that have done well after IDE went out I certainly hope the best for you in whatever you have moved on to.

Good luck to all.

Mike

 

[HA25]

For those of you expecting 20 year rates on day one...won't happen. It doesn't happen at any company, or airline. Sure, we would all like life to be rosy and sweet, but it ain't.

cool, hows about 1st year rates then?

I mean what ligit airline is paying Bus captains $95/hr on year one (assuming any of their CP's are even junior than year two?)

 

[macdu]

Cappy, how many USA3000 guy's coming your way to VA? I'm just trying to get a read on how fast our list is going to move.

 

[jtmpilot]

ACA was a great job, the CRJ dept. needed some weeding out i.e. (Mack) what a disgruntled a$$. and a CP in BOS, i remember him freaking out when the mighty 32 slung some ice off the props and hit the fuselage, then broke his cankle and ended up a chief pilot, only got the job cause he would back stabb his own mother.... other than that ACA was a great place and man do we all miss it....