What I learned during IOE (long)

planejay

Well-Known Member
First off I am not one to rant so this is quite rare.

So I get my schedule and see that I am suppose to report to IOE at 0420 on Tues the 4th...no problem, in fact excited to get started. Monday the 3rd comes along and I still don't know when I am suppose to travel so I send an email at 0800 and finally get a call at 1215 that my flight is leaving in an hour and a half not much time but I was expecting it. So I arrive to my IOE base at 1930 after spending the remainder of the day in the back of 145's with screaming kids. After I collect my luggage I give the hotel a call and find out that I have a reservation (luckily) but no shuttle reservation, which I find out is required and would need to make the 15 mile trek to the hotel. So I get a taxi setup via crew scheduling that finally arrives an hour later and crash out for the night.

The taxi managed to arrive on time the next morning and got me to the airport without any problems in fact the driver was pretty cool. I met my IOE captain, who turns out to be an absolute pleasure to fly with. I learned a ton from him and had fun. The problems start again when we finish for the day and my taxi no shows me. I get a hold of the taxi company and find that my pick up was scheduled for 2300 rather than 1100 so get a hold of crew scheduling and repeat the process above. A couple days later we have "one of the worst lines at the base" and after 11 hours of duty and 5 legs of 15-30 minute turns I get back to the hotel and find that I got paid and am thrilled. The rest of the week flying goes well with a few hiccups here and there.

So my last day of IOE the Capt. finds out that I haven't received travel info yet and calls the training dept at 1130 and finds out they are "building it as we speak." After we finish for the day, at 1600 or so, we find that I still don't have any travel arrangement and am told to call back in an hour if I haven't heard anything. So I call back just shy of 2 hours later and am told "I will call you right back." Again I call scheduling back at 2130 central and finally get someone willing to help who calls me back 10 minutes later with travel info departing at 0700 the next morning but I am more than happy.

So I'm finally home and happy to be here after 7.5 weeks of training. I see that I have a FedEx envelope that contains a check from Memphis, so I think huh that’s weird and check my bank account. I find that apparently something went wrong in payroll and they have withdrawn the entire amount of my direct deposit WITHOUT ANY NOTICE. Being the idiot I am, when I saw that I got paid I decided to pay my bills and buy the occasional bite to eat (keeping in mind that I am not at home). The result, the numbers in my bank account are red preceded by a - sign and I am undoubtedly sure that 5 dollar chicken sandwich will now cost close to 25 after fees...that is for one meal. Stupid me.

So needless to say I have a bad taste in my mouth. I am sure that I will hear again "welcome to the 121 world" but not exactly the world I had in mind.

So I have learned that in order to get what I need done I have to continually check on the status. Additionally, I shouldn't use my money until at least a week after deposited.

If it was not for the excellent captain who I flew with and the other great crew members who I met throughout the week I probably would be looking for another job.

Again, I am not one to complain but I had imagined things a bit different than this.
 
First off I am not one to rant so this is quite rare.

So I get my schedule and see that I am suppose to report to IOE at 0420 on Tues the 4th...no problem, in fact excited to get started. Monday the 3rd comes along and I still don't know when I am suppose to travel so I send an email at 0800 and finally get a call at 1215 that my flight is leaving in an hour and a half not much time but I was expecting it. So I arrive to my IOE base at 1930 after spending the remainder of the day in the back of 145's with screaming kids. After I collect my luggage I give the hotel a call and find out that I have a reservation (luckily) but no shuttle reservation, which I find out is required and would need to make the 15 mile trek to the hotel. So I get a taxi setup via crew scheduling that finally arrives an hour later and crash out for the night.

The taxi managed to arrive on time the next morning and got me to the airport without any problems in fact the driver was pretty cool. I met my IOE captain, who turns out to be an absolute pleasure to fly with. I learned a ton from him and had fun. The problems start again when we finish for the day and my taxi no shows me. I get a hold of the taxi company and find that my pick up was scheduled for 2300 rather than 1100 so get a hold of crew scheduling and repeat the process above. A couple days later we have "one of the worst lines at the base" and after 11 hours of duty and 5 legs of 15-30 minute turns I get back to the hotel and find that I got paid and am thrilled. The rest of the week flying goes well with a few hiccups here and there.

So my last day of IOE the Capt. finds out that I haven't received travel info yet and calls the training dept at 1130 and finds out they are "building it as we speak." After we finish for the day, at 1600 or so, we find that I still don't have any travel arrangement and am told to call back in an hour if I haven't heard anything. So I call back just shy of 2 hours later and am told "I will call you right back." Again I call scheduling back at 2130 central and finally get someone willing to help who calls me back 10 minutes later with travel info departing at 0700 the next morning but I am more than happy.

So I'm finally home and happy to be here after 7.5 weeks of training. I see that I have a FedEx envelope that contains a check from Memphis, so I think huh that’s weird and check my bank account. I find that apparently something went wrong in payroll and they have withdrawn the entire amount of my direct deposit WITHOUT ANY NOTICE. Being the idiot I am, when I saw that I got paid I decided to pay my bills and buy the occasional bite to eat (keeping in mind that I am not at home). The result, the numbers in my bank account are red preceded by a - sign and I am undoubtedly sure that 5 dollar chicken sandwich will now cost close to 25 after fees...that is for one meal. Stupid me.

So needless to say I have a bad taste in my mouth. I am sure that I will hear again "welcome to the 121 world" but not exactly the world I had in mind.

So I have learned that in order to get what I need done I have to continually check on the status. Additionally, I shouldn't use my money until at least a week after deposited.

If it was not for the excellent captain who I flew with and the other great crew members who I met throughout the week I probably would be looking for another job.

Again, I am not one to complain but I had imagined things a bit different than this.

Congrats on the IOE!

You should be able get that $25 dollar fee waived because it sounds like none of that jazz was any of your fault. If your bank says "no" they're being unreasonable. Also, you should never have to wait a week before using your direct deposit. That's also unreasonable. You should be able to use it immediately.
 
I'm not even sure if this guy is at Colgan, I just figured he was from the story.
 
Good lord this can't be a normal day at Colgan.

It cant? Hahahahahaahhoiejfahahahahaha Oh man.

Lets see. Tomorrow I deadhead to CRW, and then do a few DCA turns. I overnight in CRW and DH home the next day. My schedule shows no hotel. So if I don't take it upon myself to do it, I wont have a hotel setup, and at 2200 that night, Ill be sitting on the curb waiting forever, because I assumed I had one. Then on Tuesday I arrive back into IAD around 3pm. I was originally on reserve until 10pm. So they put RES from 1500 - 2200. Does this mean regular reserve or hot reserve? If I call and ask, they will just make it hot reserve. If I dont call and ask and make the 1 hour trip home, Ill be pissed if they call me back after I just arrive at home to activate my reserve again. And Im willing to guarantee they meant to put in hot reserve, but just did it incorrectly and will be pissed at ME for going home. Do I risk it and go home and hope no one calls out?

Who do I have to complain to? No one.

Vote Yes. Vote ALPA.

Sorry for the hijack.
 
Congrats on the IOE!

You should be able get that $25 dollar fee waived because it sounds like none of that jazz was any of your fault. If your bank says "no" they're being unreasonable. Also, you should never have to wait a week before using your direct deposit. That's also unreasonable. You should be able to use it immediately.

Welcome to the fun of 'doing da Colgan'.

Thanks

I truly hope that things are better than last weeks experience.
Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the flying and folks I met. I just wasn't too impressed with the other stuff mentioned.

Good guess by the way
 
Thanks

I truly hope that things are better than last weeks experience.
Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the flying and folks I met. I just wasn't too impressed with the other stuff mentioned.

Good guess by the way

Just remember that anytime you go TDY, call scheduling and get your hotel confirmation # and PNR. Even if its listed in crew trac.

When your doing regular line flying from home base, its not that bad.
 
It cant? Hahahahahaahhoiejfahahahahaha Oh man.

Lets see. Tomorrow I deadhead to CRW, and then do a few DCA turns. I overnight in CRW and DH home the next day. My schedule shows no hotel. So if I don't take it upon myself to do it, I wont have a hotel setup, and at 2200 that night, Ill be sitting on the curb waiting forever, because I assumed I had one. Then on Tuesday I arrive back into IAD around 3pm. I was originally on reserve until 10pm. So they put RES from 1500 - 2200. Does this mean regular reserve or hot reserve? If I call and ask, they will just make it hot reserve. If I dont call and ask and make the 1 hour trip home, Ill be pissed if they call me back after I just arrive at home to activate my reserve again. And Im willing to guarantee they meant to put in hot reserve, but just did it incorrectly and will be pissed at ME for going home. Do I risk it and go home and hope no one calls out?

Who do I have to complain to? No one.

Vote Yes. Vote ALPA.

Sorry for the hijack.


The sooner you and the thread starter understand that unless you work at Fedex, no one will care about you, especially crew scheduling of a regional. Remember who crew schedulers are and what kind of experience you need to be a crew scheduler at a regional, any extra effort shouldn't be expected.
 
The sooner you and the thread starter understand that unless you work at Fedex, no one will care about you, especially crew scheduling of a regional. Remember who crew schedulers are and what kind of experience you need to be a crew scheduler at a regional, any extra effort shouldn't be expected.

What airline are you at?
 
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