Great Lakes hiring F/Os

spasekace said:
Agreed. Quick upgrade is at best a big gamble and at worst, a trap. QOL is almost everything.

And we are hiring. Even when we're not, we are.;) The "we're not hiring anymore" phases last a couple of weeks and are replaced by "holy crap, we need bodies NOW!" 1250TT and 750ME will get you into the Falcon. 2000TT, 1200ME and jet time will get you into the DC-9. It's not a job for everyone though. We don't work all that much, but when we do, we work our asses off.
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That's a lot of multi time for only 1250TT. Perhaps one day haha.
 
From one of the older interview gouges, it sounds like GL only wants pilots who are currently flying/employed.
80 hours logged in the last 6 months, 35 hours logged in the last 90 days, 3 take-offs/landings in a multi-engine in the last 90 days, and 6 approaches in last 6 months.
 
Thanks for the laughs, guy who would commute from the east coast to work for Great Mistakes (or was that a joke post? Probably was, huh?)!

I don't have to have worked at GL to be able to make factual observations about GL... I am qualified to comment because I understand math... and unpaid training!

Still laughing from the "Crashpad" post...
WOW!
 
Sorry to rain on your parade, guys. Seriously.
GL wouldn't work for me because of my student loan payment- I forget that not everyone has that problem!
If I lived in Denver I would have gone to GL in 2007.
 
Matt777 said:
Sorry to rain on your parade, guys. Seriously.
GL wouldn't work for me because of my student loan payment- I forget that not everyone has that problem!
If I lived in Denver I would have gone to GL in 2007.
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In '07? You'd be a senior checkairman, making 30 bucks an hour. You missed out! :sarcasm:
 
Anyone know if they are planning on conducting any interviews this month? I submitted my app through their site December 9th. Also any idea why it says I last updated my application on December 30th? I can assure you I have not logged into my Lakes account until this afternoon. I was golfing all day on the 30th on a short vacation! :laff:

As for all of you who bash this place you truly annoy me. You base everything off of what you hear from others, who half the time don't even work at said airline. Well I would know a lot about Lakes since I am friends with a former Assistant Chief Pilot. He started at Lakes as an F/O and made captain 14 months later. Because the airline is so small, roughly 200 pilots, his seniority made him Assistant Chief Pilot at Lakes by year 3. Try having that on your resume!

He now flies the 75/76 for Omni and hes 28.

From what I have been told, firsthand mind you, is the flying is amazing. You are not sitting en-route for 2.5 hours bored as your legs are short and to airports rarely visited by nearly any major or larger regional. It is not boring flying whatsoever. Hell they are the only airline to fly into Telluride! Talk about out of the ordinary. Commuting is not hard at all. I can commute to nearly every Lakes base non stop from my home town on United.

Right now I make $9,000/yr flight instructing. I can barely contribute and thankfully my girlfriend has a "real" job. I have flight instructed for 3.5 years and am tired as hell of it. Let me say it again Flight Instructing BLOWS! Now here are some more of my qualifications. For the record I am 25.

ATP Certificate
1800TT
130Multi (nearly all in 421's)
ATP's Regional Jet Standards Certification (28hrs CRJ-200 FTD)
Bachelors degree in something other than aviation

My ultimate goal is either a major airline or corporate.

Now besides Lakes so far I have applied to Eagle, Whisky, ASA, Pinnacle and Skywest. Despite already having an ATP and letters of agreements between ATP's RJ course students with Eagle, Pinnacle and ASA I have not been offered an interview or hired. So please cut the BS about "have some pride in yourself" or "what are you really worth?" talk that I constantly read on threads about Lakes or other any other regional people don't think is good enough for them.

I know what I want down the road in terms of my career. I know at minimum there are three things that I MUST HAVE for that to happen.

1. Multi-time
2. Turbine PIC
3. 121 experience

Currently I cannot even get a damn interview with anyone and I am not wasting anymore time sitting around at home. The reality is their are still furloughed 121 guys applying to regionals that are hiring and are definitely going to get hired, almost certainly, over any of you without previous 121 ops experience.

So if I get an interview with Lakes, which I should given my friend, I am definitely going and if offered a job gladly taking it. It will get me out of a lame Skyhawk doing touch and goes and stalls for the 10,000 time and into a position where I am acquiring the above 3 ESSENTIAL things needed to advance my career.

With a job at Lakes I have secured myself by being in a much GREATER position to land a job at a better regional down the road OR if movement happens and I upgrade at Lakes relatively quickly I have now acquired turbine PIC 1000 times sooner than anyone else at so called "bigger and better" regionals. And most importantly on my way to either a major or corporate in a lot less time.

Their is more to a job and life than money. For me I am not going to waste anymore time waiting around for my "dream" regional to come along. I know if I don't advance my qualifications by acquring more multi and 121 experience I am going to be sitting on my arse for a long time. No thanks.

Bottom line is this. Everyone's situation is different. Sure the price can be a deal breaker for some, but I survive now with less than a Lakes salary and the little I bring home combined with my GFs "real" salary. I can get a non stop one way commute to nearly every base free on United. So not hard getting to and from work.
 
To be fair, we have furloughed FO's from this place, with no PIC time in a turbine aircraft, who are working for Omni too as a 757/767 FO. I'm 29 and he's younger than me. Furthermore, I knew a Falcon Captain from when I lived in Jersey who went to work as a 747 driver for Africa, he was 23 and CA, for a brief time the youngest CA ever for a 747, and he never went to Mistakes either.

When you hear hooves, you just think horses. Not Zebras.
 
JamesD said:
As for all of you who bash this place you truly annoy me. You base everything off of what you hear from others, who half the time don't even work at said airline. Well I would know a lot about Lakes since I am friends with a former Assistant Chief Pilot. He started at Lakes as an F/O and made captain 14 months later. Because the airline is so small, roughly 200 pilots, his seniority made him Assistant Chief Pilot at Lakes by year 3. Try having that on your resume!

He now flies the 75/76 for Omni and hes 28.

Right now I make $9,000/yr flight instructing. I can barely contribute and thankfully my girlfriend has a "real" job. I have flight instructed for 3.5 years and am tired as hell of it. Let me say it again Flight Instructing BLOWS! Now here are some more of my qualifications. For the record I am 25.

ATP Certificate
1800TT
130Multi (nearly all in 421's)
ATP's Regional Jet Standards Certification (28hrs CRJ-200 FTD)
Bachelors degree in something other than aviation

My ultimate goal is either a major airline or corporate.

Now besides Lakes so far I have applied to Eagle, Whisky, ASA, Pinnacle and Skywest. Despite already having an ATP and letters of agreements between ATP's RJ course students with Eagle, Pinnacle and ASA I have not been offered an interview or hired. So please cut the BS about "have some pride in yourself" or "what are you really worth?" talk that I constantly read on threads about Lakes or other any other regional people don't think is good enough for them.

I know what I want down the road in terms of my career. I know at minimum there are three things that I MUST HAVE for that to happen.

1. Multi-time
2. Turbine PIC
3. 121 experience

With a job at Lakes I have secured myself by being in a much GREATER position to land a job at a better regional down the road OR if movement happens and I upgrade at Lakes relatively quickly I have now acquired turbine PIC 1000 times sooner than anyone else at so called "bigger and better" regionals. And most importantly on my way to either a major or corporate in a lot less time.
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You get 1000 PIC turbine sooner at a 135 freight airline than you do sitting in the right seat - even if you will upgrade in 6 months!
If you want serious ADVANCEMENT fly in the left seat from day one!

Yes. I can tell you that 4.5 years instructing is WAY too long! I live in my parents house and have been making $18,000 a year since my employer pays me double what most schools would. This year I have probably made much MUCH less than $15,000 (especially the last couple months). I'm sick of it and am so happy to be interviewing at a 135 freight operator in two weeks! Now THAT is flying airplanes! As opposed to being a button pusher. :)

My comments about GL have had absolutely nothing to do with anything anyone has said. it is simple math and an unwillingness to sell myself into slavery.
Again, not everyone made the mistake of going $70,000 into debt in 2005- so GL works fantastically for those who are willing to be poor in order to upgrade in six months.

BUT, here is the real question! So.... you've just commuted to DEN on an airliner. You get off the plane and are very thirsty and hungry.
How do you buy a meal on your wage? You can commute for free but you have to buy food when away from home (or pack a lunch). Fly freight, man.
I think it will be amazing and fun experience that will get me to the majors much quicker than a regional!
 
dasleben said:
Don't hate the player, hate the game! :)
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My point was this guys straw man was basically, "I know a guy that got hired to fly big equipment and it was because he spent his time at Mistakes logging all kinds of mad PIC," when the reality one of our furloughs got hired by them with no PIC. So his argument is weak. As a broader argument there's plenty of places you can go and fly big equipment with no time and no experience in this country and in other countries. If you're goal is simply to fly big jets then God bless.

If the game is, run as quick as you can to Omni, forgive me if I'm not impressed.
 
jynxyjoe said:
My point was this guys straw man was basically, "I know a guy that got hired to fly big equipment and it was because he spent his time at Mistakes logging all kinds of mad PIC," when the reality one of our furloughs got hired by them with no PIC. So his argument is weak. As a broader argument there's plenty of places you can go and fly big equipment with no time and no experience in this country and in other countries. If you're goal is simply to fly big jets then God bless.

If the game is, run as quick as you can to Omni, forgive me if I'm not impressed.
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"No time and no experience." Ouch, little harsh, no? :) I might not have that coveted 121 TPIC, but I have a whole bunch of 135 PIC time that got me in the door, along with previous jet time. Most new-hires here have significant amounts of PIC experience, but you're right: You don't have to go to Lakes to get it. I beefed up the PIC section of my resume flying 402s in the northeast, making more money and with a better schedule than what Lakes captains are doing. That worked just fine.
 
dasleben said:
"No time and no experience." Ouch, little harsh, no? :) I might not have that coveted 121 TPIC, but I have a whole bunch of 135 PIC time that got me in the door, along with previous jet time. Most new-hires here have significant amounts of PIC experience, but you're right: You don't have to go to Lakes to get it. I beefed up the PIC section of my resume flying 402s in the northeast, making more money and with a better schedule than what Lakes captains are doing. That worked just fine.
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Harsh? I don't know, is it? It seems to me James was making the point that magic tpic from Mistakes is what got him the job at Omni, both you and one of our furloughs got to Omni without that tpic. It seems like you and I aren't talking about that same thing, thus the resume from Cape Air. I'm not trying to start an "Epic 402 pic vs: whatever anyone else on the forum does for pic", my only point is that maybe making 14k to someday make 30k isn't a great path to put yourself on.

I was just looking at Omni quickly, is this a pay cut for you? 60hours*$51= $3060 a month?
 
jynxyjoe said:
I was just looking at Omni quickly, is this a pay cut for you? 60hours*$51= $3060 a month?
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Well, if you're looking at that on APC, you should read up to "Teamsters are negotiating first contract" under the Quicktake. ;) If you don't look past what the pay rates are at this very moment, it's easy to scoff (though I made a whooooole lot less as a first-year RJ FO). However, put it in the perspective that we're very close to a TA with improvements across the board.

I hear what you're saying, by the way. No need to go to Lakes to get on at Omni. Plenty of other avenues that don't sacrifice pay and QOL if that's what you want to do.
 
dasleben said:
Well, if you're looking at that on APC, you should read up to "Teamsters are negotiating first contract" under the Quicktake. ;) If you don't look past what the pay rates are at this very moment, it's easy to scoff (though I made a whooooole lot less as a first-year RJ FO). However, put it in the perspective that we're very close to a TA with improvements across the board.

I hear what you're saying, by the way. No need to go to Lakes to get on at Omni. Plenty of other avenues that don't sacrifice pay and QOL if that's what you want to do.
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Someone from AmFlight just got hired at Omni.

I hope your TA does you guys well.
 
dasleben said:
Well, if you're looking at that on APC, you should read up to "Teamsters are negotiating first contract" under the Quicktake. ;) If you don't look past what the pay rates are at this very moment, it's easy to scoff (though I made a whooooole lot less as a first-year RJ FO). However, put it in the perspective that we're very close to a TA with improvements across the board.

I hear what you're saying, by the way. No need to go to Lakes to get on at Omni. Plenty of other avenues that don't sacrifice pay and QOL if that's what you want to do.
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No I'm not scoffing, but what you made as an RJ FO is irrelevant compared to a heavy driver. Obviously you're a little defensive at my tone. I'm done asking questions, maybe we can get back to trading stories about flying in the northeast. My question was simply if you were taking a pay cut because I know you were doing alright at Cape. It doesn't matter anymore.
 
jynxyjoe said:
No I'm not scoffing, but what you made as an RJ FO is irrelevant compared to a heavy driver. Obviously you're a little defensive at my tone. I'm done asking questions, maybe we can get back to trading stories about flying in the northeast. My question was simply if you were taking a pay cut because I know you were doing alright at Cape. It doesn't matter anymore.
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Defensive...maybe. Nothing against you or what you said, though. You're fine. I'm not comparing 767 rates to RJ rates, by the way; I'm just pointing out that we're all underpaid, and that I hope people look at their own paychecks before making comments about another's. Hopefully with the industry starting to churn forward we'll all see better pay and QOL, but we're not there yet. Hopefully your new contract will be good for the pilot group.

By the way, if it matters, it was not a pay cut to come here.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread.
 
Got the call to interview on the 20th today! WOW! My first 121 interview! I am definitely nervous, but excited! :)
 
Has anyone who interviewed in the last week received a call yet? I interviewed last Thursday and have not heard a word.
 
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