This post is so ridiculous that I'm guessing you must be management posing as a line pilot. The reason I must post anonymously is for fear of what SeaPort's CP might do to any future PRIA requests. He's screwed guys over on numerous occasions by putting stuff in their file.
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@av8tr1 post:
1. Some of our aircraft autopilots aren't working at the moment so that makes the company a horrible place?
1. Autopilots not working don't make the company a terrible place to work. After all, we are in the business of flying airplanes. What the problem is is when the president sends an email saying that any future write-ups will result in the autopilot being "decommissioned". He said they're too expensive to fix. Some of the pilots suggested we spend the money to buy the equipment to fix them in house. This was shot down with no good reason given. We also brought up the issue of this potentially being a safety issue. You know, flying 8 hour days in IMC on reduced rest. His response? I flew cargo single pilot many times without an autopilot, so you guys should do it too.
2. Supposedly one of our employees made a mistake that had nothing to do with the company (Mind you I am not defending the practice of driving while drunk, that is a major issue) but somehow that makes the company a horrible place to work.
Not sure about this... I think everyone is just saying that a pilot who spends any long amount of time here only does because they can't go anywhere else due to a "history".
3. We are in need of pilots like everyone else in the industry so that makes us a horrible place to work.
No, doesn't make us a bad place to work. When management bites off more than they can chew and mistreats their pilots, the pilots leave at the first opportunity they can.
4. We are so short of pilots we are having to cancel flights (yet still pay our pilots for the flight they didn't fly!) and that makes us a horrible place to fly.
That's totally untrue and false. SeaPort
DOES NOT pay pilots for canceled flights. Ask all the FO's only making min guarantee because they only fly 40-50 hours a month due to a lack of captains. Captains are not paid for canceled flights either. Where did you come up with that?! Oh, and when they do cancel flights, many times dispatch doesn't notify the crew and they still end up showing up to the airport ready to fly. Gotta love spending money on gas or jumpseating in, only to find you won't be flying or getting paid.
4. We give low time pilots their first real opportunity to fly professionally outside of the airport pattern but that makes us a horrible place?
Who said that?
5. We don't move at warp 5 for hiring and training said pilots so that makes us a horrible place to work.
Yes, that does make us a horrible place to work. I personally know one pilot who went through ground and then waited 6 months for flight training. He kept getting the run around and for some reason, they didn't want to train him. He finally decided to move on and is now much happier. I know they've had many (well over 15) pilots waiting months for flight training and they weren't getting paid at all while they were waiting. Now I know, you can expect a company this small to pay pilots to sit around, but making guys wait months and months?? Come on!
6. We only fly single engine aircraft so that makes us a horrible place to fly.
I don't think anybody made that argument. We fly Caravans. It is what it is.
7. We fly our pilots somewhere between 80-116 hours a month so that makes us a horrible place to work for
No, that's not bad. What's bad is when the company refuses to honor any PTO request whatsoever. You work your but off and accrue paid time off and can't even use it. Doesn't sound fair, does it?
What other stupid crap was mentioned here.....
SeaPort isn't perfect but it does have a management team that cares about its employees. Our Chief Pilot is the best manager I have ever had (I'm 44 years old started flying in the early 90s so I have had a lot of bosses to know the good from the bad). He actually cares about his pilots and goes out of his way to support them and make sure they have all they need to do the job. Yes even the two knuckle heads who geared up one of our PC12s. Our CP did everything he could to support those two who did everything they could to get fired.
I about LOL'ed at this one. I don't know what SP you're working for, but I almost think we're talking about different places. Management doesn't care about it's employees and it's been show over and over again. They throw you under the bus for any little thing. Pilots get disciplinary letters in their files when the company was in the wrong and that's just so the company can try and protect themselves from heat that they might get from the FAA. Instead of being put in a hotel, pilots have to stay in filthy apartments, some of which don't even have Internet or TV. If a plane breaks down and we get stuck in a city that's not an overnight, they constantly try to put 2 pilots to a room. That's a constant fight. Dispatch is always trying to assign illegal trips and it's the pilot's job to catch it. Also, trips are build to not give pilots a break or even time to eat lunch or dinner. You have to eat your PB&J in the plane while the pax watch. I could go on and on...
In short, in my time here, I have NEVER seen Noel or Rob ever flight for one of the pilots.
We have a great program and opportunity for new pilots who don't have 1500 hours. We pay better than a CFI job would. And we have a lot of great stuff in the works.We are buying another airline (possibly two), our owner is negotiating to buy another company that will bring twin engine jets with seating capacity over 20 passengers to our fleet (yes there may be SeaPort flight attendant openings by the end of the year), we have a flow through agreement starting soon where our pilots will be able to move on to bigger and better things in the future (and no I can't tell you who it is yet), and we are expanding our route system.
We are buying another airline, eh? LOL! You might want to do some research on that company. The "airline" that the FAA almost pulled their 121 cert. because of the blatant disregard for the law. Just google it... you'll find it. Oh yeah, so SP is going to buy a new airline, but they can't even afford to fix their autopilots or pay their pilots per-diem checks? Guys are waiting months to get their per-diem checks. Hmmm.... OK...
But if a few pilots want to get on here and whine about the fact that they actually have to do the job they get paid to do (you know actually fly planes instead of letting the computer do it for our 1 or 2 hour flights). Put on your big boy pants and try to get some perspective. Ground school gives you all the info you need to fly legally here. You won't be fired for following the rules. And even then we have a great ASAP safety program with FAA that has allowed pilots in the past to make mistakes that elsewhere would be a certificate action but here is a training opportunity and continued opportunity to fly the line. There are very few 135 operators who have that sort of arrangement.
Again, where have any pilots been complaining here about having to fly?
It blows my mind that we have pilots here who are actually complaining that they "have to fly so much" You're not flying over 120 hours in a month. Our pilots actually have it pretty good. And guess what. They are FLYING. If I ever get to the point where I am complaining about my job flying just go ahead and put a fork in me, I am done. Go get a real job and spend 180 hours a week in a cubicle filling out WENIS reports, then come tell me your flying job sucks.
I'm curious to know where you're flying. Many guys (captains and FO's) in the mid south timing out every month for flying 120 hours. It's not too bad to do it for a month or two, but when you can't get any PTO requests honored and can never get a vacation, it gets old real quick. You know, it's funny. The flying is actually what most everyone doesn't complain about. Yeah, it's a lot, but we still always have fun flying and enjoy the Caravan. Once you get away from base, it's not bad. The vast majority of the pilots here are great guys and I love working and flying with them.
SeaPort is a great place to work. We aren't perfect but you'll be hard pressed to find a better outfit at this level to work for.
This used to be the case, but not anymore!
