colgan/pcl coffee talk (speculation)

dingo222

dingo222

Well-Known Member
Colgan/PCL Coffee Talk.. (Speculation)
Here's a thought after a few brewski's:

These thoughts are based on the obvious, not the rumors....

Fact 1: We know Colgan can't fully staff the Q400 at this point. We are losing captains left and right to normal attrition. Colgan captains are geting hired left and right. Colgan recruiting has done a great job filling the FO void as obvious by the lack of open FO time. But the Fact remains, we are way short on captains on all 3 airframes.

Fact 2: We will start staffing the Q400 before any union contract takes place that either a) puts fences between the pilot groups or b) merges them.

So that being said, will PCL pilots be asked to fill the void and fly Colgan planes????

Think about it. Colgan can't do it. PCL has junior captains on reserve right now. PCL corp spent bucu dolla on those q400's and they will not sit idle. IF colgan can't produce the pilots, will PCL corp mgmt offer PCL airlines pilots the choice to sit reserve or to hold a line flying a q400 for colgan? There is nothing stoping PCL Mgmt from doing this, and ALPA wouldn't stop it because according to contract all new flying should go to PCL pilots.

I have several friends that are PCL captains and Fo's and this is a a hot topic. East coat base; chance to get off reserve and hold a line.

Coffee talk, talk amongst yourselves............
 
According to Steve Pinnacle is extremely short too, they can't upgrade enough people over there. My vote goes for street CA's.
 
We are super short over here on both FO's and CA's. This month my CA is a seniority number under 15... been here 20+ years... and is flying 95+ hours and gets JM calls. I am going to hit the 100 hour limitation for the third month in a row- and not because of the "150% open time" crap- 95+ hours scheduled with delays/diverts/etc.... We can't staff what he have, the union would have an uproar over the ATTEMPT to fly other planes, and remember we have -900's showing up in November.. Colgan is on its own to get pilots. In the end it is up to PNCL mgmt and we all know they are "simply the best".




-High hopes, low expectations...



But keep in mind- PNCL bought Colgan with nobody seeing that coming so who knows!:banghead:
 
Heh. I just saw this on That Other Website. Here's what it boils down to:

We don't have pay scales for the Q400, so we'd be flying it for Saab rates. IMO, NOT gonna happen. We can't staff what we have as it is (and I don't have an effing clue where the pilots for the DAL flying are gonna come from). I managed to get a highspeed for open time, and that was ALL I could pick up. Anything else put me over 30/7 for the time period or 100 for the month. As it is, I'm crediting 100+ for the month. I talked to one of the directors of training today, and the first class of mentor CAs is going on right now. He also gave me a number to get in for the mentor program, but the way things are going, it's probably gonna be a wash on the mentor/normal upgrade. It'll be a 3 month deal for the mentor program, and I'd be a tad shy on ME if I started that next month. If I just wait it out for the normal hours, it'll be Jan of next year, which isn't that much longer.

In other words, we don't have the pilots to staff the Q even if anyone wanted to go over there. Out last vacancy couldn't even fill all the CA spots in MSP or DTW.
 
kellwolf,

good info. I posted here cause i knew I'd get the same ole crap at the other other site. I have a feeling we are going to be in the same boat with the q400. THe rumor is that after oct, we will have nobody that the company can upgrade. Our q400's come online in DEC with your 900's. I have no idea how mgmt is going to staff them, but I know those planes won't sit idle. This next year should get interesting for both pilot groups.....
 
kellwolf said:
We don't have pay scales for the Q400, so we'd be flying it for Saab rates.
Click to expand...

Not quite. The Saab rate in the current CBA is actually a 20-35 seat turboprop rate. So, it couldn't apply to the Q400 that are going to be configured for 74 seats. The PCL CBA requires that a new payrate be negotiated. If the Association and the Company can't come to an agreement within 30 days of the aircraft starting service, then the payrate goes to binding arbitration. I can almost guarantee that binding arbitration would lead to a higher payrate than what Phildo imposed on the Colgan guys.

I don't forsee this happening anyway. The logistics would be a nightmare, and PCL management can't even manage normal operations.
 
Ah, I forgot the TP rate was capped at 35 seats. True, and it's gonna be messy with the -900 rates anyway. From what I hear, the company is already digging in its heels since it knows we're not going to fly them for what they want us to fly them for. Toss in the newest rumor of the base being LAX and junior guys being displaced to the base if not enough people bid it, and things could get ugly. I'm not that much of a contract guru (yet), so I'm not even sure if they could legally displace people to a NEW base.

I'm still waiting to see if the 15 CRJs are actually gonna go to Mesaba starting in Sept. I doubt either one of us could staff them properly given the current hiring environment.
 
kellwolf said:
Ah, I forgot the TP rate was capped at 35 seats. True, and it's gonna be messy with the -900 rates anyway. From what I hear, the company is already digging in its heels since it knows we're not going to fly them for what they want us to fly them for. Toss in the newest rumor of the base being LAX and junior guys being displaced to the base if not enough people bid it, and things could get ugly.
Click to expand...

I've been hearing LAX lately, too. I can't imagine that they'll have many guys bidding to fly out there on PCL payrates. The newhires are going to get hosed by being forced out there. The Captain bids might have to go to street Captains that already live on the west coast. It would be very interesting, that's for sure.

I'm not that much of a contract guru (yet)
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I sense ALPA grievance work in your future. ;) I don't even work there anymore, and yet I'm still recruiting volunteers. :)

I'm still waiting to see if the 15 CRJs are actually gonna go to Mesaba starting in Sept. I doubt either one of us could staff them properly given the current hiring environment.
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I expect them to delay the deliveries to XJ. There's just no way that they can keep up with taking those planes on schedule.
 
PCL_128 said:
I've been hearing LAX lately, too. I can't imagine that they'll have many guys bidding to fly out there on PCL payrates. The newhires are going to get hosed by being forced out there. The Captain bids might have to go to street Captains that already live on the west coast. It would be very interesting, that's for sure.
Click to expand...

It's gonna be interesting. I'm looking at upgrading Jan/Feb if things keep churning the way they are. I'm willing to do the dreaded MEM-DTW commute to upgrade earlier, but there's no way in hell I'd be able to pull a MEM-LAX commute.
 
kellwolf said:
It's gonna be interesting. I'm looking at upgrading Jan/Feb if things keep churning the way they are. I'm willing to do the dreaded MEM-DTW commute to upgrade earlier, but there's no way in hell I'd be able to pull a MEM-LAX commute.
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We are 'simply the best', so the company will get us our own Gulfstream V to get us to and from work!
 
Funny thing is we used to have a Citation for emergency use like AOG parts and needing to get crewmembers somewhere FAST. It's gone now.
 
kellwolf said:
Funny thing is we used to have a Citation for emergency use like AOG parts and needing to get crewmembers somewhere FAST. It's gone now.
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I've seen the slowtation. It had to bring up some tires to BGR. Thing is it couldn't make the trip nonstop so it took f o r e v e r to get them up here. It would have been just as fast to comat them MEM-DTW-BGR. Not sure why they didnt have some spare tires in DTW....oh well.
 
kellwolf said:
Ah, I forgot the TP rate was capped at 35 seats. True, and it's gonna be messy with the -900 rates anyway. From what I hear, the company is already digging in its heels since it knows we're not going to fly them for what they want us to fly them for. Toss in the newest rumor of the base being LAX and junior guys being displaced to the base if not enough people bid it, and things could get ugly. I'm not that much of a contract guru (yet), so I'm not even sure if they could legally displace people to a NEW base.

I'm still waiting to see if the 15 CRJs are actually gonna go to Mesaba starting in Sept. I doubt either one of us could staff them properly given the current hiring environment.
Click to expand...


I heard the other in MEM that the first 5 900's will go to SLC and then the last 10 will go to LAX..... I agree its gonna be ugly!
 
JBUCREW said:
I heard the other in MEM that the first 5 900's will go to SLC and then the last 10 will go to LAX..... I agree its gonna be ugly!
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Yeah, I heard that one, too. I think it'll be hard enough with ONE base. Two would be essentially contractual suicide. Now the big rumor is Mesaba won't take the 15 (16, whatever) CRJ-200s b/c they can't staff them. Also heard rumblings of training issues on the -900 over there that have slowed some things down as well. If we've still got those planes when the Delta flying starts, it's gonna be REAL tight. Then again, it's not like I can fly them when it starts anyway. I'll probably be timed out by Dec.....
 
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