Mesaba?

OCflyguy88

OCflyguy88

New Member
Has anybody applied/been hired at Mesaba in the last couple of months? If so, what is it like over there? General moral, chances of getting the Saab (my preference), senior bases, expected upgrades when the growth really begins to hit? And the big one, how long is the growth expected to last?

Thanks for the help!
 
OCflyguy88 said:
Has anybody applied/been hired at Mesaba in the last couple of months? If so, what is it like over there? General moral, chances of getting the Saab (my preference), senior bases, expected upgrades when the growth really begins to hit? And the big one, how long is the growth expected to last?

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Ask and Ye Shall Receive
 
OCflyguy88 said:
Has anybody applied/been hired at Mesaba in the last couple of months? If so, what is it like over there? General moral, chances of getting the Saab (my preference), senior bases, expected upgrades when the growth really begins to hit? And the big one, how long is the growth expected to last?

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

I was hired last week. Top to bottom, it looks like a great company. I've been friends for years with a Mesaba captain, and he's always spoken highly of the company. At my interview, everyone else was coming from another regional, I was the only flight instructor.

Chances of getting the Saab are great...I'd say 90%. The only CRJs are going to laterals currently at Mesaba or UND grads who took the CRJ transition course. Senior base is MSP. Expected upgrades are hard to tell, but I'd say 3 years. We were told we need 3000 hours to upgrade, but after 1000 hours each hour counts double, so it's really only 2000 hours. If you max out at 100 hours per month, that's 20 months to become *eligible* to upgrade.

Mesaba had about 600 pilots before the growth. They're hiring about 600 more, and are 1/3rd of the way through that hiring.
 
gredenko said:
I was hired last week. Top to bottom, it looks like a great company. I've been friends for years with a Mesaba captain, and he's always spoken highly of the company. At my interview, everyone else was coming from another regional, I was the only flight instructor.

Chances of getting the Saab are great...I'd say 90%. The only CRJs are going to laterals currently at Mesaba or UND grads who took the CRJ transition course. Senior base is MSP. Expected upgrades are hard to tell, but I'd say 3 years. We were told we need 3000 hours to upgrade, but after 1000 hours each hour counts double, so it's really only 2000 hours. If you max out at 100 hours per month, that's 20 months to become *eligible* to upgrade.

Mesaba had about 600 pilots before the growth. They're hiring about 600 more, and are 1/3rd of the way through that hiring.
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Soo...the guys that take short cuts and buy CRJ sim time are getting put in the CRJ while folks with more flight time and experience get the Saab? That makes a whole lot of sense.
 
Airdale said:
Soo...the guys that take short cuts and buy CRJ sim time are getting put in the CRJ while folks with more flight time and experience get the Saab? That makes a whole lot of sense.
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From the airlines perspective it does.

It may be oversimplified, but:

Mesaba hires two pilots and they have 1 Saab opening and 1 CRJ opening.

pilot 'A' took the crj course
pilot 'B' did not


Pilot 'A' gets the saab and company has to train 2 pilots on 2 new a/c

Pilot 'B' gets the saab and now company may be able to save some training costs as Pilot 'A' has some familiarity with CRJ.
 
Airdale said:
Soo...the guys that take short cuts and buy CRJ sim time are getting put in the CRJ while folks with more flight time and experience get the Saab? That makes a whole lot of sense.
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It makes sense, Put real pilots in a real airplane. Put SJS pilots in a Shiny jet. :D
 
IFly85 said:
Would anyone know how hard it would be to hold Mem right out of training?
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From friends I have in training, you'd get MEM right away.

Like the others said, MSP is senior and new hires are still getting that out of training. So I'm sure you would be awarded MEM.
 
IFly85 said:
Would anyone know how hard it would be to hold Mem right out of training?
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Here's the recent class dates and their respective bases:

July 30 class:
8 MSP CR9
12 DTW CR9
8 DTW SF3
10 MEM SF3

August 13 class:
11 DTW SF3
8 MEM SF3
 
Cool guys I really appreciate the info. Right now I am just looking at my options considering I am moving back to Mem next week and would like to get a Mem base with someone.
 
gredenko said:
If you max out at 100 hours per month, that's 20 months to become *eligible* to upgrade.
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Except you can only fly 1000 in a year, or 10 months at 100 hours a month. Trust me, I know. I'm looking at most of Nov/Dec off at this point. I'd almost rather fly so I can upgrade a few months faster, but it ain't gonna happen.
 
kellwolf said:
Except you can only fly 1000 in a year, or 10 months at 100 hours a month. Trust me, I know. I'm looking at most of Nov/Dec off at this point. I'd almost rather fly so I can upgrade a few months faster, but it ain't gonna happen.
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Man talk about burnout. Dad might be looking at 700 hrs this year. Which adds up to less than 100 legs. You probably pull 100 legs in a month.

Hey Don are you gonna break 100 hrs this year, and meet the UPS mins?
 
Not much in the burn out dept. The other half of the month I'm not flying right now kinda balances that out. :)

Note to people that are just getting into this: This is NOT normal. I don't know how I'm managing to pull this off. Three months ago I was flying 94 hours with 10 days off a month. Magically, my seniority has rocketted to superstardom, though.....

With PBS, we've even had guys get NINETEEN days off.
 
kellwolf said:
Not much in the burn out dept. The other half of the month I'm not flying right now kinda balances that out. :)

Note to people that are just getting into this: This is NOT normal. I don't know how I'm managing to pull this off. Three months ago I was flying 94 hours with 10 days off a month. Magically, my seniority has rocketted to superstardom, though.....

With PBS, we've even had guys get NINETEEN days off.
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Steven, how's the hiring going down there?
 
Quick question from a guy thats just getting started in this. What is everyones tt look like when they are getting hired at these places? What was the interview like?
 
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