Allegiant

Thank you for the recent comments. Did not have much time to monitor this post. Just finished my one year PC, so that should carry me to upgrade time if all remains as it is now and I also remain on the ERJ. I have the last 5 days off this month and 16 total off next month. So will put that jump seat idea to use.

And I agree. Would rather go to Spirit (or especially Jet Blue or even one of my 135 choices, but calls have not come yet there). Plus my schedule has not worked out to make a job fair appearance in the past. And with Spirit that sounds to be the only way in. Appears the next one is in June. So will see how timing of all this with soul searching and some luck works out. If not elsewhere, will hopefully get to the June job fair.

I actually really enjoy where I am now, but even the Capt salary in the short run (being a good 3-4 years) will keep me working two jobs if staying at my current employer. So flying plus putting in another 30 hours of work a week in the business is becoming a drain. Plus pushing mid 40's in age with only 5 years professional flying experience I am hoping to build the resume to be more marketable on the flying side. I been fending off several high paying offers in my other career lately simply because my heart truly is in flying and the long term goal is to make flying my only career (that will happen once I get to about 80k plus a year minimum income from flying alone). Have done quite a bit of community work lately with local high schools in the little spare time I have. That should help the resume too. But increasing experience and pay on the flying career is important since I am hopeful one more career step is the last step prior to my final career destination.

Thanks again. And any further posts about thoughts on Allegiant or other options are certainly welcome as I suspect it will help others on here who lay low and prefer not to chime in, but are at a similar crossroad.
 
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Derg said:
Lemme check…

Nope, just at 772 so I can almost apply for a major!
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Depending on the hiring environment, it can matter a whole lot. In 2009 and 2010, Virgin America was requiring 1500 hours of TPIC (I think that was the number). There were several USAirways FOs who had 10,000+ hours of Airbus 32X time but not the TPIC and their apps weren't getting pulled where as an RJ captain with 1500 TPIC and 3000 TT was.
 
http://m.reviewjournal.com/business...s-dissatisfied-looking-other-jobs-survey-says

Interesting comment from the COO

Jude Bricker, chief operating officer for Allegiant, said he agrees with many of the points made in the survey.

“Union surveys always have a preconceived outcome,” Bricker said in an interview. “But on the outcome of this particular survey, the company believes largely with the result of the pilot group represented here in their survey. Specifically, we know morale is low; I agree with that.”
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Don't think anyone posted this.

Hundreds of pilots poised to leave Allegiant Air

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) - Allegiant Air has been rocked by a new scandal.
Pilots poised to flee in search of safer skies and a better work environment.
Contact 13's Darcy Spears has been investigating Allegiant for nearly a year. She tells us why hundreds of pilots say they're looking to leave.
Overworked and underpaid. Flying for an airline with a bare minimum approach to maintenance and safety, which leads to avoidable emergencies.
That's what the majority of Allegiant pilots say is forcing them out.
Teamsters Local 1224 President Daniel Wells said, "At an operation like Allegiant with all these many problems, the one last line of defense preventing a tragedy has been the incredible skill of the Allegiant pilots."
But hundreds of Allegiant pilots say they've had enough.
This pilot satisfaction survey released Wednesday polled more than 500 captains and first officers ranging from new hires to veterans.
More than half say Allegiant's scheduling system creates confusion and fatigue. They say their pay and benefits fall below industry standards.
And they're fed up with the airline's failure to negotiate a contract with the Teamsters.
On top of that, Wells says, "They lack what we would say is a safety culture."
The survey release comes just days after Allegiant's latest incident -- this time in Phoenix.
"They had what was ostensibly a new airplane, an Airbus, have a catastrophic engine failure in the process of a go-around in Phoenix," Wells says. "Extraordinarily rare event. Something that as a professional crew member you hope you never come across in the entirety of your career."
The plane landed safely a short time later, but Wells says it's part of a culture of cutting corners on maintenance that makes pilots afraid.
"Almost half of the pilots said they will not allow their own families to fly on the aircraft. That is a stunning repudiation of the operations at Allegiant. I have never heard that before at a carrier. And that is not sour grapes. That is not to make publicity. That is a real fear that these pilots have. And the reason is because they're on the front lines and observe day in and day out the way Allegiant skimps on maintenance, pushes their aircraft."
Allegiant has experienced high pilot turnover in recent years. Citing an internal newsletter, the union says Allegiant's pilot resignation rate increased 600 percent between 2011 and 2014.
Earlier this year, Chief Operations Officer Steve Harfst abruptly resigned.
And Contact 13 obtained an internal announcement that Director of Maintenance Jesse Peek is retiring later this month.
"And I think that it's not coincidence that it's in the midst of this ongoing FAA investigation into their maintenance practices," Wells says
The Federal Aviation Administration is auditing Allegiant two years ahead of schedule. The agency says it wants to ensure Allegiant is making improvements and addressing internal issue. The FAA expects to complete their evaluation in June.
We asked Allegiant for comment, but they refused.
Instead, they sent a statement saying, "As the safety of our passengers and crew is of the utmost importance to every single person in our company, we will not engage with a member of the media who distorts the facts and lacks objectivity."
Story and video: http://www.ktnv.com
 
Oh look another issue....who's not surprised....


http://www.stargazette.com/story/ne...ent-creates-scare-elmira-passengers/83845114/



Christina Sonsire was expecting a relaxing family vacation in Florida during spring break last week.

The vacation went as planned, but the return trip to Elmira got off to a scary start, Sonsire said.

The Elmira attorney flew from the Elmira Corning Regional Airport to St. Petersburg, Florida, on Allegiant Airlines, along with her husband, Damian Sonsire, their two children, and her parents, Tom and Pat Bruner.

The flight down was uneventful, but only a few minutes into the return flight Thursday morning, alarms started sounding and passengers didn't know what was going on, Sonsire said.

“The flight attendants were not doing anything. They weren't panicking, but their faces looked concerned. We weren’t getting information.”

Christina Sonsire, Elmira Attorney
"The alarm started going off and there were flashing emergency lights. We started to smell what seemed like electrical smoke as if wires were burning," she said. "The flight attendants were not doing anything. They weren't panicking, but their faces looked concerned. We weren’t getting information.

"We could feel the plane descend and we went out over the water. We went in a circle," Sonsire said. "Then the flight attendant came on and said 'Obviously we're experiencing a problem. We're cleared for an emergency landing back to St. Petersburg. Please pay attention as the pilot may have evacuation plans.' It was very terrifying at that time."

Passengers were not informed what the problem was, and there was a three-hour delay before another flight was provided, Sonsire said.

She wouldn't have given the incident much more thought until she learned Allegiant has been cited for other safety issues and the Federal Aviation Administration is conducting a safety evaluation of the airline that wasn't due for another two years.

That early evaluation was reportedly spurred by incidents including an aborted takeoff and a plane that landed low on fuel. The FAA routinely evaluates airlines every five years but started Allegiant's review in April, even though it wasn't due until 2018.
 
The LAS MD-80 uncommanded rotation / rejected takeoff last year ended up being caused by a cotter pin not being installed in a castellated nut on the left elevator boost hydraulic actuator. This is the actuator that exists to push the nose down if the airplane gets into a deep stall and the elevator control tab force is not sufficient to recover. Instead, the loose actuator jammed the left elevator in the full up position. Had the flight crew not acted quickly to do a high speed RTO, they and their passengers would all be dead. Had this nut fallen off at any other phase of the flight, they'd all be dead too (short of some UAL232 Sioux City scenario). To add insult to injury, two other MD-80 elevators and an MD-80 aileron were missing cotter pins when they were audited as well.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ts-under-heightened-faa-scrutiny-at-allegiant

This is basic, AC43-13b crap. A castellated nut does not have a locking feature besides the cotter pin. It will fall off. And having recently crawled around a DC-9 walk around with @Adler, I was amazed how simple the manual cable operated flight control system on the DC-9/MD-80 series is... which makes the Allegiant MX department's inability to adequately maintain their airplanes all the more shameful. That makes the fact that their maintenance dept is allowed anywhere near an airplane as complicated as the A320 all the more terrifying.

When guys like @z987k and @Inverted say you are more likely to die in an Allegiant cockpit than any other 121 airline, they're serious.

Finally, an A&P friend of mine interviewed at AAY for a maintenance position not long after the RTO incident last April. He's a sharp guy and queried them about the incident during the interview. The interviewer's response? "It's the pilot union's fault." My friend went elsewhere.
 
TexasFlyer said:
These questions are for me personally to make a decision. Plus my career counseling is not helping people decide where to apply. They must decide that on their own. I am doing what I help my clients do. I guide them in research. Here I am researching on my own through various resources (this would be a resource I would suggest to pilots with the comment of also you need to see through some people's BS on here and be aware of the know it alls).

And pilots are not my niche anyway. And just to inform you some more, my company matured beyond that to www.rockstarbizgroup.com now. I would appreciate you posting that link next time ;)

On a side note. I also rately do counseling for pilots since this industry has zero correlation in interview and hiring process within corporate america. A pilot resume is a far cry from a corporate resume. My niche is aviation and non-aviation companies, but not pilots within those companies. In 20 years never once helped a pilot within the 121 world and would turn them over to other better qualified resources. And in 20 years only placed two pilots, both into non flying positions. Oddly, it was only one prior to this last Friday.

Now. Looking for answers to my questions from Allegiant pilots. After all. I assume this is what this community is still about. Helping fellow pilots.
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I'd suggest canning "rockstar" and getting rid of the saber liner pic. My .02¢
 
inigo88 said:
The LAS MD-80 uncommanded rotation / rejected takeoff last year ended up being caused by a cotter pin not being installed in a castellated nut on the left elevator boost hydraulic actuator. This is the actuator that exists to push the nose down if the airplane gets into a deep stall and the elevator control tab force is not sufficient to recover. Instead, the loose actuator jammed the left elevator in the full up position. Had the flight crew not acted quickly to do a high speed RTO, they and their passengers would all be dead. Had this nut fallen off at any other phase of the flight, they'd all be dead too (short of some UAL232 Sioux City scenario). To add insult to injury, two other MD-80 elevators and an MD-80 aileron were missing cotter pins when they were audited as well.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ts-under-heightened-faa-scrutiny-at-allegiant

This is basic, AC43-13b crap. A castellated nut does not have a locking feature besides the cotter pin. It will fall off. And having recently crawled around a DC-9 walk around with @Adler, I was amazed how simple the manual cable operated flight control system on the DC-9/MD-80 series is... which makes the Allegiant MX department's inability to adequately maintain their airplanes all the more shameful. That makes the fact that their maintenance dept is allowed anywhere near an airplane as complicated as the A320 all the more terrifying.

When guys like @z987k and @Inverted say you are more likely to die in an Allegiant cockpit than any other 121 airline, they're serious.

Finally, an A&P friend of mine interviewed at AAY for a maintenance position not long after the RTO incident last April. He's a sharp guy and queried them about the incident during the interview. The interviewer's response? "It's the pilot union's fault." My friend went elsewhere.
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If a nut is not secured on an aircraft, it WILL come off eventually. Every damn one of them. I'm in the middle of the most extensive annual I have ever taken part in and it is just amazing the carnage a handful of loose(not even missing yet) nuts cause. And this is on a fabric airplane.
 
z987k said:
If a nut is not secured on an aircraft, it WILL come off eventually. Every damn one of them. I'm in the middle of the most extensive annual I have ever taken part in and it is just amazing the carnage a handful of loose(not even missing yet) nuts cause. And this is on a fabric airplane.
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Depends on what you mean by secured...cylinder base and connecting rod nuts seldom have any safety other than a whole crapload of torque and they very very seldom with come loose.
 
Flt 844 just had a mechanical at PSB today - thought that's what this was about.

That WFLA/WESH article above me though...whoof. Nice English. :ooh:
 
BobDDuck said:
Depending on the hiring environment, it can matter a whole lot. In 2009 and 2010, Virgin America was requiring 1500 hours of TPIC (I think that was the number). There were several USAirways FOs who had 10,000+ hours of Airbus 32X time but not the TPIC and their apps weren't getting pulled where as an RJ captain with 1500 TPIC and 3000 TT was.
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I personally know a couple guys who had 0 TPIC back in that 2009/2010 timeframe but had 10-15k+ hrs on big Boeings that were hired based on lots of flight time on big aircraft. Eg, one was at ABX on the DC9 and then 767 for 18 years. Was always FO because he liked his schedule and basically flew from ILM/CVG to his home airport and back.
 
Oh. Does Allegiant have seniority-based upgrades or merit based?

She seemed nice. She got a seat in the back so we didn't talk much, just that she was in SFO to hang out with a United boyfriend.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Oh. Does Allegiant have seniority-based upgrades or merit based?

She seemed nice. She got a seat in the back so we didn't talk much, just that she was in SFO to hang out with a United boyfriend.
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Possibly a different person then.

Actually I think the girl I know is an A320 captain. Once at our old shop we were having issues in Seminoles where the Avidyne would randomly indicate 3500RPM on one of the engines, in a way that was clearly an indication error. Her assessment: Carb icing.
 
gotWXdagain said:
Possibly a different person then.

Actually I think the girl I know is an A320 captain. Once at our old shop we were having issues in Seminoles where the Avidyne would randomly indicate 3500RPM on one of the engines, in a way that was clearly an indication error. Her assessment: Carb icing.
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OMG THAT TACHOMETER!

FEATHER (___), (___) FEATHERED
 
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