Chautauqua Selected as a Continental Express Carrier

Hey, it beats paying for ATP's regional jet program, and at the end if they find more flying you will have a job...

And I am just about to go over 600 too... Oh well, I see your points. 4 months without flying is a long time. I would probably get airsick on the first flight back.
 
Another point is look at Mesaba, I think it is anyways. They are going after all the pilots who left before being furloughed and reserving the right to go after the pilots WHO WERE FURLOUGHED for training costs. As ugly as the industry is, I'd be careful with getting on anywhere thinking you'll just get on some place else quickly. As has been said before, go to a place you like...you might be there a while.

BTW, not sure if ExpressJet has a training contract, but if it gets ugly over there, I bet they'll look at it soon enough.

Please, for the love of whoever you find holy, stop getting these jobs at low times and having no options if things go bad. I'm talking about the 250-750 hour wonders. Instruct for a while and have your options. It'll help you in the long run.
 
txpilot said:
Another point is look at Mesaba, I think it is anyways. They are going after all the pilots who left before being furloughed and reserving the right to go after the pilots WHO WERE FURLOUGHED for training costs. As ugly as the industry is, I'd be careful with getting on anywhere thinking you'll just get on some place else quickly. As has been said before, go to a place you like...you might be there a while.

BTW, not sure if ExpressJet has a training contract, but if it gets ugly over there, I bet they'll look at it soon enough.
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I believe Mesaba is going after first year guys/gals that left prior to furlough... ie: they didn't fulfill their contractual obligation.

No, XJT does not have any training contract.

Bob
 
Chautauqua, a subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: RJET - News), will operate any aircraft returned by ExpressJet as a second Continental Express carrier at each of Continental's domestic hubs -- Newark Liberty, Houston and Cleveland. Continental Airlines will continue to schedule and market all its regional jet service as it does today.
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The underlined is from me, and therein lies the rub.

Let's say that XJT finds flying for 44 of the Aircraft (which is a good possibility since 44 of the 69 are XR's with great range, fuel economy, and are much more marketable than any other 50 seater out there.), and we decide to give the other 25 back to CAL in September... then those 25 will go to CHQ.

If we keep all 69, then???

I'm still fairly optimistic about the whole thing. I don't believe min's will, nor should, come down. It's still a good company to work for. Worse case scenario is people get fuloughed but they will have a seniority number, and get some pretty awesome training under their belt. Best case scenario is we (XJT) ends up diversifying our flying and not putting all our eggs in one basket.

Time will tell.

Bob
 
txpilot said:
I'd be careful with getting on anywhere thinking you'll just get on some place else quickly. As has been said before, go to a place you like...you might be there a while.

BTW, not sure if ExpressJet has a training contract, but if it gets ugly over there, I bet they'll look at it soon enough.

Please, for the love of whoever you find holy, stop getting these jobs at low times and having no options if things go bad. I'm talking about the 250-750 hour wonders. Instruct for a while and have your options. It'll help you in the long run.
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I would think anyone who would go there would go there because they want to be there. I think it is a great company. I wouldn't want to go there with the intentions of leaving after I get the training. I would hope that I could stay but if they did furlough after training, at least I would have that experience under my belt and I would imagine it would be helpful to have for getting on somewhere else.

Not really sure about not having any options though if things didn't work out. The CFI world is still there and that is where most 250-750 hr wonders are currently at. No reason why they can't get back into it.
 
Timbuff10 said:
4 months without flying is a long time. I would probably get airsick on the first flight back.
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Training cycle at XJT is approx. 6 weeks.

Wheelsup, where are you at that it took 4 months to log time?

Bob
 
I would bet they are able to find someone else to fly for. The question is, who? Isn't United looking at ways to drop Mesa from its express ops?

Aren't they starting that operation over in europe? Are their planes going over there? I doubt too many of the pilots will follow though.

Hey Bob, how many are under you on the seniority list now?
 
Timbuff10 said:
Not really sure about not having any options though if things didn't work out. The CFI world is still there and that is where most 250-750 hr wonders are currently at. No reason why they can't get back into it.
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...and don't you think you'd be the shiznit at your flight school... I remember interviewing flight instructors at different flight schools when I was going after my PPL... At that time I thought the dude's with 300+ hours were all that and a bag of chips... If I would have interviewed one that was a furloughed FO at a regional... :)

Yes, CFI-ing is and forwever will be an option for me, it was too damn fun for it not to be. I'm not going back to retail! (RE: shirt folding thread in the lav!) ;)

Timbuff10 said:
Hey Bob, how many are under you on the seniority list now?
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High enough... ;)

Bob
 
Captain_Bob said:
I believe Mesaba is going after first year guys/gals that left prior to furlough... ie: they didn't fulfill their contractual obligation.

No, XJT does not have any training contract.

Bob
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This is a direct quote from the other thread on Mesaba and the article:

But they also stressed that management has informed them that it "reserves the right" to issue the letters to any pilot who was furloughed but had not completed one year of flying with Mesaba.
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Yes, they are going after the guys/gals that left early and reserve the right to go after the furloughees, as I stated earlier and as I stated in the other thread. Good luck to all you guys/gals out there.

Also, as far as going back to CFI'ing, I don't know many that have done this (except after 9/11). Most, once flying a jet, will not go back to CFI in a 172. And most CFI jobs wouldn't want somebody back after they've been in the airline world, since they'd be leaving very soon thereafter.

All my opinions, take for what it's worth.

TX
 
txpilot said:
Yes, they are going after the guys/gals that left early and reserve the right to go after the furloughees, as I stated earlier and as I stated in the other thread. Good luck to all you guys/gals out there.
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Ooof... That would indeed be a sucky move on their part... Luck to them form me as well...

Bob
 
Captain_Bob said:
High enough... ;)

Bob
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Good stuff Bob, you got on at the right time... They hired like mad after that. Hopefully the rest of the Dallas guys will be good to go too if it ever came to that. 700 deep goes back pretty far.
 
Timbuff10 said:
Hopefully the rest of the Dallas guys will be good to go too if it ever came to that. 700 deep goes back pretty far.
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I have a pretty good feeling that the rest of the dallas guys will be OK. Of course, I'm a glass is half full type of guy! :)
 
txpilot said:
Yes, they are going after the guys/gals that left early and reserve the right to go after the furloughees, as I stated earlier and as I stated in the other thread. Good luck to all you guys/gals out there.
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Be reasonable - they aren't suing the guys who worked up until the last day of their furlough, they are going after the guys who jumped ship prior to their furlough.

Mesaba wants former pilots to pay for training
Tuesday April 18, 11:36 am ET

Mesaba Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy last October, is billing former pilots thousands of dollars for training costs, according to media reports.

The first-year pilots were notified in late 2005 that they would be furloughed in January or February. Some of the pilots found jobs prior to their furlough dates and gave Mesaba two weeks' notice.

Mesaba, a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based MAIR Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MAIR - News), has sent certified letters to those pilots stating they must repay Mesaba within 30 days or their training bills will be turned over to a collection agency.

Mesaba said its actions are in accordance with the airline's contract with its pilots.

The pilots union said the payback provision has not been enforced in the past.

Mesaba flies regional flights for Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. (Pink Sheets: NWACQ - News), which operates a hub from Memphis International Airport.
http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2006/04/17/daily17.html
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As for not flying for 4 months - I miscounted on my fingers. It was about 3 1/3 months. First month was ground school, then about a week break for sim, then 5 days of CPT followed a fews days break then 12 days of sim (5 on, 2 off schedule), followed by a really long paid vacation waiting for an OE slot.
 
It took exactly 6 weeks for me to go from Day 1 of training to Day 1 of IOE at Culligan. That had a week off for X-Mas in there and I deadheaded 1 hour after my 121 checkride to start IOE.

Good luck to all you Jetlinkers.
 
Captain_Bob said:
I have a pretty good feeling that the rest of the dallas guys will be OK. Of course, I'm a glass is half full type of guy! :)
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i have around 450 numbers below me right now, and not sure how many we are hiring before the end of the year. Im glass half full too, and i think even if worst case, you wont see 700 furloughs. Staffing is based on block hours and not airframes, and if the line divisor is lowered i imagine it would come out to a lower number of furloughs then that. But im with Bob on thinking the XR's can find a home, in any case im not worrying about it, nothing i can do about it except continue to to my job professionally.
 
wheelsup said:
Keep in mind, while in training you don't get paid very much (I think EJ guys get a per diem check or something), and I didn't log any time in an airplane for a little over 4 months...
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Wow...4 mos! I think it was 2 for me. I instructed right up until the 10pm the night before I headed to IAH and then got an IOE assignment about a week after passing the checkride. That two months without flying felt like an eternity, even though I was in the sim and all. On reserve I haven't flown that much, 30-40 hours per month, but with summer flying maybe reserves will get used a little more.

I consider myself realistic, not a glass is half empty sort of guy, but I anticipated loosing this flying before any announcement about the 69 planes came out and even asked about the CPA and diversifying our flying at my interview. Right now obviously things don't look too good here at XJT, and every day our management goes without announcing some new endeavor I think it is somewhat less likely that we will be getting any new/replacement flying and more likely that a furlough is in my future.

Now is the time to make a big decision for some of us near the bottom--stick it out and hope for the best or get a jumpstart and start some preemptive pavement pounding. Not sure exactly what I'm gonna do yet.

Oh, and there is no training contract and you do get about a $1400 per diem check sometime during training, for what it's worth.
 
wheelsup said:
...As for not flying for 4 months - I miscounted on my fingers. It was about 3 1/3 months....
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Wheels... sorry about that dude... how did you end up wth the 1/3rd of a finger? Shop class accident? ;)

Bob
 
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