Interview with American Eagle

the best time to get hired at any airline is to be hired before the hire or expand significantly not after. upgrade time is not just about how many years or months, its about numbers pure and simple. yes express jet and skywest have great upgrade times but how many pilots got hired in the past 2 years?? if you get hired there today you have to wait for all those people to upgrade first.
 
ready2fly said:
Touching on what Zmiller said about how Eagle goes about assigning bases, I have no problem with that. I know from friends who are with other regionals that they didn't know their bases until the last couple of weeks of training (see: Colgan & Air Wisconsin).

Now THAT would suck!

At least with Eagle, my wife and I had over two months to start looking for, and find a house here.

True, you don't know what aircraft and bases are available until the first DAY of training , and true that the "old guys" like me got the pick of the litter, but that's how the machine works.
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Stan,
I know some airlines don't let you know your base until well into training (my current employer included), but you at least have an idea of what geographic area you're going to be in with other airlines that tell you what aircraft you're going to school for. And with other airlines, you at least have a chance to transfer bases--with Eagle, three out of the 4 A/C only have two bases each. That means restricted mobility, and without giving any advance notification of aircraft that can lead to the mass no-shows they've been seeing.

I admit that I made a bad decision going to Eagle. I should have been much more aware of the SJU possibility, which I downplayed in my mind because Saabs had been offered in every recent class. I gambled, thinking that it was really unlikely that I wouldn't get the Saab (which I wanted), and it came back and bit me hard.

I think that their current staffing problem (I don't know how bad it is in DFW, but it was atrocious on the ATR) are a result of three issues: upgrade time, abuse of reserve pilots, and the aircraft assignment issue I'm constantly bitching about. The last two are interconnected; they've lost a ton of people off the ATR who see it as the only way to get out of SJU, which causes them to be understaffed, which in turn causes more people to bail. I've talked to a lot of guys there who think they really need to change back to how they used to assign A/C--I believe they'd call you for a class for a specific aircraft, and you could only turn down one or two.

I'm really glad Eagle is working out well for you. I still have a lot of respect for the company; I just wish they'd sent me somewhere other than the Juan.
 
Well, I made it. Everyone was extremely friendly and everything was EXACTLY as the gouge said it would be. 5 out of 6 got offered the job and our class date is December 11th, not even two weeks away. Thanks for all the help that everyone on this forum provided during my ride and I look forward to the next adventure.

BTW, they loved that I served 10 years in the submarine service. I think that anyone with a military background automatically starts off the day with bonus points.
 
Welcome aboard!

Come to work. Do your job. Go home. Take off the uniform. Enjoy your family/free time = best job there is.

Don't hang out in the crew lounge. ;) You'll understand that statement soon enough.

Drop me a PM if you have any questions, or if I can help you in any way.

Stan
 
Congratulations!!! great to hear people are getting jobs during the holiday season like this! strange that ya'll have to go thru training during tho....are they giving you time off for the holidays or is it straight blo and go?
 
subpilot said:
Well, I made it. Everyone was extremely friendly and everything was EXACTLY as the gouge said it would be. 5 out of 6 got offered the job and our class date is December 11th, not even two weeks away.
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Dude, if you get the same setup that Eagle has used in the past, you will absolutely LOVE starting training then.

I finished ground school on Dec 20th, got positive spaced home on the 21st, was off until the 2nd of January, fully paid, 16 hrs per diem for the full time off. It was sweet.
 
zmiller4 said:
WestIndian425, I meant to ask you, are you from or have any relation to the West Indies? If so, Eagle in SJU might be an awesome setup...
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I'm so sorry I didn't see this post sooner. To answer your question, I do have roots in the West Indies. I have family in St. Lucia, and so many close friends and family in other islands including Trinidad, Grenada, and Martinique. "West Indian 425" is actually the callsign for BWIA flight 425 JFK-POS. This was my favorite airline of all time. Alas, at the end of the year, it'll be no more. :(

But enough of that. "The Rock" on Eagle Flight wouldn't be bad, though I would love to follow Stan's footsteps and do the CR7. (Did you know you can start that plane by just pushing one button? Automatic ignition sequence and everything...just push one button and watch the screen.) There is something in the works though. We'll see in a few days.

Congrats, Subpilot!! Good job!
 
WestIndian425 said:
I'm so sorry I didn't see this post sooner. To answer your question, I do have roots in the West Indies. I have family in St. Lucia, and so many close friends and family in other islands including Trinidad, Grenada, and Martinique. "West Indian 425" is actually the callsign for BWIA flight 425 JFK-POS. This was my favorite airline of all time. Alas, at the end of the year, it'll be no more. :(
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Cool! I spent a lot of overnights in St. Lucia, but never made it to POS, FDF, or GND. St. Lucia and Dominica are the two islands I'm definately going to visit when I get back that way.

The 700 seems like a cool airplane, but I'm not a huge fan of flying the 200 with captains who mostly fly it--they forget to push things sometimes.
 
"Well, I made it"

Contgratz, Subpilot. I can remember when you were asking us which flight school to go to. Any feedback on what you'd do different if you had it to do over?
 
WestIndian425 said:
I do have roots in the West Indies. I have family in St. Lucia,

"West Indian 425" is actually the callsign for BWIA flight 425 JFK-POS. This was my favorite airline of all time. Alas, at the end of the year, it'll be no more. :(
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What is happening to Bee Wee?? I have some Vincy ties myself and rode on them as a kid.
 
zmiller4 said:
Cool! I spent a lot of overnights in St. Lucia, but never made it to POS, FDF, or GND. St. Lucia and Dominica are the two islands I'm definately going to visit when I get back that way.

The 700 seems like a cool airplane, but I'm not a huge fan of flying the 200 with captains who mostly fly it--they forget to push things sometimes.
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Where do you guys stay when overnighting in SLU?

Also, how does scheduling work out of SJU? Do the more senior guys get the schedules which bring them back to base at the end of the day, while other junior compadres overnight at the other islands?
 
NJA_Capt said:
What is happening to Bee Wee?? I have some Vincy ties myself and rode on them as a kid.
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BWIA West Indies Airways will be taking its last flight on December 31st. Then it will be shut down, and a new carrier, Caribbean Airlines, will be taking its place on January 1st.
 
WestIndian425 said:
Where do you guys stay when overnighting in SLU?

Also, how does scheduling work out of SJU? Do the more senior guys get the schedules which bring them back to base at the end of the day, while other junior compadres overnight at the other islands?
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We stay in Castries at the Auberge Seraphine, which is just south of the airport. The overnight was only 10 hours or so when I was there. I forget who bid what, but a lot of the FO's were commuters, so the more senior guys were getting the 4-day trips when I was there. Crashmbern would know a lot more.
 
October was nice in SLU. Eagle had a flight from SJU to SLU and then to Canuon CIW. But the hotels close in CIW for October so there was 2 overnights in SLU. Mine got in at 430 and we left at 6am. The next got in at 8pm and left at 11am. It was nice we actually got to walk downtown and then have diner, then the next crew got in which the FO was my college roomate. It was fun actually having time to relax, have diner, along with a few adult beverages. But most overnights are 9-10 hours of rest at best.

As far as schedules are in SJU, they really stunk for December. Probably the worst since I have been hear. I still can't hold 4 day trips and have 2 day back to back trips. There is actually a lot of local FO's. They bid for just about everything except the 4 days trips. The 4 days trips usually go to the senior first year FO's. But I have been down here since april and can't hold them. But a lot of guys ahead of me are goin to the jet the next month.

adam
 
zmiller4 said:
We stay in Castries at the Auberge Seraphine, which is just south of the airport. The overnight was only 10 hours or so when I was there. I forget who bid what, but a lot of the FO's were commuters, so the more senior guys were getting the 4-day trips when I was there. Crashmbern would know a lot more.
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I know Castries. Got lots of family there. :) Glad you're liking it.

crashmbern said:
October was nice in SLU. Eagle had a flight from SJU to SLU and then to Canuon CIW. But the hotels close in CIW for October so there was 2 overnights in SLU. Mine got in at 430 and we left at 6am. The next got in at 8pm and left at 11am. It was nice we actually got to walk downtown and then have diner, then the next crew got in which the FO was my college roomate. It was fun actually having time to relax, have diner, along with a few adult beverages. But most overnights are 9-10 hours of rest at best.

As far as schedules are in SJU, they really stunk for December. Probably the worst since I have been hear. I still can't hold 4 day trips and have 2 day back to back trips. There is actually a lot of local FO's. They bid for just about everything except the 4 days trips. The 4 days trips usually go to the senior first year FO's. But I have been down here since april and can't hold them. But a lot of guys ahead of me are goin to the jet the next month.

adam
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Hopefully things will get better for you soon, man. Sounds like you're enjoying it, though. What other islands have you had the opportunity to overnight?
 
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