Latest Eagle AIP rejected

BobDDuck said:
Sure.

I'll use NJC as an example.

Figure I arrive at noon on Day 1.

12pm - 3pm - Deal with the absurdity of tourists trying to navigate the LAS airport, figure out the rental car shuttle, rent a car (what? I need a driver's license and credit card out?) and then navigate the strip.

3pm-4pm - check in. Stand in line FOREVER waiting for all the once a year travelers to try to charm their way into an upgrade. Get to the front of the line, get treated like crap until they see I'm actually a Platinum (back to gold now... sniff) member (if it's a Marriott property) and then magically everything is ok. Spend 15 minutes fighting my way through casino traffic to get to the elevators, listen to bad music and ads for terrible stage shows on the elevator up, get into my room and admire the view out the window.

4pm-7pm - Go find where everybody else is hanging out. Fight strip traffic to get there. Remember that some of my best friends in the world I've met through this website. Make awkward introductions to people I haven't met yet. Remember that I am actually a pretty good judge of character through interweb posts. Watch the lightweights and crazy ones create a scene at 5pm (Jake!).

7pm-9pm - Spend a long, long time trying to figure out what everybody is doing for dinner, start heading in a direction, lose people to various slot machines, craps tables and strip clubs. Eventually find a place to eat crappy, overpriced food, but with good company. Rehash the same old jokes that get told every year (@IrishSheepdog being a climbing monkey, @Seggy being an "international" pilot etc).

9pm-1am - Hang out with people at some location (9FI, Beer Garden etc). Strain my voice trying to talk over the noise and smoke. Catch up with people I haven't seen forever. Watch really drunk people stumble by. Realize really drunk people are with our group.

1am-7am - Fight crowds on the strip back to my hotel, turn off notifications on the GroupMe app so I don't hear the constant beeping as parts of the group go get into trouble for the night, sleep.

7am-9am - Gym. People watch while lifting. See WAY too much spandex and flab.

9am-2pm - Go hiking at Red Rocks with about 1/3rd of the people who said they were coming. Breath the fresh and enjoy walking around without illegal immigrants trying to hand you escort cards every 10 feet.

3pm-7pm - Meet up with friends for dinner. Catch up (@jtrain609 and @MikeD... best part of the trip for me this last year. Thanks guys). Watch old ladies get really drunk on margaritas.

7pm-1am - Hang out at the main event. Talk about flying stuff with people I don't know. Talk about non flying stuff with people I do know. Mentally cull the herd between those that know how to network and those that just know how to drink.

Escape as the police show up.

Walking back to my hotel at 1am, fighting masses of tourists on the strip, escort card people, bright neon lights and traffic, choking on the dust and smoke in the air, realize I've had enough and that I'm ready to go home.

And, upon checking my work, I see it was actually 37 hours, not 36 hours before I came to that conclusion.
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Awesome sauce. I was expected a smartass one-liner. Well done.
 
Firebird2XC said:
You guys are amateurs.

I did ten days once. That was good.
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Maurus said:
Per the contract there is a defined pace of flows/interviews that must be kept. The growth of aircraft also puts the FOs currently there in a good position for career advancement with quick upgrades. Current captains will have QOL boosts due to more captains under them and an increase of lines available due too growth.

This is stuff that can not be given to the larger regionals with the same results.

10 years ago flows would have and were exactly as you described them. Now Compass is seeing a lot of movement because if how small their pilots group is. Mesaba guys will be waiting a long long time because of how large their airline was. Flow for PSA is big for a small pilot group.
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Rumors of guys getting held back true?
 
unclenobby said:
Rumors of guys getting held back true?
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Who getting held back where?
Eagle guys are flowing. About 20 a month. There's a PSA MEC memo circulating on Facebook that says there's a huge staffing crunch at PSA. Union leave cancelled, flows withheld, etc. I'm trying to get direct confirmation of that.
 
Here's the update:

PSA management has recently taken a number of actions in an attempt to mitigate the pilot staffing shortage. First, management denied or canceled all Association leave for January, February, and March. Second, this weekend, management decided to hold four pilots at PSA indefinitely rather than allow them to begin a class at US Airways in March.

Third, management advised the MEC yesterday that it was canceling vacations for pilots bidding in Round 2 due to extremely short staffing in March. Section 7.H of the Collective Bargaining Agreement describes the responsibilities of pilots and the company when taking this action. As the shortage continues, further vacation cancellations may occur, so every pilot is encouraged to review the language.

Fourth, management has canceled selected recurrent training events—both ground schools and LOFT sessions—over the past week to mitigate the shortage temporarily. This move creates a number of contractual complications in the rescheduling of these events. Delaying training is also unsustainable as it creates further training backlog.

The MEC is concerned that management’s focus on fixing immediate problems will compound the difficulties of implementing new aircraft. Therefore, we strongly encourage PSA management to take a longer view, using realistic targets with a sufficient margin to allow for success. Attempting to operate on a razor thin margin reduces the chances of success during the coming year and is likely to deteriorate the working environment for PSA pilots. We mustn’t be the continued victims of improper planning.
 
AA sure seems to have their back against the wall. Scrape scrape scrape. Hear that? Sounds like the bottom of the barrel. Any word on Mesa's ability to fill classes for their upcoming fleet expansion? Seems all the regionals are short handed.
 
surreal1221 said:
So what you're saying is, pilots are not lining up to burst through the doors at PSA?
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That appears to be the case.

There is word being passed in Eagle circles that according to the MEC chair the company wants to come back to the table. I've seen a lot supporting this but nothing official yet.

Strange and curious times, these days.
 
surreal1221 said:
So what you're saying is, pilots are not lining up to burst through the doors at PSA?
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Our most recent class had 32, which is the most I've seen since I've been here about 3 years ago. Our classes of 20 have been full all year.

The shortage is mostly on the captain side, although we are starting to get short on FOs too.

I don't think our recently expanded training department is fully spooled up yet. I'm sure they'll be ready to rock and roll as soon as we run out of apps.
 
bkey79 said:
Good luck @Firebird2XC ! I have a few close friends at Eagle, and I know everyone at RAH is pulling for you guys!
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Thanks! I'm hoping that nobody comes out of this in the industry with worse than ruffled feathers.

That's one of the funny things- if consolidation to larger aircraft still requires pilots while people leave for better opportunities, even with fleet renewal everybody should still have a gig. I think out there some folks are really worried this whole mess will put them out of work. I'm hoping we'll be okay. This could collectively be a turning point where things get better for all of us in the business.

At the very least, Eagle pilots are having a few laughs. After all the stress of bankruptcy it's kinda fun watching management repeatedly threaten us and then have to contradict themselves a day or two later... :D
 
Apparently US came to AWAC and wanted additional flying over the next few months, they just flat out said no. Also rumor is they are offering $1,250 per pilot referral. I saw that once before, I can't remember when. Maybe 2007 time frame?

Eagle is in a good position. A professional group, well run (from what I can tell on the outside commuting on them) and sufficiently large so you can't be replaced. I hope and pray the company does come back to you guys.
 
wheelsup said:
Apparently US came to AWAC and wanted additional flying over the next few months, they just flat out said no. Also rumor is they are offering $1,250 per pilot referral. I saw that once before, I can't remember when. Maybe 2007 time frame?

Eagle is in a good position. A professional group, well run (from what I can tell on the outside commuting on them) and sufficiently large so you can't be replaced. I hope and pray the company does come back to you guys.
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Thanks man. We've come to a point where we have absolutely no faith whatsoever in the senior management of our company. They're laughing stocks. A growing number seem to think they'll be replaced to save face once this is said and done.
There are some people that are still intimidated, but a large majority seems to be pretty incensed with how we're treated and very ready to battle it out. Despite the crap they're shoveling, pilot morale is rising and solidarity is at a long-time high. People are starting to suggest we not only tell them to stuff ANY company proposal but that we start making demands.

Stuff like this sends Eagle pilots into fits of laughter at management's expense:
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It's far from over, but however it goes, Eagle pilots are going out with their heads held high.

.. and we CAN win this.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Here's the update:

PSA management has recently taken a number of actions in an attempt to mitigate the pilot staffing shortage. First, management denied or canceled all Association leave for January, February, and March. Second, this weekend, management decided to hold four pilots at PSA indefinitely rather than allow them to begin a class at US Airways in March.

Third, management advised the MEC yesterday that it was canceling vacations for pilots bidding in Round 2 due to extremely short staffing in March. Section 7.H of the Collective Bargaining Agreement describes the responsibilities of pilots and the company when taking this action. As the shortage continues, further vacation cancellations may occur, so every pilot is encouraged to review the language.

Fourth, management has canceled selected recurrent training events—both ground schools and LOFT sessions—over the past week to mitigate the shortage temporarily. This move creates a number of contractual complications in the rescheduling of these events. Delaying training is also unsustainable as it creates further training backlog.

The MEC is concerned that management’s focus on fixing immediate problems will compound the difficulties of implementing new aircraft. Therefore, we strongly encourage PSA management to take a longer view, using realistic targets with a sufficient margin to allow for success. Attempting to operate on a razor thin margin reduces the chances of success during the coming year and is likely to deteriorate the working environment for PSA pilots. We mustn’t be the continued victims of improper planning.
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Good thing they voted that contract in to get flow (not really)...interviews at US Airways......too bad they are "being held indefinitely" to even move on. If you voted Yes and are being held from moving on you had it coming. Sorry
 
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mastermags said:
How can they be held back if there's no true flow?
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There is a "flow" just not in the traditional sense. They interview in seniority order and are required to offer a job to 4 PSA pilots per month.

The "held back" part relates to our TA allowing PSA to hold back flows to airways until Dec 31st of the current year at which time all remaining flows must be released. We've had 8 go so far this year so if PSA decides to hold everyone then 40 would go on Dec 31st 2014. Then the clock starts over again.
 
hcaeborev said:
The "held back" part relates to our TA allowing PSA to hold back flows to airways until Dec 31st of the current year at which time all remaining flows must be released. We've had 8 go so far this year so if PSA decides to hold everyone then 40 would go on Dec 31st 2014. Then the clock starts over again.
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That's actually old language that dates back to the J4J program where PSA could hold j4j captains indefinitely once they received their recall. The only difference is that back then there was no time limit (bad) but the guys were getting the pay rate of what ever aircraft they could hold if they'd been released to go back (very good). I remember one guy was getting 10 year 767 FO pay to fly a CRJ.
 
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