Life At Spirit, anyone?

I'm not sure what I don't get? I realize Spirit is a lot better than Frontier or Virgin. I would guess that has lot to do with 2010. (ty)
My comment about the 200 pilots was meant to imply that I'm sure any pilot would be happy at any airline to have 200 folks hired within 9 months of themselves.
 
Gonzo said:
Any idea how many are leaving after a year or two? It sucks but a few of the CA that left Eagle got the bus type and a few hours and jumped ship , only one FO I know jumped to AA after a very short time there.
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I don't see giant gaps in employee numbers on the recent seniority list, so who knows? But I don't work there.
 
lostplanetairman said:
No, you don't get it. There were about 450 pilots on the property when we went on strike in 2010. The first new hire class after the strike was 1/2011. They are now CA's because there are over 1,000 pilots on the property now.

I haven't seen many low time people lately. There are a lot of high time CA's and FO's who got laid off from World, etc. They are great folks.
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My GOD that is some rapid expansion.
 
wheelsup said:
My GOD that is some rapid expansion.
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DH is dealing with our power outage, so I can only give you what I know. It looks like the fleet nearly doubled in that time span (with the deliveries in 2014), with another 15 due in 2015. Most junior CA is a 12/11 hire but there is a vacancy bid out. He says that is why they are looking for PIC time. But who knows?
 
Gonzo said:
Any idea how many are leaving after a year or two? It sucks but a few of the CA that left Eagle got the bus type and a few hours and jumped ship , only one FO I know jumped to AA after a very short time there.
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Or straight out of class.
 
Spirit is very interesting these days and it will continue to be...

The real growth starts in a few months, 15 planes in 9 months. I guess training has flat out said that they dont have the manpower to keep up with that, we shall see.

But yeah, it has been growing fast, very fast. I have been here for 10 months and already have over 200 hired after me. Im lucky and fortunate to have been given the opportunity.

Issues I see is with the company not increasing the "support" staff for when an airline grows as fast as we are. We had a major meltdown a few weeks ago when IROP caused a collapse in the SOC and nobody, I mean nobody, could get ahold of scheduling. 60 or 70 calls to scheduling while crews were timing out, nobody could get through. Pilots just leaving and catching flights home (good for them) and some sleeping in the airport (not good). Point is, the support isnt there to handle over 1000 pilots and over 3,000 FAs. We have issues with manuals and we dont have a proper channel to have issues addressed. We now have to ASAP things in order to have issues dealt with, it shouldt be that way.

This is our new video, by the way. For those interested in working here, better get used to and comfortable with this being who we are and will be....This aint Delta with white linen tablecloths
http://vimeo.com/m/94439452
 
The only low time guys I see at Spirit are the new hire ground instructors who are hired from Embry-Riddle at 1500hrs, typed in the 320 - teach indoc / cockpit procedures trainers for 2 years and then are sent off to the bottom of the seniority list, where they go thru the same indoc and training they've been teaching for the last two years. They are pretty sharp.

It's pretty much luck of the draw getting hired at Spirit. From the few classes I've seen it's been half regional airline pilots and the other half pt 135/contract pilots/cargo/ACMI guys. I think I was pretty lucky to get hired here - from job fair to interview to class for me was 65 days.

Id have to say staffing is pretty fat at this particular moment - only because the training center can push thru only 22 guys at time - with the bottlenecks being FTD and FFS. so they had to front load this year for the 7 deliveries at the end of the year. They purchased a third FTD device and got another FFS device in Las Vegas. Ground training is pretty compressed - 2 weeks of ground then you roll into flight training where you get 12 FTD sessions and 4 FFS sessions before your type rating.

It is pretty frustrating to deal with not being able to get a hold of crew scheduling and the lack of IT support - coming from an airline where anything and everything from sign in to printing releases - to seeing if there are any jumpseating pilots is done from your smartphone. None of that here at Spirit.

Life on reserve is pretty plum if you live in base. There is a specified order (contractually) in which reserves are to be called out, but I think they are prioritizing guys just finishing IOE and released to the line to get them consolidated. After I got my consolidation done, I haven't heard a peep from scheduling and I see guys junior to me who just hit the line getting all the trips and so I haven't flown in over 3 weeks - I just sit at home and collect guarantee. There just are no open trips so reserves just sit at home and twiddle their thumbs (at least on the FO side) That's been the pattern for me for the previous 3 months of reserve - called out for 1 trip worth 5 hrs of flying a month for the last 3 months. I'm okay with that - again only because I live in base - although my landings suck and my comfort factor in handflying the plane isn't there - I need more flight time to work on my hand flying. For the guys that have to commute in - it sucks for them because they're just hanging around the crashpad. I think Captains are different they get flown and abused all the time.

I purposely bid to have 12 days of reserve during transition (6 days of reserve at the end of the month and knowing this - I bid to have 6 days of reserve at the beginning of the month). Then because of the contract - this causes scheduling to drop six days of reserve so that I only work six days of reserve total during transition. So six extra days off all pay protected - and I don't get called out during the 6 days of transition reserve anyway. Transition conflict is probably one of the things the company is going after during 2015 from what I hear as it costs them lots of cash.

FOs are leaving Spirit - I know of three FO's who finished IOE and just left - one went to AA, another went to US Airways, and the last one went to Frontier. So there is attrition from the less than 3 months since hire date side.

A lot of the FOs who were hired in 2012/2013 with no PIC time (when no one wanted to work for spirit), well their first opportunity to log their first 121 PIC hour will be as 320 Captain within the next 2 years - that's why they instituted the PIC requirement to attend the job fairs as anyone getting hired within the next year or two will be looking at upgrading soon if all goes as planned with the fleet plan and taking of deliveries.

The next job fair is July 25 in DFW - you'll have to beg for tickets at airline pilot central - that's where the guys who have bought tickets but can't go - go to sell their tickets. or talk to Scott at aerocrew solutions.
 
I flew 3 days on reserve in June. It's sweet! I'm rebuilding a kitchen. I still have the last phase of the house rebuild to go, so I need to keep bidding reserve. And summer is when all the ACY reserves get together to dive, shoot and ride motorcycles.
 
The Juice said:
Spirit is very interesting these days and it will continue to be...

The real growth starts in a few months, 15 planes in 9 months. I guess training has flat out said that they dont have the manpower to keep up with that, we shall see.

But yeah, it has been growing fast, very fast. I have been here for 10 months and already have over 200 hired after me. Im lucky and fortunate to have been given the opportunity.

Issues I see is with the company not increasing the "support" staff for when an airline grows as fast as we are. We had a major meltdown a few weeks ago when IROP caused a collapse in the SOC and nobody, I mean nobody, could get ahold of scheduling. 60 or 70 calls to scheduling while crews were timing out, nobody could get through. Pilots just leaving and catching flights home (good for them) and some sleeping in the airport (not good). Point is, the support isnt there to handle over 1000 pilots and over 3,000 FAs. We have issues with manuals and we dont have a proper channel to have issues addressed. We now have to ASAP things in order to have issues dealt with, it shouldt be that way.

This is our new video, by the way. For those interested in working here, better get used to and comfortable with this being who we are and will be....This aint Delta with white linen tablecloths
http://vimeo.com/m/94439452
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I don't hate the chick in the video :)
 
Ok, I looked it up. Someone I know who was in the early Sept class last year is now 31 numbers less. Subtract out the retirements, including the one that took place yesterday, and that gives you the attrition.
 
Guess I'm late to the party here. ......

lostplanetairman said:
Hiring is not "clogged"; it is happening. They have hired about 200 pilots in the past 9 months at least by looking at the seniority list. It's not an easy process. They have hired those who went to job fairs, those with internal recs, those who knew no one. It's all over the map. But if you read posts about other majors, it's not exactly easy anywhere.

Pilots really know nothing about it. It's frustrating, but true.
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Yeah, that's it. I'm not sure anyone flying the line at Spirit knows what HR is looking for. Seems to be they're going for a blended approach to hiring. Job fairs definitely help....however, getting an invite to interview is like winning the lottery. Hundreds of people, every time there's a fair, competing for ~22 slots per month. Like @lostplanetairman said, it's a crazy mix of job fairs and personal recommendations.

The real kick in the pants is going to be our upcoming contract negotiations. I, along with most of the people I know here, expect significant gains in many areas of our contract. The outcome of those negotiations will most likely have a major impact on people wanting to come here, or many of the junior FO's to bail to legacies for more money.


The Juice said:
Spirit is very interesting these days and it will continue to be...

The real growth starts in a few months, 15 planes in 9 months. I guess training has flat out said that they dont have the manpower to keep up with that, we shall see.

But yeah, it has been growing fast, very fast. I have been here for 10 months and already have over 200 hired after me. Im lucky and fortunate to have been given the opportunity.

Issues I see is with the company not increasing the "support" staff for when an airline grows as fast as we are. We had a major meltdown a few weeks ago when IROP caused a collapse in the SOC and nobody, I mean nobody, could get ahold of scheduling. 60 or 70 calls to scheduling while crews were timing out, nobody could get through. Pilots just leaving and catching flights home (good for them) and some sleeping in the airport (not good). Point is, the support isnt there to handle over 1000 pilots and over 3,000 FAs. We have issues with manuals and we dont have a proper channel to have issues addressed. We now have to ASAP things in order to have issues dealt with, it shouldt be that way.

This is our new video, by the way. For those interested in working here, better get used to and comfortable with this being who we are and will be....This aint Delta with white linen tablecloths
http://vimeo.com/m/94439452
Click to expand...


Agree 100%. Our support staff/ HQ are woefully understaffed. It's a real problem and needs to be corrected before this place can call itself a true industry player. We're growing and with that come growing pains....if we can solidify that end of our operation, we might actually pull this thing off!
 
Cruise said:
Guess I'm late to the party here. ......
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Always best to show up a little late to the party, wait until it gets going...
Thanks for the response, I hadn't seen much on JC about Spirit and I was wondering how much representation the airline had on our forum. It's just great to see so many positive things happening industry wide and its an exciting time to become competitive for these new opportunities with growing airlines...I'm lucky enough to have a great job, and I'm sitting on the sidelines paying attention to everything developing. I'm not sure if or when I'll throw my hat in the ring, but I (and the rest of us, I'm sure) appreciate all the great info!
 
woodreau said:
The only low time guys I see at Spirit are the new hire ground instructors who are hired from Embry-Riddle at 1500hrs, typed in the 320 - teach indoc / cockpit procedures trainers for 2 years and then are sent off to the bottom of the seniority list, where they go thru the same indoc and training they've been teaching for the last two years.
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Looks like Spirit is looking for aviation college graduate flight instructors.

Interviewing in DFW on July 25.

http://issuu.com/scottrehn/docs/airline_training_program_brochure_1?e=12710335/8607228
 
woodreau said:
Looks like Spirit is looking for aviation college graduate flight instructors.

Interviewing in DFW on July 25.

http://issuu.com/scottrehn/docs/airline_training_program_brochure_1?e=12710335/8607228
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Although I still have two years left of college, I'm very interested in that program and hope it will still be around when I have the experience to apply. Can any Spirit pilot's comment on the program, I'd be very interested to hear more about it! ex. Is it a successful program, do you think it's a good opportunity, how well have pilots from this program fit in to the pilot group, etc. Thanks!
 
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Max1594 said:
Although I still have two years left of college, I'm very interested in that program and hope it will still be around when I have the experience to apply. Can any Spirit pilot's comment on the program, I'd be very interested to hear more about it! ex. Is it a successful program, do you think it's a good opportunity, how well have pilots from this program fit in to the pilot group, etc. Thanks!
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You will not find many pilots in favor of this program. You will be seen by many as someone who "cut the line" and didnt "pay their dues."
 
The Juice said:
You will not find many pilots in favor of this program. You will be seen by many as someone who "cut the line" and didnt "pay their dues."
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What about a local 5,000TT pilot who has put 7 years in at a RJ airline that just wants the QOL bump?
 
Max1594 said:
Although I still have two years left of college, I'm very interested in that program and hope it will still be around when I have the experience to apply. Can any Spirit pilot's comment on the program, I'd be very interested to hear more about it! ex. Is it a successful program, do you think it's a good opportunity, how well have pilots from this program fit in to the pilot group, etc. Thanks!
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Instructors are getting to the line as first officers, and every one knows who you are because you taught them in their indoc ground school. It is great for the person who is able to get into this program - get to an Airbus straight from collegiate CFI and at a relatively young age where you can move on from Spirit with plenty of time left in your career if you don't want to stay there. I don't begrudge a pilot that's come from this program - that's an opportunity that they or you decided to take and it either works out well or doesn't.

You will be conducting ground and flight training to airline pilots with 121 experience while you only have theoretical book knowledge of how things are supposed to work and zero practical airline experience. So a lot of times you get stumped when line pilots are asking you how things work on the line and all you have to fall back on is how it's supposed to work and your limited observations from riding the jumpseat to see how things work on the line.

You don't get to fly for two years while you're a ground instructor unless you do some GA flying on your own time.

But all the ground instructors from the program are pretty sharp and know their books.

I don't like how they're dangling the 2.5 years to upgrade to get instructors for this program. If you do do this program - you probably won't be able to take advantage of the "short" upgrade time as the contract requires 4000TT to upgrade and secondarily because of the 1000 121 SIC that's required to act as 121 PIC.
 
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