PSA New Hire FO Classes Suspended

Beefy McGee said:
I wonder where I read she was 51? 42 makes more sense.

Her Farscape costar, Gigi Edgely, is easy on the eyes in real life as well.
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Right you are. Phew, 50 shades of grey indeed. Met her in person one day. Every bit as nice in real life, and a real sweetheart to the fans.

Richman
 
Beefy McGee said:
I thought the same when I met her at Dragon*Con a couple years ago. That Aussie accent, sweeeeet.
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Dragon*Con was an absolute blast, especially if you stay in one of the 3 con hotels. We went every year for the better part of a decade. Hardest I ever laughed in my life was at 3am in the basement of the Hyatt watching MST3K with 50 other nerds, geeks and dorks (Rowsdower!). I nearly peed myself. I got to meet the guy who designed most of the ships in Star Trek...talked with him for 30 minutes...how cool is that? Their "real science" and "real space" tracks were full of awesomeness too...I met the engineer who flies the Cassini probe. One of the coolest women I have EVER met anywhere.

We haven't been in the last couple of years. Rooms, while always spendy, have simply become unavailable...not because of D-con, but because another college football game moved into ATL for that weekend. Trying to compete with 2 college football games, and the HUGE bankroll for those tickets and rooms, just put the rooms out of reach, cost wise, even if you could get them. It used to be that if you waited until 30 days prior to the Con, when the cancellations started coming in, you could snag a room. With 2 games in town, corporate interests buy up blocks of rooms and never cancel. It was just too frustrating, and it's not worth it, to us, anyway, to stay somewhere else and make the hike to the Con. Half the fun is just hanging out, and taking a break in your room every once in a while.

I get that D-con feels it has squatters rights on that weekend, but they are really doing the con-goers a dis-service by staying on a 2 football game weekend. You simply cannot repel firepower of that magnitude.

Richman
 
Richman said:
Dragon*Con was an absolute blast, especially if you stay in one of the 3 con hotels. We went every year for the better part of a decade. Hardest I ever laughed in my life was at 3am in the basement of the Hyatt watching MST3K with 50 other nerds, geeks and dorks (Rowsdower!). I nearly peed myself. I got to meet the guy who designed most of the ships in Star Trek...talked with him for 30 minutes...how cool is that? Their "real science" and "real space" tracks were full of awesomeness too...I met the engineer who flies the Cassini probe. One of the coolest women I have EVER met anywhere.

We haven't been in the last couple of years. Rooms, while always spendy, have simply become unavailable...not because of D-con, but because another college football game moved into ATL for that weekend. Trying to compete with 2 college football games, and the HUGE bankroll for those tickets and rooms, just put the rooms out of reach, cost wise, even if you could get them. It used to be that if you waited until 30 days prior to the Con, when the cancellations started coming in, you could snag a room. With 2 games in town, corporate interests buy up blocks of rooms and never cancel. It was just too frustrating, and it's not worth it, to us, anyway, to stay somewhere else and make the hike to the Con. Half the fun is just hanging out, and taking a break in your room every once in a while.

I get that D-con feels it has squatters rights on that weekend, but they are really doing the con-goers a dis-service by staying on a 2 football game weekend. You simply cannot repel firepower of that magnitude.

Richman
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One of the most confusing days of my life was the day I learned what dragon con was.

I had a crashpad in downtown ATL. As I came up the escalator from MARTA I was deposited into the middle of a large group of people dressed in all kinds of costumes. Soldiers, anamie characters, zombies, etc.

I was very confused until I got to the crashpad and they explained it to me.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
One of the most confusing days of my life was the day I learned what dragon con was.

I had a crashpad in downtown ATL. As I came up the escalator from MARTA I was deposited into the middle of a large group of people dressed in all kinds of costumes. Soldiers, anamie characters, zombies, etc.

I was very confused until I got to the crashpad and they explained it to me.
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Not only are you a member, but you are the club president!
 
Richman said:
Dragon*Con was an absolute blast, especially if you stay in one of the 3 con hotels. We went every year for the better part of a decade. Hardest I ever laughed in my life was at 3am in the basement of the Hyatt watching MST3K with 50 other nerds, geeks and dorks (Rowsdower!). I nearly peed myself. I got to meet the guy who designed most of the ships in Star Trek...talked with him for 30 minutes...how cool is that? Their "real science" and "real space" tracks were full of awesomeness too...I met the engineer who flies the Cassini probe. One of the coolest women I have EVER met anywhere.

We haven't been in the last couple of years. Rooms, while always spendy, have simply become unavailable...not because of D-con, but because another college football game moved into ATL for that weekend. Trying to compete with 2 college football games, and the HUGE bankroll for those tickets and rooms, just put the rooms out of reach, cost wise, even if you could get them. It used to be that if you waited until 30 days prior to the Con, when the cancellations started coming in, you could snag a room. With 2 games in town, corporate interests buy up blocks of rooms and never cancel. It was just too frustrating, and it's not worth it, to us, anyway, to stay somewhere else and make the hike to the Con. Half the fun is just hanging out, and taking a break in your room every once in a while.

I get that D-con feels it has squatters rights on that weekend, but they are really doing the con-goers a dis-service by staying on a 2 football game weekend. You simply cannot repel firepower of that magnitude.

Richman
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There are 5 con hotels now. I agree, half the fun is just hanging out. I have friends that I only see at con, and we have usually spent Saturday night of the con in the Marriott lobby watching the Chick-Fil-A College Kickoff game on the giant projection screen at the bar. Usually surrounded by plenty of costumed eye candy. It's also fun to see folks in town for the game who had no idea the con happens then, who are clearly surprised and maybe a bit confused at seeing all of it.
 
I bid ATL layovers during Dragon Con and SAN layovers during Comic Con. Sometimes you get an old geezer and the facial expressions are hilarious.
 
Beefy McGee said:
There are 5 con hotels now. I agree, half the fun is just hanging out. I have friends that I only see at con, and we have usually spent Saturday night of the con in the Marriott lobby watching the Chick-Fil-A College Kickoff game on the giant projection screen at the bar. Usually surrounded by plenty of costumed eye candy. It's also fun to see folks in town for the game who had no idea the con happens then, who are clearly surprised and maybe a bit confused at seeing all of it.
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As fun as NJC?
 
badtransam97 said:
Was hoping to hear some better news on this topic...especially with the majors ramping up hiring in the future.
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Well, 48 a year to the SSP means almost 300 will get a chance to go to AA in the next 6 years, and plenty more will go to other airlines. I bet at least half the pilots currently here (1200ish now) can get out to a higher level gig within 6 years. That's still not bad, historically.

If the recent attrition of about 15/month (that's 180/year) continues (4 SSP and the rest retirements, folks moving to UAL, Delta, LCCs, etc) then theoretically all 1200 could get a shot at something better within about 7 years. And every FO currently on property should have plenty of captain upgrade opportunity.

I think my seniority number has dropped more than 60 in the past three months. I went from about 1050 to 987 and I am still in training. At this rate the guys in my class will be in the top 25% seniority level in about 3 years as more folks leave ahead of us and more come in behind us.

I'm not worried about it. I will have the chance to upgrade when I feel ready, and should live a relatively comfortable life for a regional pilot. When I am ready to move on, there should be opportunity to do so.
 
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I'm not looking too far ahead really. The 48 a year SSP seems safe for the next few years, and as long as the planned fleet increases continue over the next couple years, things look good. I figure the two-year calendar looks solid enough.

I've gotten myself in a position where once I hit year two FO pay, I won't have any worries. I will live within my means, save some money, build experience and whatever happens, happens. I've been through a lot in the almost ten years it took to get here, so more of the stuff that happened since 9/11 and the economic downturn and the effects on aviation does not really worry me.
 
Beefy McGee said:
I've gotten myself in a position where once I hit year two FO pay, I won't have any worries. I will live within my means, save some money, build experience and whatever happens, happens. I've been through a lot in the almost ten years it took to get here, so more of the stuff that happened since 9/11 and the economic downturn and the effects on aviation does not really worry me.
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I said that once.
 
Beefy McGee said:
I'm not looking too far ahead really. The 48 a year SSP seems safe for the next few years, and as long as the planned fleet increases continue over the next couple years, things look good. I figure the two-year calendar looks solid enough.

I've gotten myself in a position where once I hit year two FO pay, I won't have any worries. I will live within my means, save some money, build experience and whatever happens, happens. I've been through a lot in the almost ten years it took to get here, so more of the stuff that happened since 9/11 and the economic downturn and the effects on aviation does not really worry me.
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I have a bridge to sell you.
 
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