Saab to the Q??

brewpilot

Well-Known Member
I know that there is guys here at Colgan that trans. to the Q from the Saab. I am bidding for the Q and wanted to hear how you all are doing and if you like it better or worse?? Also with these 15 options being exercised, where do you think the new Q's will be placed? Thanks
 
When are these 15 comming and when are you guys going to finally get the pay rates of these q400 up to where Horizon has their rates?
 
Horizon pay rates will never happen and I do not expect that. I am not looking to take over the industy I would just like to at least get industry average for the 74 seats of revenue that I am flying around. On the upper end of that range would be great but I think if we pursue 10% over industry average we have a chance of speeding up the process of a contract.

The 15 Qs will not arrive until June of 2010 and that is when number 1 will show up. Not sure what their production will be at that time but it took around 7 months or so to get the 15 we have now. Where they are going they have not said yet. I would guess Houston but they are also bidding or have bid that BOS-EWR-DCA never ending run that will require about half of that 15 since the BOS run alone is around 10 or so flights per day.

As for you coming to the Q....if you are junior to me then come on over we'd love to have you. The list however is already pretty long, over 30 I think to come over for FOs. Since they are only brining FOs over now for attrition which is very slow then it would probably be a while. I figure that entire list wont make it over here until we have the next 15 on board.
 
I know that there is guys here at Colgan that trans. to the Q from the Saab. I am bidding for the Q and wanted to hear how you all are doing and if you like it better or worse?? Also with these 15 options being exercised, where do you think the new Q's will be placed? Thanks


You don't know how lucky you are if your on the Saab. I was hired on the Saab (i wanted a turboprop outfitter in Houston), and surely enough, a week later I'm on my way to Toronto......

My one year is coming up soon, and im gonna bid the Saab like no other. I highly doubt that they are gonna pay for me to transition and go through traning again.

I would kill for your IAH Saab slot. Don't come to EWR, it sucks, the commute sucks, the Q doesn't suck, but it will screw you when your trying to commute home and you get some stupid maintenance issue.

My biggest fear is transitioning to the saab, and then they announce the Q's in Houston. That would be awesome... :sarcasm:
 
What's worse, EWR or LGA? Having been to both I have to say LGA was more of a cluster.

I flew with Wick a couple days before he left. He needed a change of pace and got sick of just doing Ithaca to LGA.

If you fly on the US Airways SAABs thats all you do. I haven't been to another airport in 4 months. (Unless you pick up open time)
 
I flew with Wick a couple days before he left. He needed a change of pace and got sick of just doing Ithaca to LGA.

If you fly on the US Airways SAABs thats all you do. I haven't been to another airport in 4 months. (Unless you pick up open time)


One (of many) reasons I left the Saab. When SYR got reduced, I had the seniority to hold it...but all we're doing is BOS turns. No thanks! Figured I'd mix it up a bit and bid a new airframe.

So far, it's been going well. The Q is an awesome plane, the performance rocks....the autopilot, not so much. :p I'm back to the commuting world now and that leaves a great deal to be desired; however, at some point in the not too distant future I'm probably going to move w/in driving distance to EWR (maybe back to the ABE area). We'll see.

Basically, I like the Q. Once we vote ALPA on property, Q pay rates need to be one of the most important things we work on, however.
 
I know that there is guys here at Colgan that trans. to the Q from the Saab. I am bidding for the Q and wanted to hear how you all are doing and if you like it better or worse?? Also with these 15 options being exercised, where do you think the new Q's will be placed? Thanks


the Q's a comfortable plane but i'm not so sure it's worth delaying an upgrade over though. As of right now they are not allowing upgrades from the right seat of the Q unless you have a 1000 hours of pic time. And with the 12 month seat lock you may not be able to upgrade to captain on the saab nearly as soon as you would if you had stayed on the saab.
Thinking long term I think it is smarter to stay on the saab and get your 1000 and if you are still stuck here then jump over to the Q and be a lil more comfortable while you wait.
 
the Q's a comfortable plane but i'm not so sure it's worth delaying an upgrade over though. As of right now they are not allowing upgrades from the right seat of the Q unless you have a 1000 hours of pic time. And with the 12 month seat lock you may not be able to upgrade to captain on the saab nearly as soon as you would if you had stayed on the saab.
Thinking long term I think it is smarter to stay on the saab and get your 1000 and if you are still stuck here then jump over to the Q and be a lil more comfortable while you wait.

U don't know
 
The other thing you need to consider is if you're going to commute IAH-EWR. I know you're probably thinking, "Hey it's hub to hub, they run like 10 767's a day on that route!" But you will have one heck of a time trying to do that commute. I'd honest venture to say it's the hardest leg to do maybe short of BGR-EWR (because of all the old Bar Habor guys up there).

If you're living in base, and intend to stay living in base don't let shiney turboprop syndrome get you. Not all commutes are bad, but I can tell you a bad commute will pretty much ruin your life.
 
The other thing you need to consider is if you're going to commute IAH-EWR. I know you're probably thinking, "Hey it's hub to hub, they run like 10 767's a day on that route!" But you will have one heck of a time trying to do that commute. I'd honest venture to say it's the hardest leg to do maybe short of BGR-EWR (because of all the old Bar Habor guys up there).

If you're living in base, and intend to stay living in base don't let shiney turboprop syndrome get you. Not all commutes are bad, but I can tell you a bad commute will pretty much ruin your life.

This is true. I do the IAH-EWR commute, and it blows. However, with fall/winter loads, it has gotten much better. But during the summer, plan on having to two leg it 1/3 of the time.
 
IAH-EWR is not 10 767s a day. It's 1 767 day, a few 757s a day and a lot of 737-800s a day. The 737s only have 1 jumpseat and there are a lot of commuters and deadheaders. If you do IAH-EWR, look at some of the through flights on XJT (MEM, BNA, XNA, CVG, etc). That may be your only option.
 
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