Transpac Aviation NOT CFI friendly anymore

tcco94 said:
I feel like this thread is just beating a dead horse. Some of the changes do sound like they suck but honestly TransPac is desperately trying to just make money. What do you expect? The last owners were treating the company miserably, no funding, and wanted to dump them so badly. Obviously the new owners want to cut drastically, but it's not earth shattering to the instructors.
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Very few people realize that Transpac was a few days from going under before the new ownership bought it. 200 employees including 100 flight instructors were very close to having to look for a new job. 400 students would have been going back to China. Think about the Phoenix market being flooded with 100 flight instructors, who were all locked into apartment leases with no other option. It would have been bad. They would be taking whatever they could get, and it would ultimately drive the pay down everywhere. The new ownership is keeping the school afloat, and 100s of people employed. The previous management style was just not sustainable.

MikeD said:
They use it down there and around there. Griping about how they're the only flight school having to be flying at 1am lol.
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That's the best time to fly! Flying during the day can be stressful with all of the traffic, night time it's nice and peaceful.
 
kryan11 said:
Very few people realize that Transpac was a few days from going under before the new ownership bought it. 200 employees including 100 flight instructors were very close to having to look for a new job. 400 students would have been going back to China. Think about the Phoenix market being flooded with 100 flight instructors, who were all locked into apartment leases with no other option. It would have been bad. They would be taking whatever they could get, and it would ultimately drive the pay down everywhere. The new ownership is keeping the school afloat, and 100s of people employed. The previous management style was just not sustainable.



That's the best time to fly! Flying during the day can be stressful with all of the traffic, night time it's nice and peaceful.
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It certainly didnt seem like it when they had purchased two tail dragers and were giving away free rides in it to the CFI's. I also remember the CEO at the time saying they could afford pay more money to examiners to get the checkrides up to date but that wouldnt solve the problem because they simply did not have enough examiners in the area.

Oh yeah and fuel has been on the low side for quite a while now so my reasoning is if the owners arent making millions out of the flight school then thats what it means by not being profitable.
 
kryan11 said:
That's the best time to fly! Flying during the day can be stressful with all of the traffic, night time it's nice and peaceful.
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Except for 122.7 as a party line lol. The students never seem to be talking, just the CFIs griping. :)
 
MikeD said:
Except for 122.7 as a party line lol. The students never seem to be talking, just the CFIs griping. :)
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Ha! That's because with TransPac schedules and having 2 locations a lot of us would use it for time to catch up with our good friends we might not have seen in a few days. We always knew we were the only ones out at 12-3am.

Usually those conversations changed into work work work work work..... I was guilty of being one of those guys sometimes. I'll admit it. Good times.

:bounce:
 
The_Duke182 said:
It certainly didnt seem like it when they had purchased two tail dragers and were giving away free rides in it to the CFI's. I also remember the CEO at the time saying they could afford pay more money to examiners to get the checkrides up to date but that wouldnt solve the problem because they simply did not have enough examiners in the area.

Oh yeah and fuel has been on the low side for quite a while now so my reasoning is if the owners arent making millions out of the flight school then thats what it means by not being profitable.
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They leased that Decathalon, and it was gone as soon as the new owners came in. If they could pay the examiners more, get checkrides done sooner, and students out quicker, they would save money because every extra day a student is there, is revenue lost. The students are there on average 3 months longer than what is quoted for. Every bit of profit the school could be making goes out the window right there. Once again though that goes back to poor previous management.

You know what they say, if you want to make a small fortune in aviation, you have to start with a large one ;)

MikeD said:
Except for 122.7 as a party line lol. The students never seem to be talking, just the CFIs griping. :)
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I'll have to remember that this summer. I'm sure that will keep me awake on those long nights :)
 
n156499000 said:
Is that guy with the Spitfire still practicing intercepts and near fly-bys of planes in the stack while talking to no one? Gave me a fair amount of heart burn when teaching instrument students and being unable to get a word in over the damned TIS constantly yelling "traffic" in my ears.
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Now it's a guy flying a red RV there, that does that now.

:rolleyes:
 
kryan11 said:
Very few people realize that Transpac was a few days from going under before the new ownership bought it. 200 employees including 100 flight instructors were very close to having to look for a new job. 400 students would have been going back to China. Think about the Phoenix market being flooded with 100 flight instructors, who were all locked into apartment leases with no other option. It would have been bad. They would be taking whatever they could get, and it would ultimately drive the pay down everywhere. The new ownership is keeping the school afloat, and 100s of people employed. The previous management style was just not sustainable.



That's the best time to fly! Flying during the day can be stressful with all of the traffic, night time it's nice and peaceful.
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Didn't the new owners just order a brand new fleet of Pipers, for the school?
 
tcco94 said:
Ha! That's because with TransPac schedules and having 2 locations a lot of us would use it for time to catch up with our good friends we might not have seen in a few days. We always knew we were the only ones out at 12-3am.

Usually those conversations changed into work work work work work..... I was guilty of being one of those guys sometimes. I'll admit it. Good times.

:bounce:
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Transpac, has two locations now?
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
Didn't the new owners just order a brand new fleet of Pipers, for the school?
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Skywest did for Skypath. Not to be used by international students. They're actually painted Skypath just with the TransPac colors.

Not sure how the program is going so far I know it's starting small right when I left. Only had 2 airplanes but brand spanking new Archer 4's all glass.
 
mrivc211 said:
Anyone interested can PM me. I provide my CFI's a livable and fair wage. I keep them busy. They are flying 8 hours a day and getting paid 8 hours a day. I hated CFI's getting paid for only the time flown, now that I own my own school, I pay them for hours worked. If the CFI is required to be there for a student, the student should pay.
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Sounds like a good place to work. I almost wish i was still teaching and that i was on the west coast and i would definitely give you a call.
 
tcco94 said:
Transpac is not the place to go to be a lifetime instructor. I mean they literally told my class when I got hired a few years ago that once you hit 5 years here, you want out. (That's to those who can even make it that long)

Class managers are making lower than first year regional pay now and that's AFTER you get checked out for everything. Nobody wants a desk job and those who do sacrifice flying hours....for what? You don't need that on your resume, you need the hours. Team leaders make more money but still the excuse for QOL makes no sense considering you can get jobs flying locally in PHX and be home at night for a better lifestyle.

A lot of the lifers who do work there typically do it for the extra money on the side as well as their other flying jobs. I mean let's be honest here, it's a stepping stone flight school for everyone. Management clean house swapped before I left (for better HR positions), maintenance is entry level (until they can move up to better jobs) and flight instructors get the worst end of the stick with hours and pay (to move on in life)...that's why the company is geared around promotions for getting you in and out as fast as possible. Even they know it and that's the model they want.


Anyone denying that is literally drinking some company kool-aid....which honestly is probably poison if you can't see the writing on the wall....literally.
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My third and final flight school I worked for was a large international school similar to TransPac....I wanted out after a year.
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
The call sign Mesquite, I hear is only supposed to be used around KDVT. Because their call sign isn't recognized outside the boundaries of KDVT by the FAA. When outside the boundaries of KDVT, they're supposed to use the planes numbers as a call sign.

All this according to my instructor.
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They use it over PHX tracon all the time. And I've shared the stack with them at CGZ while taking a checkride at AMF and they used it there too.
 
A150K said:
They use it over PHX tracon all the time. And I've shared the stack with them at CGZ while taking a checkride at AMF and they used it there too.
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CGZ was busy tonight.......had two morons lasing planes with green lasers around midnight, from a neighborhood about a mile southeast of the field.
 
The_Duke182 said:
As one of the major flight schools in the Phoenix area, I feel it is important to give a heads up to any folks thinking about joining this place as flight instructors. I will be giving you the most up to date and how things have changed and not for the better.

Around August 2016 a new company took over Transpac with the idea of making the academy more profitable as well as wanting or what seemed at the time the intent to improve QOL for CFI's across the board.

Fast forward a few months later and these are the changes that have taken place.

-Compensation of $28.000 / year for 5 days of work at 10 hours (no less) each day. This translates to about $10.77 per hour. (Did not increase, this per my phone call to HR two weeks ago inquiring about pay for new CFI's)

-Compensation for working an extra day each week of around $100/day has been taken away.

-$100 bonus per student who passes their checkride on the first try has also been taken away.

-$100+ per month each CFI was getting back for declining health coverage has also been taken away.

-Salary 10k below national average for CFI remains the same with no plans whatsoever to get an increase.

-Actual flight hours per month during PPL work around 40 or 50.

-Actual flight hours of IR (many months after you start) around 80 since a 6th day is no longer paid therefore you wont get around 100+/month

Management rolled out an incentive bonus of $200 before taxes or around $150 after taxes per month based on companywide effort to achieve some unattainable numbers, which everyone laughed at since the amount of $500+ after taxes that each CFI was previously able to make per months PLUS extra flight hours have been reduced to $160ishh and NO extra flight time.

Before you sign a 12 month contract in which by the way the "free" instrument add on for CFI's is not that great because if you fail your checkride twice you are out AND still owe whatever money they put in towards your "free" CFI-I. With that said, simply ask them what the pass rate has been for CFI's instrument add on's in recent months and I hope they give you an honest answer, it has not been good at all.
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My understanding of the FBO-based flight instruction service delivery model is that the instructor only gets paid for the hours he actually teaches. Whereas here, in what I call the Academy based flight instruction service delivery model, that you get paid a salary regardless of how many hours you actually teach. So, it seems to me that you have a choice between not getting many hours, but getting paid well for the hours you do get, or the security of a guaranteed salary no matter how much (or little) you work. Regardless, it is all driven by how many students are coming in the door. If it were me, I think I'd prefer the security of a salary.
 
Flying Saluki said:
My understanding of the FBO-based flight instruction service delivery model is that the instructor only gets paid for the hours he actually teaches. Whereas here, in what I call the Academy based flight instruction service delivery model, that you get paid a salary regardless of how many hours you actually teach. So, it seems to me that you have a choice between not getting many hours, but getting paid well for the hours you do get, or the security of a guaranteed salary no matter how much (or little) you work. Regardless, it is all driven by how many students are coming in the door. If it were me, I think I'd prefer the security of a salary.
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I taught at a big flight school pretty similar to Transpac and was not on a salary, so ymmv.
 
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