Chautauqua Selected as a Continental Express Carrier

[Captain_Bob]

Originally Posted by Timbuff10

4 months without flying is a long time. I would probably get airsick on the first flight back.

Training cycle at XJT is approx. 6 weeks.

Wheelsup, where are you at that it took 4 months to log time?

Bob

[Timbuff10]

I would bet they are able to find someone else to fly for. The question is, who? Isn't United looking at ways to drop Mesa from its express ops?

Aren't they starting that operation over in europe? Are their planes going over there? I doubt too many of the pilots will follow though.

Hey Bob, how many are under you on the seniority list now?

[Captain_Bob]

Originally Posted by Timbuff10

Not really sure about not having any options though if things didn't work out. The CFI world is still there and that is where most 250-750 hr wonders are currently at. No reason why they can't get back into it.

...and don't you think you'd be the shiznit at your flight school... I remember interviewing flight instructors at different flight schools when I was going after my PPL... At that time I thought the dude's with 300+ hours were all that and a bag of chips... If I would have interviewed one that was a furloughed FO at a regional...

Yes, CFI-ing is and forwever will be an option for me, it was too damn fun for it not to be. I'm not going back to retail! (RE: shirt folding thread in the lav!)

Originally Posted by Timbuff10

Hey Bob, how many are under you on the seniority list now?

High enough...

Bob

[Stone Cold]

Originally Posted by Captain_Bob

I believe Mesaba is going after first year guys/gals that left prior to furlough... ie: they didn't fulfill their contractual obligation.

No, XJT does not have any training contract.

Bob

This is a direct quote from the other thread on Mesaba and the article:

But they also stressed that management has informed them that it "reserves the right" to issue the letters to any pilot who was furloughed but had not completed one year of flying with Mesaba.

Yes, they are going after the guys/gals that left early and reserve the right to go after the furloughees, as I stated earlier and as I stated in the other thread. Good luck to all you guys/gals out there.

Also, as far as going back to CFI'ing, I don't know many that have done this (except after 9/11). Most, once flying a jet, will not go back to CFI in a 172. And most CFI jobs wouldn't want somebody back after they've been in the airline world, since they'd be leaving very soon thereafter.

All my opinions, take for what it's worth.

TX

[Captain_Bob]

Originally Posted by txpilot

Yes, they are going after the guys/gals that left early and reserve the right to go after the furloughees, as I stated earlier and as I stated in the other thread. Good luck to all you guys/gals out there.

Ooof... That would indeed be a sucky move on their part... Luck to them form me as well...

Bob

[Timbuff10]

Originally Posted by Captain_Bob

High enough...

Bob

Good stuff Bob, you got on at the right time... They hired like mad after that. Hopefully the rest of the Dallas guys will be good to go too if it ever came to that. 700 deep goes back pretty far.

[Captain_Bob]

Originally Posted by Timbuff10

Hopefully the rest of the Dallas guys will be good to go too if it ever came to that. 700 deep goes back pretty far.

I have a pretty good feeling that the rest of the dallas guys will be OK. Of course, I'm a glass is half full type of guy!

[CapnJim]

I'm good.

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by txpilot

Yes, they are going after the guys/gals that left early and reserve the right to go after the furloughees, as I stated earlier and as I stated in the other thread. Good luck to all you guys/gals out there.

Be reasonable - they aren't suing the guys who worked up until the last day of their furlough, they are going after the guys who jumped ship prior to their furlough.

Mesaba wants former pilots to pay for training
Tuesday April 18, 11:36 am ET

Mesaba Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy last October, is billing former pilots thousands of dollars for training costs, according to media reports.

The first-year pilots were notified in late 2005 that they would be furloughed in January or February. Some of the pilots found jobs prior to their furlough dates and gave Mesaba two weeks' notice.

Mesaba, a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based MAIR Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MAIR - News), has sent certified letters to those pilots stating they must repay Mesaba within 30 days or their training bills will be turned over to a collection agency.

Mesaba said its actions are in accordance with the airline's contract with its pilots.

The pilots union said the payback provision has not been enforced in the past.

Mesaba flies regional flights for Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. (Pink Sheets: NWACQ - News), which operates a hub from Memphis International Airport.
http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memph...7/daily17.html

As for not flying for 4 months - I miscounted on my fingers. It was about 3 1/3 months. First month was ground school, then about a week break for sim, then 5 days of CPT followed a fews days break then 12 days of sim (5 on, 2 off schedule), followed by a really long paid vacation waiting for an OE slot.

[GaTechKid]

It took exactly 6 weeks for me to go from Day 1 of training to Day 1 of IOE at Culligan. That had a week off for X-Mas in there and I deadheaded 1 hour after my 121 checkride to start IOE.

Good luck to all you Jetlinkers.

[casey]

Originally Posted by Captain_Bob

I have a pretty good feeling that the rest of the dallas guys will be OK. Of course, I'm a glass is half full type of guy!

i have around 450 numbers below me right now, and not sure how many we are hiring before the end of the year. Im glass half full too, and i think even if worst case, you wont see 700 furloughs. Staffing is based on block hours and not airframes, and if the line divisor is lowered i imagine it would come out to a lower number of furloughs then that. But im with Bob on thinking the XR's can find a home, in any case im not worrying about it, nothing i can do about it except continue to to my job professionally.

[stultus]

Originally Posted by wheelsup

Keep in mind, while in training you don't get paid very much (I think EJ guys get a per diem check or something), and I didn't log any time in an airplane for a little over 4 months...

Wow...4 mos! I think it was 2 for me. I instructed right up until the 10pm the night before I headed to IAH and then got an IOE assignment about a week after passing the checkride. That two months without flying felt like an eternity, even though I was in the sim and all. On reserve I haven't flown that much, 30-40 hours per month, but with summer flying maybe reserves will get used a little more.

I consider myself realistic, not a glass is half empty sort of guy, but I anticipated loosing this flying before any announcement about the 69 planes came out and even asked about the CPA and diversifying our flying at my interview. Right now obviously things don't look too good here at XJT, and every day our management goes without announcing some new endeavor I think it is somewhat less likely that we will be getting any new/replacement flying and more likely that a furlough is in my future.

Now is the time to make a big decision for some of us near the bottom--stick it out and hope for the best or get a jumpstart and start some preemptive pavement pounding. Not sure exactly what I'm gonna do yet.

Oh, and there is no training contract and you do get about a $1400 per diem check sometime during training, for what it's worth.

[Captain_Bob]

Originally Posted by wheelsup

...As for not flying for 4 months - I miscounted on my fingers. It was about 3 1/3 months....

Wheels... sorry about that dude... how did you end up wth the 1/3rd of a finger? Shop class accident?

Bob

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by Captain_Bob

Wheels... sorry about that dude... how did you end up wth the 1/3rd of a finger? Shop class accident?

Bob

[buffalopilot]

CHQ taking these 69 aircraft, what exactly does that mean?

[Captain_Bob]

Originally Posted by buffalopilot

CHQ taking these 69 aircraft, what exactly does that mean?

Chautauqua, a subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: RJET - News), will operate any aircraft returned by ExpressJet as a second Continental Express carrier at each of Continental's domestic hubs -- Newark Liberty, Houston and Cleveland. Continental Airlines will continue to schedule and market all its regional jet service as it does today.

Sorry to repost that buffalopilot... but that is really what it means...

They are not "taking" any aircraft that XJT doesn't want them to take. In other words... If XJT says "fine... we give up... take all 69 aircraft." then Yes, CHQ will take them. If XJT says "we're just gonna take the XR's... buh bye..." then that means that CHQ would gete 25 LR's. If however, XJT finds flying for all 69 ERJ's then CHQ won't get any of the aircraft. They will have to come up with their own 50 seat RJ's (Due to CAL's Scope) that are capable of long haul routes (IAH-BOI,YYZ,RDU,RIC,ONT,LAX, etc...) with full fuel (enough for an alternate) and full bags... That could be tricky.

So basically, the ball's in XJT's court right now. They don't have to make their intentions known until September. We'll see how it goes.

Bob

[buffalopilot]

i guess my question is who actually owns the planes XJT or continental?

[BobDDuck]

Continental owns the aircraft but XJT has the right to keep them but pay a slightly higher rate to use them then they are now.

[stultus]

Actually some bank owns the planes, Wells Fargo, Chase or somesuch institution. Continental leases the a/c from the bank and we sublease them from CO.

As previously stated, XJT has first rights to the a/c at slightly higher rates. If they choose to excercise the rights and fly them for another carrier then the rates will need to be at or above what CO is paying under the current CPA--there's a "most favored nation" clause in the current contract which allows CO to lower XJTs rates if they fly for another carrier for less. That makes me think that it is unlikely that XJT will pick up 145 flying at another airline.

There have been rumors about XJT Europe, however, if that pans out, it's unlikely that any crew would follow those a/c across the pond unless they have JAA certs.

There have also been rumors about flying corporate, charter and cargo flights, how likely this is to happen is anyone's guess. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

[Timbuff10]

Are these ERJs dogs when it comes to high density altitudes? The reason I ask is that they rarely come to Denver for any airline.

[casey]

Originally Posted by Timbuff10

Are these ERJs dogs when it comes to high density altitudes? The reason I ask is that they rarely come to Denver for any airline.

it was in the mid 80's last time i flew into puebla, mx, and that is 7000ft up in the mountains.

I know we do at least red-eyes into denver.

[ERfly]

The XRs are not Dogs. I've flown it a few times out of Denver (on the red-eye turn). The reason we don't bring it into Denver is because it is such a big market for CAL. The bring the big 737s (most of the time) and even a 757 sometimes into there. It's the same reason we don't do much in AUS or SAT. Big CAL markets.

Hot, heavy and high are no problems for the XR. We operate into Toluca, MX. It's 8700 feet or so above sea level. No problem for this thing. It's a one helluva good airplane.

[Timbuff10]

Yeah I remember when I was working in the tower at DIA I would see the ExpressJet ERJ in the morning doing a turn, and then at night one would come in and RON. I also saw one in American colors (I assume TSA) but other than that I don't think any others come to DEN.

So the big question is, does an ERJ out perform a CRJ in terms of climb performance, t/o & landing distances, etc?

[Alchemy]

Yes it will probably outperform the CRJ 200 in all those areas. The CRJ-700, no, but then again, that's a larger airframe.

The oldest ERJ's are weight restricted, but even they have a lower stall/approach speed (and therefore better runway performance), a better climbing wing, and a lighter empty weight than the CRJ 200.

The 145 XR's will give you 2000fpm+ below 10,000 feet with 50 people, 2500 lbs of cargo, and 13,000 pounds of fuel. In high altitude climb you can keep them at about .60 mach all the way up without rubbing against the buffet margins. From what I understand the CRJ needs to stay above .70, which impedes it's high altitude time to climb, and thus the overall fuel burn for the flight.

The CRJ-200 has a higher red line, .82 or .84 I believe, but realistically the engines aren't powerful enough to sustain those speeds. The E145's redline at .78 or .80, and you can almost always achieve those speeds using normal thrust in cruise flight.

Not that it matters, I'd fly whichever one comes with the better paycheck. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that either aircraft will be a stellar performer in that department.

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Is the 145 XR the one with winglets? Because I know that there is extra range version of the 145 sans winglets..or so I have heard.