Am I missing something? PSA Hiring mins or lack there of...

[Berkut]

I'm a low time multi-commercial guy (working on CFI) who would like to live in east TN. I'm having a hard time talking myself out of applying.

[BobDDuck]

I'm WAY too tired to be making a coherent post, but seeing as I know Jeremy is out flying right now (he just fly the plane I deadheaded to SAV on) I guess I've got to make the post.

PLEASE NOTE: Just because the mins don't have any hours listed doesn't mean that they are going to be taking wet in commercials. Just just needed a bigger pool of applicants to choose from. Other companies are offering bonuses and what not. We just lowered the mins. Go figure.

And that should give you an idea of what sort of company it is. ANYTHING to save a dollar. Which on one hand is good as it means we are mostly stable and well liked by our masters (US Airways Group). On the other hand it is bad because it means that the employees get screwed on a pretty regular basis. Hotels, pay, benefits... anything you care to think of the company will try to short you on and then tell you to grieve it later.

Now, the stuff starry eyed SJS pilots care about.

Reserve is running 2-6 months in DAY and TYS and close to 1.5 years in CLT.

Upgrade is right around 4 years but that number should come down. They just started upgraded 6 a month for the near future and would like to increase that number to 8 or 12 a month once they have FOs to support it (ie, we don't have enough FOs to release to training and still cover the flying). We are losing captains to majors and corporate flying. FOs (and not just junior ones) are bailing to other regionals and some corporate stuff.

Planes are mostly nice. MX is generally good although we are always short on spare parts and hence planes tend to sit around a lot when they break. But that is ok as we really don't have the crews to fly them.

Odd ball situations here right now...

The Jets for Jobs deal. Long story short (search, I've posted about it before) USAir furloughed 1800 guys. Some of them got seats at PSA in exchange for us getting jets. They are slowly being recalled to mainline but are being frozen for up to 9 months to cover training spin up for their replacements.

Flowthrough is something of a myth that was promised during concessions we took during bankruptcy. It is also tied in to the Jets for Jobs agreement. Long story short, we think it is a given. Mainline union doesn't. There is talk that mainline will have to hire off the street to staff the right seat of the E190 as they take more deliveries. There is hope that we can flow up to that. I WOULD NOT COME HERE FOR THAT REASON.

QOL is what you make of it. Most lines have 12-13 days off. A few 14 or 15 and a few 10 or 11. Most trips start early and end late (bad commuting). Pay on the captain side is pretty standard. Pay on the FO side is slightly low.

If you are thinking about applying, don't let the fact that you are a 300 hour pilot turn you away. Just know that they still have some standards, but they need a bigger pool to choose from.

I think I covered everything. If not, ask away. Jeremy or I will probably be able to answer it.

[FatBastard]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

I'm WAY too tired to be making a coherent post, but seeing as I know Jeremy is out flying right now (he just fly the plane I deadheaded to SAV on) I guess I've got to make the post.

PLEASE NOTE: Just because the mins don't have any hours listed doesn't mean that they are going to be taking wet in commercials. Just just needed a bigger pool of applicants to choose from. Other companies are offering bonuses and what not. We just lowered the mins. Go figure.

And that should give you an idea of what sort of company it is. ANYTHING to save a dollar. Which on one hand is good as it means we are mostly stable and well liked by our masters (US Airways Group). On the other hand it is bad because it means that the employees get screwed on a pretty regular basis. Hotels, pay, benefits... anything you care to think of the company will try to short you on and then tell you to grieve it later.

Now, the stuff starry eyed SJS pilots care about.

Reserve is running 2-6 months in DAY and TYS and close to 1.5 years in CLT.

Upgrade is right around 4 years but that number should come down. They just started upgraded 6 a month for the near future and would like to increase that number to 8 or 12 a month once they have FOs to support it (ie, we don't have enough FOs to release to training and still cover the flying). We are losing captains to majors and corporate flying. FOs (and not just junior ones) are bailing to other regionals and some corporate stuff.

Planes are mostly nice. MX is generally good although we are always short on spare parts and hence planes tend to sit around a lot when they break. But that is ok as we really don't have the crews to fly them.

Odd ball situations here right now...

The Jets for Jobs deal. Long story short (search, I've posted about it before) USAir furloughed 1800 guys. Some of them got seats at PSA in exchange for us getting jets. They are slowly being recalled to mainline but are being frozen for up to 9 months to cover training spin up for their replacements.

Flowthrough is something of a myth that was promised during concessions we took during bankruptcy. It is also tied in to the Jets for Jobs agreement. Long story short, we think it is a given. Mainline union doesn't. There is talk that mainline will have to hire off the street to staff the right seat of the E190 as they take more deliveries. There is hope that we can flow up to that. I WOULD NOT COME HERE FOR THAT REASON.

QOL is what you make of it. Most lines have 12-13 days off. A few 14 or 15 and a few 10 or 11. Most trips start early and end late (bad commuting). Pay on the captain side is pretty standard. Pay on the FO side is slightly low.

If you are thinking about applying, don't let the fact that you are a 300 hour pilot turn you away. Just know that they still have some standards, but they need a bigger pool to choose from.

I think I covered everything. If not, ask away. Jeremy or I will probably be able to answer it.

When you say 300hr pilot and standards, what standards are you refering to? For those of us that may choose PSA, When will they start callling us low timers for the interview? Will they change training for us, such as a rj transition course?

[EDUC8-or]

Pretty much what Ethan said. We're hurting for Captains so weed need to upgrade ASAP. Well, we're short FO's so we can't afford to upgrade so we need to hire lots of FO's. As I've posted before, we could potentially hire 150 pilots and upgrade 100 in the next year or so. I'm too lazy to log on to our company website and look at the seniority list, but I'd say we have around 500 pilots give or take. That's a whole lot of upgrades and newhires for us.

I think they lowered the minimums so they could deepen our applicant pool. From my inside source at the company, the quality of the applicants and people showing up in class has decreased as of late. Here's an example, I have a buddy who interviewed in February. About 16 people interviewed and around 8 were offered a class. His indoc class started with 8 the first day and only 4 passed their checkride last week. That's a pretty poor pass ratio.

For you low timers thinking of applying, here's the scoop: They're NOT going to change training for you or give you a transition course. We have an excellent training department and they will work with you and help you out, but it is by no means easy. I have NO idea when they will start calling you for an interview, but don't be surprised if it happens fairly soon. Do yourself and the people that will be interviewing you a favor and log on to www.aviationinterviews.com and get the gouge for the interview. It WILL include a written test and a sim ride in a CRJ-200 sim. If you don't pass eithter one of these you will be sent home. If you can't talk on the radios, figure out how to enter a hold, brief a Jepp approach, or fly just about any type of instrument approach you'd better figure it out before the interview.

DAY and TYS are the junior bases for FO's, although there was a guy in the January class that got CLT. TYS is getting close to being fully staffed so DAY could go back to being junior. We open and close bases with pretty great frequency. As much as I bash DAY it's not so bad and it's very affordabe. TYS is great if you love the outdoors and it's also very affordable. CLT has the longest reserve (I've been here 20 months and still borderline RSV) but if you got on at the beginning of the boom you could hold a line fairly quickly. CLT usually has the latest shows and earliest finishes because we have very few originators and terminators.

I know there is a strong vocal minority on the "other" website that likes to bitch about PSA. It's not perfect here, but it's not as bad as they make it out to be. I'm happy here, but I also live in base and I'm a glass is half full guy. I would encourage anyone interested to apply, but don't expect to be spoon fed. If you get on at the beginning of the predicted boom you could be in pretty good shape.

And Ethan, here's a disclaimer about my flying yesterday. I hate the mistake brakes, but they kept us at about 12 grand 25 miles from the field and we had about an 85 knot tailwind. Our GS was 350 at about 5000. I still wish I'd known you were on board, the PA's would have been ON!

[falconvalley]

Originally Posted by ComplexHiAv8r

I hear DAY isnt hard to get, but TYS was presently junior. CMR also has flights from CVG-DAY!!!!!!!

NOTE: Subject to have already changed, info more then 2 mins old!

You could ride your bike from CVG to DAY!

[ComplexHiAv8r]

Originally Posted by falconvalley

You could ride your bike from CVG to DAY!

Not sure I would want to ride a bike from CVG to DAY!

[falconvalley]

Yeah that'd be pretty hardcore

[BobDDuck]

Originally Posted by EDUC8-or

And Ethan, here's a disclaimer about my flying yesterday. I hate the mistake brakes, but they kept us at about 12 grand 25 miles from the field and we had about an 85 knot tailwind. Our GS was 350 at about 5000. I still wish I'd known you were on board, the PA's would have been ON!

I didn't even notice. There were this older couple sitting behind me and all they were doing was complaining about EVERYTHING. I was way to busy listening in to hear the spoilers.

As far as expecting different training for low time guys? Not going to happen. They have been having to do a few extra sim sessions for a lot of new guys with low time, but they are trying to get away from that. Just because you can come here right out of "training" don't think of this as a continuation on your training. You should be coming here as a professional pilot to learn a new company's procedures and airplanes. In fact, as a low time guy you will have MORE to prove once you get here then anybody else.

[Airdale]

Why did PSA close the PHL base? They did have a PHL base correct? Not many airlines are based out of PHL, go figure, its 40mins from my house.

[BobDDuck]

Originally Posted by Airdale

Why did PSA close the PHL base? They did have a PHL base correct? Not many airlines are based out of PHL, go figure, its 40mins from my house.

We go where mainline tells us. In the case of PHL we were uh... displaced by AWAC. They bought into the company and get the three domiciles they currently have. We in turn displaced Mesa out of CLT. In the end I think we got the better end of that deal.

[ComplexHiAv8r]

HEY ETHAN, SHOULDNT YOU BE IN THE PLANE OR SOMETHING?????
TU 2403 GSP-CLT 1225 1307

Now that is JC dedication!!!!

[FatBastard]

Originally Posted by EDUC8-or

Pretty much what Ethan said. We're hurting for Captains so weed need to upgrade ASAP. Well, we're short FO's so we can't afford to upgrade so we need to hire lots of FO's. As I've posted before, we could potentially hire 150 pilots and upgrade 100 in the next year or so. I'm too lazy to log on to our company website and look at the seniority list, but I'd say we have around 500 pilots give or take. That's a whole lot of upgrades and newhires for us.

I think they lowered the minimums so they could deepen our applicant pool. From my inside source at the company, the quality of the applicants and people showing up in class has decreased as of late. Here's an example, I have a buddy who interviewed in February. About 16 people interviewed and around 8 were offered a class. His indoc class started with 8 the first day and only 4 passed their checkride last week. That's a pretty poor pass ratio.

For you low timers thinking of applying, here's the scoop: They're NOT going to change training for you or give you a transition course. We have an excellent training department and they will work with you and help you out, but it is by no means easy. I have NO idea when they will start calling you for an interview, but don't be surprised if it happens fairly soon. Do yourself and the people that will be interviewing you a favor and log on to www.aviationinterviews.com and get the gouge for the interview. It WILL include a written test and a sim ride in a CRJ-200 sim. If you don't pass eithter one of these you will be sent home. If you can't talk on the radios, figure out how to enter a hold, brief a Jepp approach, or fly just about any type of instrument approach you'd better figure it out before the interview.

DAY and TYS are the junior bases for FO's, although there was a guy in the January class that got CLT. TYS is getting close to being fully staffed so DAY could go back to being junior. We open and close bases with pretty great frequency. As much as I bash DAY it's not so bad and it's very affordabe. TYS is great if you love the outdoors and it's also very affordable. CLT has the longest reserve (I've been here 20 months and still borderline RSV) but if you got on at the beginning of the boom you could hold a line fairly quickly. CLT usually has the latest shows and earliest finishes because we have very few originators and terminators.

I know there is a strong vocal minority on the "other" website that likes to bitch about PSA. It's not perfect here, but it's not as bad as they make it out to be. I'm happy here, but I also live in base and I'm a glass is half full guy. I would encourage anyone interested to apply, but don't expect to be spoon fed. If you get on at the beginning of the predicted boom you could be in pretty good shape.

And Ethan, here's a disclaimer about my flying yesterday. I hate the mistake brakes, but they kept us at about 12 grand 25 miles from the field and we had about an 85 knot tailwind. Our GS was 350 at about 5000. I still wish I'd known you were on board, the PA's would have been ON!

Thanks for the info. I figured as much. So basically study hard, if your having trouble do what it takes to get out of trouble, be a go getter, and learn damn quick how to scan a glass cockpit, and read the gouge. Thanks for the replies. I'll just wait for Rachel to call, hopefully, not to long from now. Does
Microsoft Flight Simulator do a good job at recreating real world conditions for the CRJ? To me it seems it does.

[nc1982]

I think Bobdduck hit the nail on the head, they just lowered the mins to expand the hiring pool. I talked to Rachael today and she basically told me that since they lowered the mins, they have been getting a lot of guys with around 700-800 hours applying. So I think low time guys that actually have wet commerical tickets or those under 500 hours are gonna have a hard time getting a call from her. Sorry for the low time guys, hope it doesnt bum you out. But hey, the mins are wat it is, doesnt hurt sending your stuff in. You just never know these days. Good luck...

Nick

[FO_SHIZZLE]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

In the end I think we got the better end of that deal.

Yes, yes you did.

[FatBastard]

Originally Posted by nc1982

I think Bobdduck hit the nail on the head, they just lowered the mins to expand the hiring pool. I talked to Rachael today and she basically told me that since they lowered the mins, they have been getting a lot of guys with around 700-800 hours applying. So I think low time guys that actually have wet commerical tickets or those under 500 hours are gonna have a hard time getting a call from her. Sorry for the low time guys, hope it doesnt bum you out. But hey, the mins are wat it is, doesnt hurt sending your stuff in. You just never know these days. Good luck...

Nick

Say it ain't so!!!!!!! I thought my charming good looks, bright shiny teeth and the ability to talk like Pepe Le'pew would woo her............guess not. Should have tried flowers and chocolate instead.

[EDUC8-or]

Originally Posted by FatBastard

Thanks for the info. I figured as much. So basically study hard, if your having trouble do what it takes to get out of trouble, be a go getter, and learn damn quick how to scan a glass cockpit, and read the gouge. Thanks for the replies. I'll just wait for Rachel to call, hopefully, not to long from now. Does
Microsoft Flight Simulator do a good job at recreating real world conditions for the CRJ? To me it seems it does.

The Wilco CRJ sim is pretty darned good, but anything with glass would help prepare a scan for the sim eval. It's a pretty easy transition from steam to glass.

[ComplexHiAv8r]

Originally Posted by EDUC8-or

The Wilco CRJ sim is pretty darned good, but anything with glass would help prepare a scan for the sim eval. It's a pretty easy transition from steam to glass.

Even a Cirrus??

[BobDDuck]

Originally Posted by ComplexHiAv8r

HEY ETHAN, SHOULDNT YOU BE IN THE PLANE OR SOMETHING?????
TU 2403 GSP-CLT 1225 1307

Now that is JC dedication!!!!

I trip traded. I was sitting in the crew room in CLT. We FINALLY got wireless in there again. That said (and Lloyd is going to love this) I think I am going to break down and get a treo some time soon. I want the bigger screen for stuff and the palm software.

[mattp1803]

Originally Posted by EDUC8-or

The Wilco CRJ sim is pretty darned good, but anything with glass would help prepare a scan for the sim eval. It's a pretty easy transition from steam to glass.

Yeah, I own the Wilco CRJ. I like it a lot. Now, I have never flown a real CRJ, but the wilco has all the systems, and a working FMS so it could really help at least get you familiar with the CRJ. I've been working with it on MSFS.

[ComplexHiAv8r]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

I trip traded. I was sitting in the crew room in CLT. We FINALLY got wireless in there again. That said (and Lloyd is going to love this) I think I am going to break down and get a treo some time soon. I want the bigger screen for stuff and the palm software.

\

When you trade trips you have to let me know. How else am I going to stalk you?????

Have you thought about a small internet device?

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by ComplexHiAv8r

HEY ETHAN, SHOULDNT YOU BE IN THE PLANE OR SOMETHING?????
TU 2403 GSP-CLT 1225 1307

Now that is JC dedication!!!!

Originally Posted by ComplexHiAv8r

\

When you trade trips you have to let me know. How else am I going to stalk you?????

Have you thought about a small internet device?

Ummmmm, yea, Tracy. That's scary!

[BobDDuck]

In his (somewhat) defense, he had asked me what a normal schedule was like so I sent him mine for April so he could look at it. What is scary is that he actually went to check it after I posted. I mean, I love you man (not like that Max... don't get excited) but that IS sort of creepy.

Actually, I am really glad I swapped trips. The other trip was a 200 thought PHL and DCA. This was a 700 trip through CLT. I got to avoid the worst of the weather the past few days (although CLT was pretty interesting yesterday) AND I got the extra power of the 700 to actually climb out of all the windshear we did get. Good deal all around.

[ComplexHiAv8r]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

In his (somewhat) defense, he had asked me what a normal schedule was like so I sent him mine for April so he could look at it. What is scary is that he actually went to check it after I posted. I mean, I love you man (not like that Max... don't get excited) but that IS sort of creepy.

Actually I was watching alot of flights today, I had family (including my Mom again) traveling from PNS-ATL-DAY, and they talked about changing her tickets to MGM-CLT-DAY, and I thought I would look and see if you were flying. Then I saw you post.

I actually have a couple questions about it (the schedule), I need to email you those questions.

If I was stalking you, you wouldn't know it!

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

I mean, I love you man (not like that Max... don't get excited) but that IS sort of creepy.

Lol, don't get your hopes up!