Any Eagle pilots here?

[meritflyer]

I read they're upgrading 45 captains a month.

This has to be good news for FO's and that 8 year upgrade time.

[E6BAV8R]

I know a few friends at Eagle. Last month they upgraded 76 captains; from what they are telling me the upgrade times are now about 3-4 years.

[flyinawa]

I started at Eagle in Jan '99. Flew the ATR until the summer of upgrade in '01 . Thanks to world terrorism, I rode the left seat for about 3 months before downgrading to Jet FO. Did that for about 2.5 years until I got hired elsewhere but as I was leaving, I got the SF3 CA award (which I obviously didn't stay for). Had I stayed I would have upgraded for the 2nd time with 5.25 years of seniority and would be starting EMB CA groundschool in about a week with about 8.5 years of seniority. On an interesting note, one of my friends hired in Nov '99 is just finishing SF3 CA training and that was his 1st upgrade opportunity. Others hired in the end of '99 are holding out for the EMB. With the flowbacks moving out at a fast rate and the fight for whether or not the Eagle guys with flowthrough AA seniority numbers HAVE to go in full swing, it seems it would be a pretty interesting time to be an Eagle Pilot....

[ready2fly]

Not so interesting IMHO.

I've been here a year and 3 months and haven't seen any substantial movement (yet). I'm on the CRJ in DFW and have been #6 from the bottom for a year....and seem to be permanently on reserve with no end in sight.

I've heard for three months in a row that "there are new-hires at the schoolhouse for the CRJ" but not one of them have come to DFW.

As for upgrades - it hasn't started yet, but will pretty soon. Most of what is happening right now is transitions - FO's who have been here long enough to change aircraft, but not long enough to upgrade.

Unfortunately for me - that means that some of them are coming over to the CRJ on top of me thus pushing me down even further.

But, that's just my experience so far. This Fall should be interesting when the upgrades actually start their training.

[subpilot]

I guess that's what you get for bidding the CRJ as a new hire.

Right now there is 0-2 months of reserve on the SAAB and I have seen about 20 new captains in the past 3 months show up.

[aerospacepilot]

Eagle information from another website.
http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...ad.php?t=11751
It is barely one month old, and upgrade has already gone from Sept 99 to Mar 2000. And it is going to get real low real fast.

[Beechlover]

Check's in the mail, I'll believe it when I see it.

[ready2fly]

Originally Posted by subpilot

I guess that's what you get for bidding the CRJ as a new hire.

Very true. We all live and learn don't we? Had I been aware that I was going to be on reserve for this long, I would have bid the EMB or the Saab (and transistioned to the EMB by now). I was the third oldest in my class and could have held any aircraft/base I wanted.

Oh well. Can't change it now.

Originally Posted by subpilot

Right now there is 0-2 months of reserve on the SAAB and I have seen about 20 new captains in the past 3 months show up.

Cool. But they're not coming from the CRJ FO ranks, (believe me) so.........

As I stated in my first post - that's been MY experience so far.

[ready2fly]

Originally Posted by Beechlover

Check's in the mail, I'll believe it when I see it.

Also true. Four months ago, I flew with a check airman from the training department who had come out to get some of that currency time.

He told me then - and I quote:

"Look for the announcement next month [meaning February] that Eagle is going to exercise its option on those additional 25 CRJ's. It's a done deal!"

Riiiiiiiiiight.

Here we are about to start June and......nadda.

As with anything at Eagle: Believe it when you see it...and even then wait a few months to REALLY believe it.

[av8trxx]

Originally Posted by aerospacepilot

Eagle information from another website.
http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...ad.php?t=11751
It is barely one month old, and upgrade has already gone from Sept 99 to Mar 2000. And it is going to get real low real fast.

It truly IS in the mail. The final bid award:
T-prop (DFW SF3) - 09/18/00
Jet (ORD EMB) - 06/14/99

BTW- there are only 176 pilots between the junior T-prop CA award and the 1-19-2004 new hires.
Two or three more bids like we had recently and the T-prop upgrade will reach them.

[zmiller4]

Originally Posted by subpilot

I guess that's what you get for bidding the CRJ as a new hire.

Ouch! That's pretty harsh. As a new-hire, it's kind of difficult to make a really informed decision when 1) you really don't have any information to go on, because, you know, you're like new and stuff, and 2) you don't even know what the options are until you actually have to make the decision.

Stan, I know it sucks, but it's got to start getting better sometime soon. I know what you're talking about with the transitions, though--2 of the three people that are left from my class are newly awarded DFW CRJ. Sorry!

If there's one good thing about Eagle's long upgrades, it's that the captains there all have a good bit of experience. The most junior EMB upgrade award at SKW was a 9/06 hire, while the most junior CRJ award was late May of 06. Super-fast upgrade is not necessarily a good thing, although I'm really glad to hear that things are moving at Eagle.

[subpilot]

My comment was not meant to be mean about getting what you deserve. Sorry if I came across that way.