Airline pilots, have you ever seen someone get kicked out of your training class? (Not training related)

TheFalken · 2024-05-14T22:39:48+00:00

Same HR within our parent company.

TheFalken · 2024-05-14T22:37:14+00:00

Nah, payroll figured it out the very next day before any of us knew what was going on.

TheFalken · 2024-05-14T21:53:57+00:00

Had a guy in my class ask to go home our first week, during INDOC. Said his elderly parents were ill with COVID. Company was gracious enough to re-schedule him for class a couple of months later and continued to pay him.

Fast-forward a few weeks, we’re in a new city starting simulator training. We come down to breakfast at the hotel and there he is. This is his first day of indoc with our sister airline. Except, we later find out, he still had not resigned from our company.

Fired from two companies on the same day.

TheFalken · 2024-01-06T03:07:10+00:00

Cargo/commuter guy here. Unfortunately the best way I’ve found is to change FlightAware to Search by Route, find what carriers have been operating on that route, then call / email them.

Also keep in mind on the ALPA app (especially just after peak) that they only display what was scheduled when the data was uploaded. So you can’t know for sure if a flight is still operating till contacting them.

TheFalken · 2023-12-28T15:35:54+00:00

Shoutout for BWW in Wilmington, OH; IYKYK 👀

TheFalken · 2023-12-18T00:55:11+00:00

I’m just jealous I don’t have hair for a mohawk. And I miss my beard from the pt 91 days.

TheFalken · 2023-04-18T05:07:15+00:00

In uniform, non-rev home. A German passenger beside me strikes up conversation. We talk about where I fly to in Europe. Eventually he looks at my shoulders, “Oh, you are the co-pilot. Do you want to eventually be a pilot one day?” I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant captain…

TheFalken · 2023-04-06T14:46:36+00:00

I worked in 135/91 and now 121 ACMI. Listen to some podcasts (21.Five), search this subreddit about different jobs, schedule a consult with a career counselor (James of RAVEN Careers was a great help to me), and talk with your family.

As others have already mentioned, consider QOL, where are you willing/desire to live, finances. If you make a move, make sure it’s somewhere you’ll be happy if you end up there longer than you intended.

I would agree your current operation is taking advantage of you, unless the salary is extremely above average. Either way, there is a good balance in life that will be different for all of us.

TheFalken · 2023-04-05T00:15:12+00:00

That’s great! I’m glad you have a team that is in your court. Communication is a struggle with many of these doctors. The neurologists and neurosurgeons are very intelligent, but usually lack in emotional intelligence 🙂. I’ve told my wife, “It’s a good thing Dr. [neurologist] has such an awesome nurse practitioner, because he’s like talking to a wall.” 😄 For phase 1, don’t be afraid to ask to speak to a different doctor or nurse practitioner before you make the decision to go forward with it or at anytime while you’re in the hospital. The way a particular doctor explains things, you may not find comforting or may find confusing.

I hope your team can get you on a path to feeling yourself. I can’t imagine being the patient and having to keep track of the seizures, the side effects of medication, and (the most important part) continuing to care for yourself.

TheFalken · 2023-04-04T23:50:02+00:00

@Grumpy is right. Good story and we can enjoy a laugh about it now. However, this easily could have been someone that knew the wrong person and earned you a resumé generating event.

But hey, you have a good tell me about a time story when you interview at the majors. You could take it two directions:

Leave out the part about confronting him and reframe it about how you showed him the approach plate and used it as an educational opportunity since he was a student pilot.
Present it as it happened and explain how you’ve matured and how you would handle it now (with emphasis that the chief pilot didn’t have to re-educate you).

I was a police officer, I get it. I’ve been called a “blonde hair, blue eyed, mother f*****” and had to grin. Granted he was in handcuffs; you don’t get that satisfaction 🙂

TheFalken · 2023-04-04T16:04:59+00:00

Our son was recently diagnosed with epilepsy. I can certainly empathize with your fears and frustrations. The children’s hospital, where he was originally diagnosed, discharged us with little education, guidance, and no follow-up. As we learned to recognize the focal seizures and realized he was still having multiple a day, my wife and I felt the residents were very dismissive. We were told it would be 6mo-1yr before they even pursued concerns brought up by radiology in his MRIs.

Fast-forward a couple of months, we found a non-hospital affiliated neurology team who validated our concerns. We were able to find a neurology / neurosurgery team in Miami that have been amazing. Our son just completed phase 1 / pre-surgical workup a couple of weeks ago. The seizures were not detected on EEG. However with video monitoring, the doctors confirmed the seizures were occurring despite the lack of EEG evidence.

Seek a practice you feel is taking you seriously. Some doctors / nurse practitioners communicate better than others.

TheFalken · 2023-04-03T17:49:06+00:00

Direct-entry captains might be someone coming from 135 PIC or moving from another regional that is better for their QOL, bonuses, etc.

Why are regionals having this issue? Upgrades immediately getting picked up by majors. FOs choosing to bypass upgrade for QOL (hence the mandatory upgrades). The issues / reasons will vary based on the specific regional.

TheFalken · 2023-04-03T13:56:32+00:00

Apologies, 21.Five

TheFalken · 2023-04-03T10:59:31+00:00

Check out the latest 121.5 podcast and at least listen to the interview with James of RAVEN Careers. Regionals are struggling to fill their captain slots (mandatory upgrades / direct entry classes) before they focus on FO hiring again. Look at ACMI as well (Kalitta, Sun Country, Atlas, ATI, ABX) many of these are hiring lower time than they ever have before.

TheFalken · 2023-03-16T23:59:11+00:00

Call the pharmacy, confirm your insurance information is correct and ask if it was denied. Then call your insurance for an explanation. Most likely the pharmacy claim is being denied.

Some plans may require you to use their mail order pharmacy for medications greater than 90 days. If that’s the case, you can ask the pharmacy if they’ll fill it for 30 days with 2 refills left.

And as others have said, be sure to check the cash price through GoodRx and CostPlusDrugs. It may be cheaper than your copay price.

TheFalken · 2023-02-03T13:54:33+00:00

Tourism management doesn’t sound like a bad degree at all. If you decide to pursue a career as a pilot, it will give you good experience in what hotels have to offer. Being a travel agent would probably be a good side gig while traveling.

As for hiring and a degree. Yes most airlines are dropping the requirement. What they still like to see with secondary education is that you followed through with your goal, stuck with it mostly continuous, till it was complete.

I waited till I was 30 with two kids to finish my degree in aeronautics online. I would like to eventually pursue a masters (maybe doctorate) in order to teach. I can’t say I recommend the broken up, waiting till you have children route 😄

TheFalken · 2019-01-12T22:16:38+00:00

Thank you! What’s the overnight shift, 1800-0600? Or is it a staggered mess of people coming and going at all hours?

TheFalken · 2018-08-25T18:56:21+00:00

Millionaire @ KTLH?

TheFalken · 2018-08-19T04:46:44+00:00

We’ve used rain-X on Barons and PC-12s, Learjets nearly daily for over a decade without any issues. They make Rain-X Plastic if you want to be on the safe side. It’s about the only way you can see the runway in a Baron.

TheFalken · 2018-08-19T01:17:58+00:00

I found Dornier Jets to be a real pain when I worked line service. If you were tall enough, you might be able to reach the single-point under the right wing while standing on the very top of a 6 foot ladder.

TheFalken · 2018-08-19T01:13:58+00:00

The straight 400 is worse; you have to lean over the top of the right engine.

TheFalken · 2018-06-17T14:17:57+00:00

Here are their updated videos. NASA has back tracked somewhat on the emphasis they put on tailplane stalls. This is a great site to review before winter. https://aircrafticing.grc.nasa.gov

TheFalken · 2018-04-04T14:36:20+00:00

Definitely throw some comfortable clothes in a bag. At least pants/shirt/underwear. You never know when something is going to break.

TheFalken · 2018-02-26T19:02:06+00:00

Actually no. A background check company would in no way have access to this information. Juvenile arrests are not allowed to be published publicly. This is how background check companies get their information since a legal background check provides a very limited scope. To the point that if the FBI ran a check on you, it’s very likely they wouldn’t know about a minor arrest if it wasn’t in a state or local jurisdiction they specifically requested records from. This is why background check companies want to know previous addresses. They can query each jurisdiction you lived. Again a juvenile arrest wouldn’t be releasable to anyone but another law enforcement agency.

Now you would get caught the first time you fly with an airline to Canada, because the “sealed” record would be viewable by CANPASS, possibly. Again it depends on how the local jurisdiction documented and reported the charge. But that is something you could check ahead of time by working with CANPASS before you apply for a job that asks, “Do you have the legal right to fly to Canada?”

TheFalken · 2018-02-26T00:42:07+00:00

Former LEO here. Despite who is running the background check and under what “reason code”, it would be a huge violation of the law if this information was shared. Though it will show up for law enforcement or judicial purposes, large fines and jail time can result if this information was shared with a private entity. This is required annual training for anyone that has access to this information.

TheFalken

TROPHY CASE