Hi,
Sorry to hear of your worries, it must be a difficult situation to be in.
I was a Parc contractor and am now on a perm contract in Euroland.
- You won't have many advantages other than a higher level of pay / third stripe and perhaps Captains being a bit more relaxed with you.
It will mean that ONCE you are a permanent you will be in a position to start the command process (after 6 months of being perm) as you would already have the hours where some of your lower hour colleagues may still be building hours.
- I was with Parc while the hours were still good. On average my monthly income after the tax (done through your own company) was £4500. I understand it is different now due to lower hours.
- No idea for the selection process but listen to ADM above.. he is in the know.
- Basing wise is mainly UK now however there are some FOs on very reduced contracts in Berlin SXF on a 1.5 year basis. This is subject to a court case and may change but don't expect a choice.. and I didn't always get 3 months notice either.
- Rostering on random was actually pretty good in my bases. I probably did a block of 5 days maybe 4 times in 1.5 years as Flexi... the rest were blocks of 2 /3 /4 with 2 to 4 days off in between.
On a pure flight point of view, I actually find 5/4/5/3 sometimes more fatiguing.
- There were 20 odd CTC cadets stood down for the winter, but they were told about this when they started so they could plan. Those choosing to come back have already been in line training.
- You pay for a lot yourself, but you will get some extras.
£20 / night. £200 ish / standby, £200 / training day , £200 / positioning flight (but not the first one of the month)
You will be provided with all hotac / positioning when working / training somewhere out of base and car parking is also provided.
Other items that you need (like a medical) can be claimed through your company as an expense, helping reduce your tax.
- No pension, LOL or Medical when flexi. You can set these up yourself though as many did. If you join BALPA they offer a good prices LOL policy for members.
- They are recently changed contracts and you will now need to do 24 months flexi before being eligible for a permanent contract... however, the company has also strongly hinted that there will be direct entry recruitment as a FO for summer 2014.....