BACX conditions?

[FatFlyer]

Would any Citiexpress pilots be kind enough to share their experiences of the copmany?, I know some are unhappy and moving on.I am looking to move from another T/prop job and would appreciate info about rosters, conditions etc. Thanks

[monkeyboy]

FF, I've only been with the company for a year and it was my first flying job after having a career change so I'll give you a view as life as an FO on the TP.

Generally, no qualms. The TP pay is a bit on the low side but can be made up to a more suitable figure by the amount of nightstops you choose to do, ie your dutypay goes up. Expect to add about £5K on to your salary.

The TP fleet (guys and gals) are great. Very friendly. For many of the FOs, it's their first job so the skippers are excellent in that respect.

As for bases, at the moment, MAN seems to be going through a low. I can't speak speak for the other bases but generally job security and being kept in the dark until the last moment seem to be the grumbles of late. Aren't all airlines the same?

If you're just interested in getting the hours and then moving onto something better then you can simply keep your head down until the time comes to jump. If, however, you'd like to stay and make it your career airline then expect to don a flak jacket. I doubt it'll be an easy ride.

PM me if you want to know anything else.

MB

[Dash head]

As a current Dash 8 FO, here are my thoughts on the job for those considering joining. Its detailed, but it would have helped me if I had known this information prior to starting. Hope it helps:

Hours - expect to do around 650-700 hours pa

Work spread - its fairly even through the year. I average about 60 - 70 sectors per month. The average sector is around 1 hour so you will be logging a fairly constant 60 ish hours per month. However, the rostering can be strange in that one month you'll get 80 odd sectors (and be knackered!) the next month 25 (and be kicking your heels). It might just be my personal experience but you do seem to get hard months followed by a very slack one.

Rosters - other than the point above, the rostering is ok. In particular we have a very strong scheduling agreement, plus roster stability is excellent. I have over 500 hours on the Dash and in that time I have had one change, and that was with 3 weeks notice. You can request upto 5 RDOs per month which can be OFF, Early start or late finish. The granting of these is seniority based but from my experience you nearly always get your first 2 or 3, and after a while with seniority you get all 5. What this means is that along with annual leave, you can virtually request and get the majority of weekends off, and work a monday to friday existence, great if you have a family. Whats not so great if you have a family are the nightstops.See below:

Touring - The Dash is a touring machine and as such you will nightstop regularly. You can make a preference for minimum, average or maximum nightstops, although the company are not obliged to honour this request eg operational needs take priority. I bid minimum nightstops, and average about 6 per month. Guys and Girls requesting maximum do 10 to 12. However, some months even on minimums you will get 9 or 10. The maximum tour length is i think 3 days (2 nights away). The majority are single nightstops but beware! You can often get weeks were your home is purely for sleeping in before you go off to work again.
eg (z time)

Mon - report 1230, nightstop
Tuesday, checkout 2000, get home 2100
Wed - report 1210, nightstop
Thurs - checkout 2000, get home 2100
fri - report 1200, checkout 2000
Sat - OFF
Sun OFF
Mon - report 0500 etc.

A couple of weeks off that and you feel as though you are doing nothing but working. Hotels are all 4 star "ish" eg Marriott, Thistle, Hilton.......stormont ;)

Sectors per day - average is 4 or 5. you tend to get a couple of very cushy 2 sector days per month eg MAN - JER and back with a 0810 report. Nice. Turnaround is usually 35 mins at MAN, 30 mins elsewhere, which for a 50 seat aircraft is OK. Duty length tends to be around 9 hours if you are not nightstoping.

Standby - no airport standby at the moment although other fleets do it. Home standby is usually 8 hours. I get on average 2 to 3 per month. I'd say I get called on average 1 in 2.

Report times - earliest report at MAN is 0550. Latest 1515. Latest finish is 2100 (which only applies on a friday). Usually its around 1930 - 2000.

Annual Leave - 6 weeks per year. 7 after ....5 years I think. You tend to take them in single week blocks. Leave is allocated Monday to friday with the preceding and proceding weekends off. They can't start you on an early (report before 0700) after leave.

Rostered days off - I think its around 110? which included bank hols allowance. You tend to get 8 or 9 days off per month. usually in blocks of 2.

Trump days - you can request upto 4 days off pa that the company can't really deny you, and confirms to you months before roster production. This is to enable weddings, christenings etc.attendance.

Roster day - 10th before the month in question.

Pay - you start on 20,880, plus flight pay of 1.90 per hour, 70 percent of which is tax free. a hard month will see your duty hours around 270 - 300 hours, so the flight pay makes a big difference to you salary. I average around 1,800 pm take home. You get annual salaryincrements of around 1 k. An important point is that you don't loose the increments when you transfer to a jet or get a tp command. So if you are 2 years in and get a jet , you start on the jet pay scale but 2 increments up from the bottom eg 35k ish.

Overtime - if you want it, you can get it but it can be patchy obviously depending on the needs of the company. I am on about 8-10 days overtime per annum. Each overtime day is around £150 plus flight pay, so you can easily add a grand to your basic through a bit of extra work. Disruption payments are about £60

Routes - for a TP, a good variety. From november all dashs are at MAN, so that will be your base. We serve, EDI, GLA, ABZ, BHD,IOM, SOU, JER. SNN stopped in Sept. We also do charters usually to JER from LPL and BPL. Occasionally we cover CDG and BRU when the embraer is broken. We nightstop in GLA, EDI (from Nov), IOM and BHD.

Crewfood - free and loads of it. Expect to put a solid half stone on in the first 6 months! Cabin crew are excellent and take great pride in ensuring you are full to the brim of Coffee, Sandwiches, hot food, chocolate, soft drinks etc.

Uniform - thats free too! You'll get a nice Julian McDonald uniform and look like someone who flies for mainline.

Training and standards - the training department imo are superb. Training is first class and one of the real strengths of the company. The ground school is death by computer, undertaken in MAN. Sim is in Paris (le Bourget). Line training is 40 rostered sectors although most complete around the early 30 mark.

Bid - their is an annual bid, all seniorty based. if you are flexible about location you'll probably get on a jet in around a year after starting on the dash, although this can always change depending om the company requirements. Most people recently have done around 9 months on the line before transferrng. Although again that doesn't mean that will happen in the future.

Medical and passport renewal - the company pay for these.

Overall - the downside to the company is uncertainty over the future of bacx (see the many bacx threads for more on this). Ultimately, bacx need to make a profit for BA and WW before they will invest in new equipment eg Emb 170 or the like, and they are changing things, cutting routes, getting rid of aircraft, transferring aircraft between bases etc to try to move the airline into profitability - which is having a demoralising effect on the crews. Remember that the fleet is down to around 50 hulls from 90 odd a few years ago. For the new guys this isn't an issue, but for the more experienced guys who have lived through this, it has been difficult and you will pick up alot of angst in the crewroom. However, as a first job its excellent. Scheduled pax ops, good training, great skippers and cabin crew, no night flying, roster stability and a good scheduling agreement, lots of sectors to practice the take offs and landings, plus the Dash is a very nice aircraft to fly, just a tricky fella to land well ;) For those who want to stay, jets will come in time, for those that don't, you can take your green book elsewhere and fly bigger stuff.

Good luck to those that have applied.


Dash head

[oldandskint]

Dash Head

Thanks for taking the time to give us all a 'real' insight...very useful and much appreciated.

[Captain Correlli]

I think all of the above comments are pretty much accurate. However, as one of the guys who has been here for ten years, do not join us for a career. The quality of our management is pathetic, the input from mainline has screwed us completely, and we have had to deal with so many lies and misleading, inaccurate 'announcements' that no-one has ANY confidence left in the Company, far less any idea of what our objective is (providing we actually HAVE one other than obtaining a fat mainline job for ponces like PH, DD and most especially our nepotistic cabin crew menace, CP).

I think our trainers are mostly good, though there's a deal of inexperience on type as they get moved around a lot with each new 'announcement' and quite often have very low experience on their own new type. The future looks bleak, but for a job, a decent type rating, and certainly to gain experience we're as good as any, and better than most.
Only a suggestion, but if you have a need for a regular salary, you might consider mortgage insurance before signing on the dotted........:ugh:

[FatFlyer]

Many thanks for the good and not so good parts of working for BACX.