H.H

Thanks for your concern as to my whereabouts.

I am pleased and to be honest pleasantly surprised by the interest that has been shown in this thread. I hope that it has not been viewed thus far as a 'Rex bashing' exercise, more a thread created to raise issues that effect not only employees at the said company, but flightcrew throughout Australia.

It is not only the regional drivers that are experiencing adverse conditions. We are all being viewed and treated as an irritation by management in every company. As I said in an earlier post, we are professionals and must be treated as such.

We need to encourage the Rep's to be more proactive and provocative in future negotiations. Our current EBA has actually taken us backwards in many areas and heavily relies on profit share to make the package 'attractive'. It is not our responsibility as to whether we make money or not. Professionalism at our end is constant, whether the seat costs $1 or $1000.

Those posts stating that Rex is a good place to work blah blah, ok, we are all on the whole quite nice people to work with, however, this doesn't pay the bills.!!!! We are woefully underpaid. If you intend on staying at Rex, work to rule!!!!

Senior management would not be making truckloads, If it wasnt for us....

I believe that a member of the C&T department was boasting that he had 7 failures in the last 11 days. Surely a failure rate like that says more about the system than the pilots themselves. No wonder moral is low. If you beat a dog enough all you achieve is the dog cowering in the corner which seems to be REX’s way of achieving “standards”. How about some real TRAINING as apposed to all the TESTING.

With these days of a pending pilot shortage the Pilot Management should be endeavouring to encourage and help the guys that are wanting to stay or too old to move on. I have found that the majority of guys out there young or old are very willing to be in there boots and all as team players if they feel they are not being used up.

I notice that the first thing Pilots start to complain about when they are unhappy is money. Money is not the problem, Regional pilots will always be paid less and do more for their money than their mainline cousins. I remind you all that we as a majority agreed to this EBA

My feeling is that the system needs a complete overall from the top down
Perhaps starting with the top two on the 1st floor of the Baxter Detention Centre

Check and Training is about learning, if you are not learning, then there is something wrong with the training, 7 failures in 11 days tells me there is something wrong with the SOP’s these are not clearly understood and that the training is deficient.. I can sympathize a little on that issue as it’s a very skilled art in writing a procedure which is clearly understood, however it must translate into practice in the training, not in a check.
Training should be fun and bring about a high level of confidence, this in turn produces a high level of awareness and that’s the objective. Every scenario has a number of different approaches to the solution and every solution will be different. The check is supposed to be about raising the crews awareness to bring about the best outcome. Of course there is a test component to it, but that should be no more than a box ticking exercise along the way. If the training is good and the crews are confident, no-one should fail.
A crew should come out of a sim session excited that they have learned something, an undesirable event that can so easily occur on the line and would have had a completely different outcome if only the crew had done a small little thing differently. When was the last time you came out of a sim session in total disbelief that something so nasty can happen so easily, learned from it and felt good about learning from it.
If you emerge feeling completely destroyed, confidence shattered, that’s about the worst place a pilot can be.
A good teacher is hard to find, it’s a gift, most check and training pilots do it because there is no-one else or they have simply been there a long time, that doesn’t make them good at what they do and fair enough, how many pilots themselves have had any training in teaching and how many operators provide that training, very few to none.
The big stick approach does not work and never has, if that exists in your company then you’re an accident waiting to happen, then you will see just how easy that is.
Working as a team works, to make mistakes is normal, it’s how you recover from that mistake that’s important and if you are being beaten with a big stick, you’re not going to recover and that’s when it’s dangerous.

7 failures in 11 days - it would seem that their is a serious problem in the Training & Checking establishment, or that particular check person, either way, its a major safety issue that needs to be dealt with.

By the way! How many pilots have moved across to Alliance on the F50, has the ground school started yet and who's got some pics of their new livery.

Well said xeptu
 

This high failure rate stuff is what the military do, and too often the military stuff infiltrates civil aviation.
It might be good for them, but civil aviation is very different.

Xeptu you are spot on correct.

Have tried the hard line approach, it’s a quick way to piss people off. Best thing is to achieve a positive outcome with all players walking away with a positive attitude.

If people are failing then you need to sit back & ask “why is this happening?” & correct the problem. Failure to correct the problem means training has achieved nothing.

When I went to do my testing I could not afford to pay $650 for a practice sim session. Then on the day I was also told that I had no sim partner either so had to fly the sim single pilot …. F@#k!!!

I have no turbine experience nor endorsement on type. It was a little unfair I believe & definitely the reason I was not successful.

In my opinion if the person conducting the assessment actually provided input as to how to correct any mistakes I may have made & I then corrected said mistakes, would that then not indicate that this candidate is trainable as the errors can be sorted out during later sim training for the aircraft type.

It sounds to me that the C&T people may also be a little burnt out, SOME instructors also get a little testy after a while too, myself included :E

Sounds like to much CHECKING and not enough TRAINING to me!!;)

Well put Xeptu. Unfortunately its more the case of big C and small T in alot of companies.

I love that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you do it all right. Alas you will always have a few teething problems, but generally you don't need to be a rocket scientist to get it figured out. Good help usually gets you through it.

Seems like the warm fuzzies are definitely amiss in REX :(

REX will have a/c parked by the end of the year for sure!!!!!!!!!
Interviews conducted over the last couple of weks have yeilded only a couple of pilots....Many still continue to miss out,:ugh::ugh: Someone in REX thinks the SAAB is the space shuttle discovery and tries to recruit accordingly......BIG MISTAKE......many of my freinds have missed out after a particular C&T Manager interviewed them...they are really good pilots and great guys but under pressure stuffed a couple of Q's up and failed..I have flown this a/c for REX and i don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to do it!!! If the interview failure rate continues REX are in trouble....40-50 guys leaving by AUG-SEP, and no one to replace them, do the maths.....
I feel sorry for the guys who want to make a career out of this place because they make it very hard...crap money, overworked, crap a/c (A models) and ruthless managment who care of nothing other than the share price!!!!
GET OUT NOW...........:mad::mad:

And now they try to improve the pass rate by lowering the minimus. The company gets an A+ for pissing as many people off with their clueless reactions to a shortage problem they never imagined.

Unfortunately I would also suggest getting out. There are plenty of better jobs on the horizon.

Look after yourself (includes the pilot community) and the better companies.

This is no longer one of them!

hi there you crazy kids!

I have not been on this forum for some time but I have been reading the comments.

Its such a shame that such great, hard working, down to earth, fun people are treated so poorly.

Unfortunately, while Rex is being run by ex pilots and flight attendants who have little or no management or people skills, who have only ever flown a saab and forgotten what its really like on the front line then things will never improve. Its these people that NEED to let the little tight singaporian crook know how crew should be treated!

Im happy to say that I have spoken with my feet and I am now working for a airline that cant do ENOUGH for me. Im no longer running around in a five dollar uniform that came from some sweat shop in china, doing trim sheets, taking um's and arguing about why we were 2mins late!

good luck to all the bloody fantastic people that i worked with, if nothing else I can take away the great friends and memories. I hope you all move on to companies that CARE about you and if you stay I hope conditions improve!

REX management are unbelievable! The CEO in a recent publication acknowledged, that pilots are at a PREMIUM due to the a number moving on to shiny jets.

His answer to the impending pilot crisis at REX is to work with quote, 'stakeholders and the government', to provide a solution. How about consulting with your pilot body and addressing the many concerns raised on this forum. We, together with our overworked engineers and our awesome f/a's keep YOUR very lucrative show on the road. How in the hell are stakeholders and the government going to alleviate the situation, other than to dream up of more ways to screw the flightcrew and appease the bean counters!

Anyhow good luck to everyone moving on and those that are trying. To those good people thinking about joining, think twice because they don't give a sh*%t. To those that have missed out, don't sweat it because you are destined for something much better.

REX/Kendell/Hazo use to be a company most were proud to be a part of. This is no longer the case. Very few on the shop floor have any respect or faith in the current ownership/CEO/C&T dept. in fact just about every MGR in Baxter rd. While I'm at it, a certain ML supervisor seems to think that all of this stuff on Prune's a load of cr*p. Well I happen to think that it is YOUR attitude that stinks!! How about having a bit of empathy for the guys & girls rather than brown nosing the C&T mgr. It's about time you moved on and let someone in that gives a......

DIXONDIKS

U are obviously so far removed from the pilot situation its not funny. To make a comparison between ground staff and crew is a complete joke. Please do us the courtesy of being better informed about our spoon feeding.... being on the bones of my ass for three years flying in and out of bum f**k nowhere was not a privilege!

You can count yourself as part of the problem crew are facing at rex. If I was you I would vent your thoughts to the only people that would appreciate them and thats your mates in management. THANKS FOR COMING.:ugh::ugh::=

By the way....ingenious name mate!

'Mates in management' is far beyond the case....If I actually worked for Rex I'de be doing something about it. But I hear about it time and time again about (some) pilots refusing to extend 5mins to help out etc. Its not the 'working' (crewing, ops, rostering, gate/tarmac staff) thats causing the problem. If only it was like back in the Hazos days...:ouch:

My mouth is shut, back to bagging Qantas.

Dixondik,
I can tell you right now that 90% of pilots in any company(not just rex) are quite happy to extend duty times, do the company a favour by working overtime etc. Why may you ask? because most of us are genuinely interested in seeing that the company we work for succeed, and reallly, whats a few minutes past our sign off, right? The problem is, most of us have done favours, for said companies and found that our reward is a big fat kick in the nuts, therefore we dont do it anymore.

JarJar

jarjar

hearhear!

It seems once again another REX PC meeting is coming up, "heres a concept" :rolleyes: how about this time the PC and the Federation actually do there job and start to take management to account, a large majority of us are sick of seeing the PC meetings result in no action by management and the same issues seem to continue to be left "open" and passed on to the next meeting. Where is the Union in all this? to busy focusing on Virgins EBA me thinks!
Frankly the morale in the place stinks at the moment, come on PC you have had plenty of suggestions and imputs from the Pilot body time to start rolling your sleeves up and start talking a little tougher with management. :ugh:
Where all frustrated and tired of it !:=

Stubby,

All the suggestions and inputs from the pilot body, and all the fist slamming and sabre rattleing in the world mean d#%k when you are dealing with a management that simply don't give a stuff.

The EBA still has 12 months to run, and as such no claim can be made untill the negotiations for the next EBA are commenced. (Law).

Having said that there is nothing stopping the company from putting initiatives in place to stem the loss of experienced crews. In my opinion this will only occur, if at all, when it is too late.

As for the items left open on the agenda, what would you suggest?

Strike?

Jump across the table and thump them?

Instead of bitching and criticising, how about educating yourself about the process and perhaps put your hand up for an unpaid, time consuming, position, and make a contribution.

Finally, try buying yourself a dictionary!