bmi Regional
 

Hi Guys

Interested to know about bmi regional please!

Ive seen they have some 145s on the way at the moment and just wondered what kind of experience you need as an F/O to get a look in.
I can imagine thousands of guys apply but what would make the individual stand out to Recruitment?

I have 400 jet hours on a similarish type in terms of aerodynamics and cockpit displays. 700 Hours total time.

What is the Roster like?
Can you pick which Basing is preferable for yourself? Do they have LHR as a base?

Many thanks
CJ

Regional are about to start a course of 6 f/o's. I am not sure if they have any need for more F/o's at the moment.

Re experience: You sound like you have a fair chance. Generally they are not so keen on minimum hours guys. Prefer 500-700 hrs instructing, or similar.

Basing is never going to be set in stone. If you ever get offered a job, you are unlikely to find out your base until just before/during Line Training. LHR is not a base, but a secondment done on volunteers/seniority. MME just announced as new base starting 26 Oct 2008.

Roster is pretty stable though. 8-9 days off per month. Around 2-5 days stby per month (Must be within 1 hr of base airport). Good routes within the UK and to Northern Europe/Scandinavia.

Very much a good airline to cut your teeth on. Time will tell if it can be a career airline though with the potential Lufty/Virgin/something else merger.

Good luck.

SSS

With the base issue you need to think I'm going to get Aberdeen then moving south as your seniority improves (which may take a long time). Anyone thinking any different is likely to be disappointed. Rosters are getting increasingly busy. I did 7 hours 40 mins yesterday in 4 sectors. 80 hours a month at moment no standby and basically a 5 on 2 off roster. Lifestyle airline no longer. On a good note, people are a great bunch a/c good and you can hand fly a bit as well. First rate training also. You'll soon get bored of the routes but heh if you want variety then Netjets is the one to go for. Just hope I get in first.

All the best

D and F :8

Was the Info from PPJN, also saying another 145 due? Any one know how many guys had been waiting in the pool, early posts were saying some people had been in a long time. Has the course started, or is it a sometime this winter, had heard of the possibility of November, with further interviews possible in the next month or so. :ok:

Cheers guys!!!
Do you nightstop at all??

do you nightstop...

at the moment with the lhr and mme work we r all doing a few nightstops, some more than others. Charter work often involves a nightstop. so does a trip to the maintenance centre in Portugal - nice if you can get it:E

JB

smoke me a kipper I'll be back for breakfast:cool:

Hi folks, do they find that the northern bases are the least popular amongst crew?
Also, If you don't have your preferred base, can you bid for max nightstops and tour?

Many thanks

E

what you got against the north?? its much cheaper to live up north than the rip of south, especialy starting out in aviation on the low end of the pay scale! move me to the north pole!

Err, I do live in the north vp. Thats why I'm hoping they are the least popular bases so that I can stay up here! :ok:
E

Aberdeen is way north and that ain't exactly cheap; ditto Edinburgh!

ladies

been here a while now in the RHS - and can report its a great little company. Just remember there are only 18 a/c and its run like a flying club - then you will be fine! dont expect an amazing crewing department like in a bigger airline like Easyjet and you wont be disappointed.

That said the lifestyle agreement has helped improve the quality of life and rostering rules. The Emb 145 is great fun and an excellent first jet job as you are still involved in the flying (i.e no autothrottle or VNAV linked to the A/pilot) Some of the bases are performance restricted (take off weight & landing weight) so its good to learn in this environment and appreciate the limitations - when was the last time u checked the performance for a Cessna 152 eh!?

Aberdeen is going to be your base - if you approach it this way then you may be pleasantly surprised to get somewhere else! Nearly all FOs i know including myself have done 6 months at ABZ.

LHR is a temporary secondment done on seniority - you have no chance as its over subscribed by 20 FOs every year.

Another A/C is on the way and another 2 next year if the inside info is correct.

6 FOs started this month and i reckon more interviews soon as we are mega stretched at the moment. We are all working hard (did 700 plus hours last year).

Covering more and more mainline airbus routes as they are focusing on charters/mid haul routes. Going to be a busy winter here.

Regards

BMI FO

Great Info...:ok: By chance do you know if the current course of 6 is the only one planned to cover the one new delivery plus anyone leaving for mainline,Baby or something else? Or will there be another soon regardless of any new acft joining the fleet? I believe there are still people in the Pool.

woofly

very amusing! no transfers to baby for years and mainline are one or 2 a year - the last 6 up for transfer to mainline had their start dates cancelled.

i understand the recruitment therefore is due to attrition as guys are leaving for Cathay and BA etc and some are going onto corporate jets (Legacy operators)

There maybe more FO positions soon due to upgrades to captains, however i dont know how many people are swimming in the holding pool.

regards

FO bmi

:ok: Rumours of a mass move,lol... probably from a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knew a guy that meet a guy who knows an EGPD cleaners mates sister.... :)

Thanks for the info embraerFObmi, will keep fingers crossed! :)

E

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the 'new' Embraer due in October is allegedly only going to replace one of the currently leased a/c - it will not be for fleet expansion.

LKM

lkm - no worries your not the bearer of bad news dont worry! your info is not correct - sorry.

we understand that non of our a/c are leased. infact the last one that was leased has been purchased by bmi (GCCYH) and re-registered under a new name (GRJXR). All our a/c are owned by bmi now. None are returning to any lease companies.

you may have heard that our spare/maintenance aircraft is now being used full time - we arent losing any units.

indeed the new aircraft we are getting are the ex baconnect/flybe planes that are being returned to embraer by march 2009 inline with their fleet conversion.

hope this clarifies any rumours -

regards

FO bmi

All sounds positive there. :ok: Is it true that EGNV will be confirmed as a Regional crew base for the EGLL route. Have crews been asked to relocate or will a number be new crew? I see Jersey has also been mention as an Embr service. All good news for bmir.:)

Hi,

I am a swimmer in the pool and have been for over a year now.

Quite disappointed to hear 6 guys taken on when I have been swimming so long and had hoped they were to help cover mainline airbus down south with a few more guys being required to man the new ac.

I am looking elsewhere now as it feels like the bmi dream aint never going to happen

Anyone know where the 6 came from? Was it all last minute, very short notice? I have a three month notice period as do most of they guys in a flying job at the moment.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Regards,

Ted

Think you will find Ted it was a "can you start monday" type of scenario.
IMHO I think they were trying to get through to the winter schedule under crewed to save costs and found out they couldn't.

Not sure FO is correct in his info. G CCYH now RJXR was a leased A/C that they secured an extended 3 year lease on. It is not owned by bmi. This info was in an e mail from DFOp's. All the others are owned though. Ex Flybe A/C were sold to an american consortium through Airstream and I expect it to one of those that comes soon.

All you swimmers take to first job flying that anybody offers because you never know when the next one will come your way.

Don't be a jet snob!!!

Regional is a good start in aviation so good luck to all out there.

D and F :8

deep and fast - did we buy the flying simulator or extend the lease? (GCCYH) I may be incorrect then?? - but i thought i read somewhere that we bought the heap??

regards


FO bmi

Hi D and F,

Thanks for your reply.

Dont worry ;) I have a great flying job and its secure, even in the present climate so I am pretty happy where I am. Im certainly not a jet snob but I do realise I cant do this for ever.

Bmi would be perfect for me and I have had high hopes for over a year now.

I had thought it was a case of holding out and working the crews a little harder. Its just very frustrating for me and other friends in the pool who passed the selection a long time ago to be left behind. If the company could only plan ahead, three months in fact :} that would give us guys who have been working hard and have relevant flying experience a chance to get in.

I appreciate they owe us nothing and airlines cant always plan ahead three months, the one I work for cant plan next week!

Those left in the pool, who joined it a long time ago will just have to keep going and I for one will keep my fingers crossed for a call or at least an update from the company to let us know if theres any point having hopes for a course later this year.

Good luck to all the new guys though, what a great start they have made.

Regards,

Ted

bmir
 

Hi super Ted.

I know of one of the lucky 6... was a last minute call :ok:

bmi regional have 3 leased A/C:

G-RJXR (G-CCYH), signed a new 3 year deal at the beginning of the year, and the other 2 are G-RJXO and G-RJXN. The company will be looking at replacing XO and XN as they are on very expensive lease agreements, if they ever get some of the Flybe 145s.

Dude15 you are right. The ex LOT a/c are the ones that will be swapped in the near future to be replaced by a/c on cheaper lease deals. Not only will the leases be cheaper, but XN and XO are rather heavy, being fitted with reversers and therefore exhibit higher fuel burn - not something that goes down well in the current environment!

Thred creep, but:-

LKMflyboy. XO and XN might be heavier with their thrust reversers, but that is only by 300kg or so. I flew XO this morning, and it burnt no more fuel than any other aircraft we operate. On the short sectors we fly, more fuel is wasted due to the poor ATC route structure into the Scottish TMA forcing us down early from cruise altitude - eg FL260 by Margo or NEW and FL70 by Tartn.

O and N are both "MP" versions, and do have the advantage of a higher MZFW and a higher MLW.

Ape

FlyingApe - totally agree with what your saying, the comments about fuel saving were meant to be rather tongue in cheek - the best way to reduce fuel burn is to reduce track miles - I was merely relaying the comments of the engineers!

No more recruitment expected for the foreseeable future, so we're told, but who knows what will happen!

Don't think any of the new joiners have been given bases yet, but I would expect them to be ABZ or possibly MME - it depends how many current base bids can be met, and how many existing FO's want to go to MME!

I believe the interview is still tech exam and chat, but maybe someone who's been through the process recently will be able to give you a definite answer.

Not sure where the sim will be as the only EMB145 sim left in Europe is located in Paris... maybe it will be on another type?

You may find the job is on another type also. Props to skatsta!

D and F:8

deep and fast

props to skasta??? are they taking on the flightline contract? heard that rumour ages ago and nothing came of it. you got any new info then!? feel free to private message me.

the sim in manc is no more now - apparently replaced by an A320 sim. our LPCs are in Paris, but i understand there is a sim in zurich too. So i guess you guys will be going there for assessments unless they find another sim type to assess you on?

good luck anyway and welcome to aberdeen....you may want a warm sweater for the winter walk rounds at 6am in the dark!

bmi FO

Just a quick question, Where are BMI Regional Bases at?
One would assume EDI LBA MAN and ABZ.

Any do any of the other pilot bases operate each others flighs from example LBA one day operate the EDI-BRU run?

I thought the bases were (north to south): ABZ, EDI, GLA, LBA, MAN and EMA. Are all these pilot bases?

Not totally sure where MME fits in and whether the LHR routes are operated by Regional or Baby/mainline.

Anyone care to shed any light?

Many thanks,

VHW

Bases
 

MME is to be a new pilot base I believe. LHR is a psudo-base. Due to unionagreements no Regional staff to be based at LHR, so all on secondment. Don't know how long it will last though!

At the moment you will ALWAYS end up covering other bases. We have people running all over the place- no one knows if their comimg or going!. Last weekend I was driving to ABZ, this weekend in LHR, Also covening MAN next week.

Off to bed now, totally knackered. Close to minimun rest again!

FA

Cheers FA,

Sounds manic. Hope you slept well by the time you read this :)

HW

http://www.pilotjobsnetwork.com/fact...fqykmbgvahzk2f

Any truth to the update above ?

ABO944,

It would appear so, first aircraft due end of Oct '08. This is an ex BACON/Flybe unit and programmed to be the maintenance spare, but I guess it will be fully utilised in the near future.

Command upgrades are currently in training and the company is defo under crewed at the mo, even taking into account the reduced flying programme for winter.

Was the rumour of another 6 new F/Os starting this monday the August intake starting line training. Or a fresh intake. :ok:

woofly31,

I am led to believe that they were a new intake but I could be wrong:hmm:

Hi gang

Anyone know the latest on recruitment ? When's the next interviews planned?

Cheers big ears!