"Lads if you finished training over a year ago and you are still sat on 230hrs, then that should tell you something?"...

I had 36hrs which I was doing towards my PPL alongside my final year at University (I didn't finish the PPL as I decided to go Integrated instead (started March 2007) - not the best decision but hindsight is a wonderful thing). Completed that in minimum hours (so my total flight time at that point was therefore just over 180hrs) and since then (completed my course in early September 2008) I've done another 40 odd hours.

Considering I'm working 5 days a week in an office paying off my loan as well as keeping myself airborne as much as possible I don't think there is much else I could have done?

In simple terms you need to keep running just to stand still....

How do you think people get from 230hrs to 1000hrs in a year ?

taxi driver
 

wondering who you are. I am assuming abz based.....:)

Well either:

A) they are absolutely loaded and therefore can afford to hire a lot more than I can;

B) they are able to shell out the £6k or so and due to little or no debt can afford to instruct full time (although most PPL schools seem to be struggling for business and there is a large number of instructors looking for work at the moment; or

C) An operator gives you a break and a first rung on the ladder.

I'd appreciate any other thoughts you have.

'How do you think people get from 230hrs to 1000hrs in a year ?'

A lot are spoiled rich kids who mummy and daddy throw money at because they want to play at being 'airline pilot' merely because a: they have the money to do so and b: they really dont know what to do in life.

The others work , live and breath aviation and scrimp and save every penny to fly............ Just my thoughts from meeting many of both. Keep at it NOTF it will happen ;)

A bit unfair...I am also around 250 hours finished in November. I have applied all over the place....Glider towing, meat dropping, and ferrying, all to no avail. I understand you have to keep moving forward to be standing still, and am getting money together to keep flying, but when places require a min of 600 to 700 hrs to meat drop, it is hard to keep the hours ticking over.Especially when you have just finished training, and yes have a big loan to pay off.
Again just my opinion...time to step off soap box put head between legs and wait for incoming!!
:ouch:

Its how it is now ace , it seems too many people are stuck thinkin bout 'the good ol days' when they gained the CPL and walked intoa job not the tough times that are around today , a friend did the FI and only managed 100 hours in 14 or so months , people just dont have the money to spend on a PPL at the moment either.

duir, at this point in time I'd bite off anyones hand that gave me a chance. It seems like a lot of people in the job forget what it's like when you're at the bottom and can't get a break anywhere (no matter which way you turn). At least when I do get into the RHS flying whatever! it'll taste a lot sweeter than if it had all come easy!

On the 16th December I received,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding vacancies within Eastern Airways
and for taking the time in submitting your resume. We are not
recruiting at present but your details have now been forwarded to our
Chief Pilot for consideration against any future opportunities.

..followed by the usual rubbish about hours etc.

Are they still recruiting? :confused:

Saab Course Dec.
 

Any news on DEC SAAB course in Jan/Feb.?

Duir
Well said and hear hear!
I feel your pain.
Mike

I assume then, that any recruitment for these courses took place last year. Is there likely to be any more or have we missed the boat?

Missed the boat
 

Looks like it with only one trainer available and 4 candidates at a time..? Will be interesting to know if they have the experience required for SCS..
Hopefully can get on the Feb. course..
Here's hoping.:rolleyes:

Pulitov,
I assume you are in a holding pool(?), when were you assessed?

Negative
 

No interview yet but have experience required! (Apart from type rating..)
Hope to hear soon..Was asked if I had the Emb-145 on my licence..Seems to be a priority?
I want ABZ so hopefully get something local:ok:

Are EZE getting EMB's again, they had a couple on lease a few years back?

Yeah someone been silly and walked off leaving the original memo on the photocopier duh. Anyway someone else was in right place at the right time, te-he!

Ok goes as this, two Emb135s are being delivered to HUY first in late March and second in mid April with option of a third, and will be operating a three times a weekday Heathrow Liverpool business only service. Route starts 7th June. Usual Eastern stuff single rotation in the morning and two in the afternoon. Times are still being finalized but looking to leave at 7AM last back in at 8PM both aircraft night stopping at each end.

They should start treating staff fair otherwise some start spilling the beans.

Existing crew that used to fly the emb are being asked about validity of their ratings. Certain saabs are due to go for heavy checks and will need cover.

Liverpool to lhr on a 37 seat aircraft, startup route, in the middle of a recession would be a disaster.

Lake would not bother with the embraer unless he has definite profitable work for them somewhere.

Any ideas where these airframes are comming from?

Koolnell


The Bergen routes are operated by J41's not SAABS and most of the engineers are already rated on the EMB145

Eze Emb's
 

Has anyone heard where these EMB's are comming from? Are they going to be on the EZE AOC flown by their crews or wet leased in from another outfit with crews?

to anyone with the answers

Are the Saabs based anywhere other than Aberdeen and what sort of rosters do they have? Is there any more new on the Embraers? To those based at Aberdeen does anyone commute from England or are the rosters such that you need to live nearby?

Thanks

Saab's are in Aberdeen, 1 in Norwich.
Rosters are busy, unstable, & erratic.
Commuting not really an option for Aberdeen, a couple of senior capt's do it, but normal folk are expected to live in Abz.
Few benefits, but job security is probably better than average at the moment.

Any Further news regarding these EMB 145's that have been mentioned? Any idea where they are being sourced from and for what routes?

There are 2 x 135's coming shortly. Ex Air France Regional aircraft. Location TBC, mostly for use on charter work.

Sounds like good news for Eastern.:ok:

Any more news?
Believe the 135's are coming online, will this drive recruitment or is it an ACMI arrangement or perhaps contractors. I know there had been whispers of some of the senior guys being moved across.

I know of 2 ex TOM guys already taken on for the EMB ;)

Has anyone attended interviews for Eastern recently?

We are short of crew, rumours that saab fleet is struggling especially for Captains, but no formal recruitment going on...?

Direct entry captains are usually bonded at Eastern. There seems to be reluctance to promote Fo's on the saab due to the high PIC requirement for Scatsta.

Anyone been for an interview recently?

About time RL got his hands in his pockets and gave pay rises to all the hard working crew.

Patience is running very thin now

e30k for an ATR rating with no guaranteed employment???? You're having a laugh SC arn't you??? These companies take the biscuit don't they? Mind you, if there are desperados out there who would contemplate such an overtly insulting and exploitative deal, then there is no hope for this industry. Hopefully, folks are finally starting to smell the coffee................:ugh:

Suitcaseman

They have already arrived.

2 anyway, Both at Humberside at the moment

Mention is often made of the "high hours requirement" for the Scatsta contract. Can anyone shed any light on the numbers we're talking about? Does it apply only to Captains, or also to FOs?

When I last flew there in 2008 the high hours requirement was minimum 6000 hours for Captains for the IAC contract, but most had significantly more than this and have been flying to the Shetland islands for years for all the various operators. (Brymon/Brit World/BAF/Flightline) There were some stipulations for F/Os such as time on type (50 hours I think?) but not much else.

Scatsta Requirements:-

Capt: 4000hrs total, 2500hrs command, 100hrs on type
F/O: 100hrs on type, I believe

Possibly a Shell insurance requirement?

Interesting!

Is the Scatsta requirement 2500 hrs Multi Crew Turbine command, or just a straight 2500 hrs command on any type?

Vaughan

I dont think Cessna 152 or Piper Warrior will count!

Shell Management,

I would not wish an accident on anyone, but if you believe that pilot experience is the sole criteria in avoiding accidents, I am fearful that you may be disappointed at some point in your career. One could and perhaps should invoke the names of the experienced KLM and Dan-Air Captains who sadly both met their deaths on the island of Tenerife under very different circumstances. In both cases, their experience did not prevent the very different situations which developed on those days three years apart with identical consequences - the loss of all souls aboard the aircraft which they respectively commanded.

All that said, I would say to you that the hours requirements laid down by oil companies are a farce and may actually be detrimental to the overriding objective of safety which you are trying to achieve. I have encountered several captains in my career with, on paper, substantial flying experience who would pass the paper tests set by oil companies, yet I would seriously baulk at setting foot on an aircraft under their command.

Within those paper requirements, an airline flying for an oil company could quite happily go out and secure the services of a contract pilot who has the requisite experience on paper but who has gone from one carrier to the next with an extremely patchy record of LPCs and OPC passes or failures and with no time built up with any particular operator to provide certainty of adherence to (or even knowledge of) that carrier's SOPs. I must stress that this is not a comment directed at Eastern in any way but rather should be seen as a general broadside against the oil industry's ridiculous belief that hours equals safety. It does not.

An airline - and above all, its passengers - may be far better served by a pilot with less hours but who has accumulated those hours with the same airline under control of a quality training programme. I'd far rather be flying with a 25-30 year old captain with 2,500 hours on type with the same airline from the start of his/her career than I would with a 40-year old captain with 5,000 hours built up with ten years at ten different airlines. Your focus should be on quality assurance and training, rather than hours. Anything less than that smacks of complacency, and I offer no apologies for saying that your posting came across to me as riotously complacent.

I sincerely hope - and I genuinely do - that it does not take an accident to shake you from that complacency.

Again, I stress that this is not a posting which is intended or should be read in any way of being critical of Eastern. It is certainly not, for I have no specific knowledge of what they do or the pilots who fly for them. It should purely be taken as being critical of ill-considered requirements imposed by oil companies on airlines. We don't tell Shell or BP how to run an oil rig, yet a key aspect of safety in the airline business - the supply of properly distilled aviation fuel - depends on you. Airlines audit the end product, ensure that the fuel is safe - regardless of how you've done it - and use it. In the same way, you should audit and assure yourselves that operators are safe, but leave them to determine the means of achieving safety through pilot training and quality assurance to deliver your passengers safely to their intended destination.

And by the way, the broadside against BP is, quite frankly, morally reprehensible. I would hope that anyone who is genuinely from Shell management would have sufficient gumption to post here to publicly disown your views as not representing those of the company to which you puport to belong.

@ shell management
 

What are the unique challenges you talk of? I guess wx related? Anything else?