Is it worth it?

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jinxer226
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Is it worth it?

Post by jinxer226 »

Can someone inform me why airlines like Summit Air have these 'Pilot-in-Waiting' positions? Meanwhile, they constantly have job postings for FO/CA positions. Are they not hiring the poor guys working their butts off in the cold tundra hoping for a right seat position? If I had moved up north to work ramp for a company that promised me a pilot position when it became available then constantly have postings for OTS positions I would feel cheated. Does this airline prove that these pilot-in-waiting positions are just a scam for airlines to get ramp personal that nobody wants to do?
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digits_
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Re: Is it worth it?

Post by digits_ »

I don't know about Summit specifically, but that stuff happens everywhere, for multiple reasons:

1) Retraining a good ramp guy might take a while. Not much, but if you have a lot of pilot resumes, why bother. As long as you keep the ramp guys happy enough they don't leave, the operator is happy.
2) If you only train ramp personnel as pilots, they would at some point end up with FOs who are not upgraeadble (no ATPL, not enough experience), so they would run out of captains, and then have to hire of the street captains. Companies generally prefer to have captains they know. Hiring of the street FOs with more experience than the ramp guys, mitigates this risk a bit. This was a concern at quite a few companies before covid.

Once you make it to the right seat, you'll see the same things again when waiting for an upgrade. Hiring a typerated direct entry captain on a new type, so they don't have to pay for a PPC for you. Upgrading someone else because you just had a PPC renewal and the other guy didn't. Things like that.

Unionized companies are usually a bit better for these situations, but you could run into other issues there. Unless there is a massive exodus of pilots, companies usually have no incentive to change their practices.

Good luck!
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Flylikearedneck
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Re: Is it worth it?

Post by Flylikearedneck »

If you volunteer to clean the lav every day, I hear you get the right seat a little faster.
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Zaibatsu
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Re: Is it worth it?

Post by Zaibatsu »

That’s why you should get hired OTS instead of ramp.

Ask those OTS guys how many years they’ve flown to get the experience they needed for an OTS pilot position. Ask how much ramp they did before getting that experience too. It might be interesting.

Then ask yourself if ramp is worth it to skip all of that, which might include as much or more ramp than you will do.
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flyinhigh
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Re: Is it worth it?

Post by flyinhigh »

jinxer226 wrote: Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:29 pm Can someone inform me why airlines like Summit Air have these 'Pilot-in-Waiting' positions? Meanwhile, they constantly have job postings for FO/CA positions. Are they not hiring the poor guys working their butts off in the cold tundra hoping for a right seat position? If I had moved up north to work ramp for a company that promised me a pilot position when it became available then constantly have postings for OTS positions I would feel cheated. Does this airline prove that these pilot-in-waiting positions are just a scam for airlines to get ramp personal that nobody wants to do?
Summits largest issue is the expansion that has gone on this year, hence all the CA/FO postings. All posting do go internal first, then to the street.
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