A lot has happened in the
last couple of weeks in addition to my flight instruction duties at First Flight.
I was very happy (actually
downright giddy) last Tuesday to set up an interview at Comair Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Delta Airlines in Cincinnati. With the
help of my good friend Scott Granger I was able to get in touch with the pilot
recruiter at Comair a few weeks ago.
After keeping in close contact with him and bugging him every few days,
he approved my resume and scheduled me for an interview on January 31.
The gravity of this situation
is rather large. Comair is the only
significant regional airline hiring right now.
The only reason they are hiring is because last year they had an 89-day
strike to secure a new pilot contract which temporarily halted their growth
plans. While other airlines were hiring
like mad to prepare for expansion and later furloughing, Comair was struggling
with labor problems. Comair’s expansion
plans continued after the strike was over and, with a new pilot contract, is
currently in a hiring boom which will probably last about 3 months.
It would be a great airline
to work for, and probably even a better deal overall than Continental Express
was. All new hires are placed in
training for the Canadair
Regional Jet, a very similar aircraft to the EMB-145 RJ that I was to fly at
Coex. Their pay is better and the
contract provides better work provisions.
Their main pilot base is in Cincinnati, so it looks like we may end up
in Ohio after all. This is likely the
only opportunity I will have all of this year to get back into the airlines, so
I’m under a great deal of pressure to do well.
More on Comair if I actually
get the job. I hate even mentioning it
prior to my interview but it leads into the next part of today’s journal
entry.
Early this morning I made my
final upgrade to my pilot certificate by attaining the Airline Transport Pilot
rating (ATP). I did this as a
last-minute move in order to make myself more competitive at the Comair interview.
The ATP is kind of
considered the Ph.D. of flying, to quote my instructor. It requires 1500 flight hours among other
requirements, and is only required for airline captains. My original plan was to wait until I
upgraded to captain at Coex so they could pay for it in the regular course of
my training, but obviously, plans change, and I think it was a good investment
in my career given the extremely competitive nature of airline hiring these
days.
I called the Airline Transport Professionals school on
Saturday to see if they could squeeze me in before I left for my
interview. After some jockeying around
we finally were able to schedule a checkride and two training sessions. I had also called Sheble’s Aviation where Mike Lorenzetti and I did our multi-engine ratings a
couple of years ago, but when I called the first time they put me on hold
for 20 minutes and I had to hang up. I
called again later, they said they were busy and would call me right back, and
never did. Apparently they didn’t
really want my $1595. Sheble’s crashed
two of their airplanes in training accidents last year so it’s probably just as
well.
My instructor and I met at
about 1900 Sunday night to do the first part of our flying. The airplane we used was a Piper Seminole, a
light twin-engine used primarily for training.
It’s an easy airplane to handle and much less complex than the Cessna 402 at Ameriflight, so I didn’t
really have much trouble with it. After
a 2.5-hour lesson, we met again the next morning at 0530 to finish the
training. The reason we had to meet so
early was because the only ILS approach available is at McCarran International
Airport and they kick training flights out after about 0630 due to heavy
airline traffic.
After 4.3 hours of training
in the Seminole, I completed my checkride this morning from 0430-0800. It went just fine. The checkride is really nothing more than an instrument checkride
with tighter standards. I did 4
approaches, two of them with one engine inoperative, steep turns, and stalls
all in simulated instrument conditions.
The nighttime weather, as usual, was great. Kind of funny that I never got to fly the Seminole in daylight
conditions though. I was happy to know
I still have decent instrument skills after not having logged a single approach
since August of last year.
So now I have a $1295 piece of paper to carry with me to Comair. I hope it helps.
My flight instruction is
going well. I have 5 students now and
continue to sign up more people. If I
get the Comair job offer I will probably stop taking new students but should
have time to finish what I have started with my current students. I have been getting 2-3 hours of flying per
day, which is very nice after having flown about 10 hours in all the last 4
months of last year. I really did miss
flying and I find myself much happier now that I spend less time on the
ground. And it’s also nice not having
to rely on unemployment income.
Another report will follow
after the interview. They will notify
me by mail about a week or two afterwards.
It’s going to be a very nervous week so I’ll have to keep myself busy
with flying!
