I thought I’d also jot down my reasons for making the move from TCX to VS.
1) The earliest report for duty is at 0845 as opposed to anything between 0400 and 0600.
2) Make the journey to work 3 or 4 times a montha as opposed to 10-15.
3) LHR based (3 miles) as opposed to LGW based (45 miles). That alone will save me over £1000 a year in travelling expense. It also means that by the time I have caught busses from the airport car parks to the reporting point I will spend about 1 hour travelling per day as opposed to 3 hours. Over a typical month this would mean 4 hours travelling to/from work with VS compared to 45 hours with TCX. That’s nearly 2 days a month commuting!!!
4) Money – instant 20% payrise going to VS (despite TCX being one of the highest paying charters) with another pig pay rise to come next year (already agreed).
5) Conditions – TCX pay private medical insurance for me, VS will pay private medical for me, the wife and both kids. This is worth hundreds. On top of this they pay improved Loss of License insurance, PHI, etc.
6) Roster stability – Charter flying is great fun but in the summer months (unless you work for Britannia!) your roster is worthless as there are so many changes on a day to day basis. With virgin i will be able to commit to attending school functions, etc which I can’t do now.
7) Better staff travel. VS is more generous – 7 free tickets a year before starting on an unlimited number of tickets for 10% of the full price. You are also allowed to have an absolutely huge list of friends and family on your concessions. VS concessions are better suited for travel to places that are of more use to me, eg taking kids to Disney or losing myself for a week at a time in the vineyards near Capetown!
8) Staying at TCX will mean having to move to NCL or GLA to take a 757 command. I don’t want to move, take kids to a new school, get out of the south-east property market, etc and then have to do it all over again when my seniority would give me the right to move back down south again. VS only bases their own crews in LHR and LGW.
9) Stability. Charter airlines always come and always will go. Most of my friends who have been in the charters (other than Monarch or Britannia) have been made redundant more than the number of hours they have flown, or at least it seems that way! The problem with Monarch and Britannia is that because they are stable, promotion is ‘dead mans shoes’, ie you have to wait for the guy at the top to keel over and die before you get a chance to progress! VS is still expanding and that’s the way to progress quickly.
10) Kudos – I hate to admit it but if the truth be told I want to be ably to say I fly a ‘heavy’!
There are a few other minor reasons but that’s enough for now.
By the way to answer a few other questions –
Hand – we go to the sim twice a year. One of those checks is called an LPC and that is the check that revalidates your aircraft type rating. I last did one last month and that gives me 5 years until I require significant retraining to return to the 757. I have a pal who is a TRE (type rating examiner) on the 757 who says he’ll do me a renewal in 5 years if I book a sim for an hour. 5 years is up for my Saab ticket next spring but I really hope to not have to fly a turboprop again (even though it looks like Duo may be getting them).
Ren – is that the same model that my younger boy snapped the noseleg off? 😮
GD – It now looks like 6 months on the 300 before doing the 600 conversion. There is a possibility of MFF (mixed fleet flying) with the A380 but I think it would make far more sense for VS to treat them as separate fleets as pilots do not get enough handling when flying long haul to retain currency.
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