SkyHigh

Hoss we love you but your ego-centered history lessons are getting old. Sure, back in the 1980's burning a few years in AK was a good idea. The majors would hire a well connected guy with 1500 hours of single engine time in those days. However since you got hired at the big time the rest of the planet has since moved on. For your information the majors today want to see young jet captain success. The way to get that is to go to a regional as fast as you can.

To be fair however UAL hasn't actually hired a new pilot in more than a decade. As far as we know they might be looking to fill classes with mailmen, but I doubt it. Maybe you could get on the interview board and convince everyone to hire a Cherokee 6 driver with 4000 hours in the bush over a 28 year old CRJ captain? I would very much like to see that in fact.

Sadly if life were fair bush pilots would be given their due. The reality is that most major airlines only care about Jet PIC period. Nothing else matters. And if you don't believe me then try to fill out an application to SWA without it. All your single engine and SIC AK time is for naught. To those who want to fly for the airlines skip the AK dead end and go straight to a regional.

Not what most want to hear but if I could go back in time I would be telling myself the same thing.

Skyhigh

USMCFLYR

Did you get that Hoss?
YOUR ego-centered history lessons are getting old
But he will come onto the site in a few days and practically re-post a random thought about the airline industry that has been recycled for the hundredth time.

USMCFLYR

Panzon

Sled pilots start out around $200/day on the low end (but the high end is probably only another $40/day, so the spread is small). I'm told the Yute pilots who really bust ass will make $80k/year and will time out in early to mid-December.

In most cases this isn't a job for a married guy who plans to commute if the kids are little or the Fun Police wants him to be around a lot. But if there are no encumbrances like a family, or if the kids are older and the Fun Police has hit menopause, then commuting works just fine. And, of course, you could move the family here, which would be great if you and the family like to spend your free time hunting, fishing, trapping, snow machining, etc. It's definitely a great place for outdoorsmen.

If you are a single guy, you will find pretty slim pickings on the female front. Very few female pilots here, and while most are easy on the eyes, most are spoken for. The resourceful guys will troll the medical community (some honeys there!) and some of the native women are just knockout good looking. But the ratio of single men to single women is definitely skewed in favor of the women.

SkyHigh

When I was in Alaska there was a saying, "you didn't loose your girlfriend, you just lost your turn". I have heard that the reverse is true in Southern California. Men seem to flock to places that are remote and danger filled while the gals like warm places that are well developed.

SKyhigh

HercDriver130

Wrong again Sky....UAL hired pilots as recently as 2007, they are currently on furlough.. but you are wrong they have hired during the past decade.

Panzon

Guys, let's not turn this into a bashing session.

Sky-high is speaking from his personal experience, and I am speaking from mine. Something he said in an earlier post may explain the difference: it could all be a matter of timing. With the regionals taking VERY low time candidates right now it may mean the AK time is acceptable. And possibly when Skyhigh was looking to parlay his experience into a job in the majors there was a surplus of candidates, so his time wasn't valued as highly.

Let's try to keep our responses civil: if we don't we will discourage others from sharing their experiences, and over time the number of participants on the board will drop to the point where the same five guys are the only ones who post. That would be bad for all of us.

Now I've got to go out and warm up the car: it's -28C this morning!

Airhoss

Yeah I got it....

Just to clear up a few things for the guys who want to hear it. Plug your ears SH the truth hurts.

I was hired at UAL in 1997 not in the 80's. I had a core group of buddies whom I knew and flew with in AK. ALL of them wound up at a major in the long run. Off hand I am able to come with 8 pilots in my circle of friends who are now flying for various airlines to include 2 at Fed-Ex, 2 at DAL, 3 at Frontier and one who is a senior 747-400 captain at Cathay Pacific based in and living in Dallas Texas on the freighter.

Alaska now has far more turbine opportunities than it did in early 90's when I and all of the guys mentioned were flying there.

Hey I agree that AK might not be the ticket if you are trying to get on with a big jet airline at some point. But it is definitley NOT a dead end as SH reports. Since I actually fly for an airline, unlike SH. I meet and talk to guys that I haven't flown with just about every week, AKA first hand factual information. We have a number of guys who have some Ak flying in their background. Not a majority mind you but they are definitley here.

Oh and when I upgraded to captain at UAL in 2008 my F/O was a 2008 hire and guess what? He had flown up in Ak for a time as well. He then got on with Connie Kallita flying 747's before coming to UAL in 2008.

A quick mathematical calculation tells me that we have in fact hired pilots in the last decade. Sorry about that SH.

USMCFLYR

Then you should take the time to explain this to Skyhigh since it is he who doesn't understand the difference in timing or that these are his own experiences - but rather applies HIS EXPERIENCES across the board to all facets of aviation.

It isn't a "bashing session" when people point out the glaring inaccuracies.
If you want to see bashing Panzon, go back and read a few of Sky's post when he likes to fire off broadbrush insults of groups of pilots (or other professionals) or tells you that you are an inadequate parent/husband/significant other/etc... because you are a professional pilot.

Panzon - you just keep supplying CURRENT information to those young and old pilots out there alike who are interested in Alaskan flying. Thank you for your updates.

USMCFLYR

Csy Mon

Alaska flying never set anybody back, but it may not be the fast track route to a Major Airline..And shouldn't be either: Enjoy the flying up there and the out-doors...It is also a good flight-school: A 30 knot cross wind going into a dirt strip in a C-207 will wake you up and is more challeging than flying an RJ from runway to runway in the lower 48s.

Never got any glass or turbine time in Alaska, but still got hired on Big Iron: Wide body captain before 40.

Good flying in Alaska, miss it sometimes...But not in the winter..

Anybody doing fish-haul of the beaches..?

HercDriver130

When Sky....states falsehoods...I will call him on it, end of story.