JohnBurke

I contributed from the perspective of a guy who's flown for four different air ambulance operations, and was the director of maintenance for one of them.

What the **** more do you want?

You're the one *****ing that it's not enough. Grow up.

tlove482

I believe Air Methods has a union.

Sent from my BTV-W09 using Tapatalk

partypilot1

AMC does have a union and you can look up the pay so I’m not sure what the other guy was taking about. In the cba, you can be credited up to 6 yrs so I recommend using this to your advantage in the interview.

Flaps8posrate

He’s right you are snarky and have the trigger finger of a twenty year kid. Who gives a rat’s behind what experience you have when you post replies like that. You lose all credibility, most of which you’d deserve, if you could hold your snarls inside your head.

QUOTE=JohnBurke;2706830]I contributed from the perspective of a guy who's flown for four different air ambulance operations, and was the director of maintenance for one of them.

What the **** more do you want?

You're the one *****ing that it's not enough. Grow up.[/QUOTE]

59lracc

Again, I appreciate the feedback and hope this thread can stay civil. If you feel my comments are out of line and feel the need let me know, please PM me.

I realize that asking for opinions on the internet will get a variety of responses. I am taking all specific feedback I received into account. My reference to dated information was regarding some of the many other other forums that I have read that are 5+ years old, not to invalidate the experience of anyone who replied here.

Thanks again!

59lracc

I respect your experience and apologize for being confrontational. No hard feelings.

Flaps8posrate

You weren’t

SDAtheDO

Air Med Services, LLC is based in Lafayette, LA
We currently have 4 King Air 200's
2 Lear 45's
There is also a Citation XLS and Bravo but these are contract aircraft and have steady crews assigned so its unlikely to get into either of these.
We work an 8 on 4 off schedule
All pilots are based in Lafayette, I do not see any changes to this anytime soon.
Captains start at $90,000 per year and some make more with overtime and/or vacation sell back.
Average yearly flight time is around 400 hours. Jet guys probably fly more.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield, you can add dental and vision, long term care is provided, short term can be purchased. $50,000 life insurance policy, you can purchase additional if you want.
The big draw aside from the extremly smart, strong and handsome D.O. (me), is the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), It takes a year at least to get into the 401K or Roth 401K, there are two sign up periods per year, once you are in a 401K you are automatically in the ESOP which contributes a garanteed 4% but has been higher(about 12%) each of the 12 years I have been here.
We are an ambulance company. The Parent company is Acadian Ambulance, however; we fly more charter and administrative, only 10-15 % is ambulance work.
The schedule varies and there can be late night trips, there will be periods away from home but nothing beyond the 8 day schedule is requires (you may be coerced but we always say days off are golden you don't have to work them).
There is flexibility in the schedule and pilots trading with other pilots is common.
The average Captain flys about 4 of the 8 days on, when not scheduled for a flight you are not required to be at the airport in most cases.
King air work is usually day trips but can be longer.
We do have an Education Loan Agreement to protect the pilots and company from less scrupulous pilots who are happy to move in get training and then move to what they believe is the next best thing.
You pretty much need to live near Lafayette to make the schedule work.
I've been here 12 years and wont leave until I retire and they get tired of me.
Jet pilot pay may not be up to par yet but we plan to address that this spring.
Acadian Ambulance, now called Acadian Companies is a diverse operation, we have a security monitoring company that has branched out to total security systems for homes and businesses as well as design and installation of outdoor entertainment systems.
We operate the National EMS training academy(NEMSA), Safety Management Systems which trains for many safety sensitive positions and provides onsite safety monitoring as well on sight EMS.
The ground ambulance operation, helicopter operations and of course our fixed wing operations. This diversification allows us to be stable even when flight operations drop off. In over twenty years no pilot has ever been laid off.
In short flying for us is not a perfect fit for everyone. I would not consider it a retirement job because at times we work hard. At other times you wonder if we forgot you work here.
Feel free to contact any of our pilots I'll PM you the contact info.
My opinion is it's the best flying job in the world.

SDAtheDO

I didn't address co-pilots earlier.
We do hire low time co-pilots. All you need is Commercial, Instrument, Multi-engine. Captains act as mentors to help you with your career.
Pay is $45,000 for a SIC and we have no shortage of applicants.
The schedule is rough, allowing only the FAA required 13 days off per quarter (unscheduled part 135). The idea is we want you to gain flight time and advance. This basically means every other weekend off.
All pilots regardless of experience start out in the King Airs and moving to jets is based on availability of a position, pilot ability and seniority in the company. Experienced Captains often start out as King Air Captains.
For a Captain we like to see:
3,000 total time
2,000 multi
1,000 turbine
ATP
We often hire with far lower times and no ATP.

3GRNDWN

I hope you find what you’re looking for. After I left the military, I went to fly for an air ambulance company in Georgia. I then moved on to a regional to gain 121 experience and then to a legacy. From personal experience, I can say that flying for the air ambulance operation was the worst of all three. I won’t spell everything out since most posts already covered it, but there is one thing that hasn’t been said: when flying for an airline, there are thousands of other pilots who can do my job. When flying for a Part 135/91 operation, there was almost no one available to cover me when I needed time off. Maybe the operation you’re looking at is far better than the one I worked for? But I know one thing, I’ll never go back to Part 135/91 flying again after my experiences there. Good luck to you.