Originally Posted by JPilot77

I spent the last year and half working in ptk, instructing and then flying at IFL before I left for a regional. IFL is an awesome company, the people are cool there and they hire pretty much soley based on internal recs so you know for the most part its a tight knit club. Everyone gets along pretty well and you'll have a good time on the trips and overnights (south Texas is pretty sweet despite what you might hear).

They are pretty meticulous with their maintenance on all the planes and their falcons are in immaculate shape. If they were busy I would have stayed, the captains are all cool and their training is very thorough but it can take some time to get online. It took everyone in my class 7+ months to get our checkrides.

During training you make 1k a month flat rate then once you are checked out you get 1.5k a month for the next 6 months, after that 6 month period you would get another raise to top out at 2k a month and thats where you stayed. The bonuses for border crossings were good and you would also make mileage pay. If you broke your monthly guarantee in mileage then you were paid accordingly. It was pretty much impossible to break the guarantee when I was working there because things were so slow. Captains probably make around 50-65k a year now, I'm not sure what their guarantee is but I know they get raises yearly. A captain to make 100k is pretty much absurd, they used to make that back when they flew part 125 but now its a new ball game and less pay.

I spoke with many of the fo's hired before me and they were said that they were getting 300-400 hours a year in the convairs, not worth the wait if you ask me.

My best freind stayed at the company, he got hired same time as me but into the falcon with 700 hours tt (pays to know people there) and he is rocking out for pay and hours. They have one da-20 based in mfe(where my friend got transferred to eventually), not hrl, and there is no possible way that the two captains flying it down there are making over 100k, they may make close to 80-85 but triple digits there are unheard of as of now, not the way it was when they flew part 125. The 72 guys if they are busy might make close to that but not anymore.

I'm not sure how much the falcons or convairs are flying now out of ptk since I left but I doubt as much as the falcon out of mfe. They have a 727 and 2 convairs based in pil but they are managed by another company, the pilots there aren't even on the payroll at ifl.

I really enjoyed working there, made some good friends and got a little 121 experience flying a classic. What wore me out was the 20 minute call out, living in ptk, and not being trained in a timely manner. Also, in my opinion, ptk is an absolute miserable area to live in unless you are from there. Flying at night alot wasn't that bad, the 20 minute call out is not fun at all, it is basically drop whatever you are doing and get there asap. I turned down several other good jobs at that airport before I made my decision to leave the area and go to a regional, partly because I wanted to leave ptk and also because I wanted a better qol.

I hope this gives you some info on the company, I'm not trying to persuade people one way or the other, just higlighting my experience there. Like I said had they been busy I would still be there but right now at my stage it just wasn't what I wanted. I would look at the other on demand companies around the country as well as their upgrade times are much quicker also if you are chasing pic time.