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03-25-2015 | 01:55 PM

#1820

jetboy

New Hire

Joined: Mar 2014

Posts: 3

Likes: 0

Quote:

Originally Posted by TangoUniLima

Here is the job:
You are constantly training new hire SICs that come from flight instruction. These people have no experience in aviation and constantly question your every move with some dumb example they experienced in a C150.

You are assigned a base, but you never work at your base. You are always taking a rental car and driving for three or more hours from your base to another base. Then you are stuck in this new city for your "12" or "10" day rotation covering for the pilots who drove their rental car from their base to cover your cities.

You use to know your schedule weeks out, but now dispatchers use something called an optimizer that randomly screws up every plan you have for the next x hours. This includes all the hotel and rental car reservations you made the night before. Let's say you spent hours on the phone setting up a trip for a passenger. Then someone hits optimize at midnight. You get up in the morning, bam, time to call HH Diamond Desk and cancel all those rooms you just ordered the night before. Mgmt calls, then complains to you why you couldn't get rooms for less than $300 a night, and why you have no foresight, etc...

Upgrades are probably the most ridiculous thing here at this company. I know guys who have been at this company for seven plus years and are still flying 90s just because the CP has a hard on for the dude. Then there is the opposite spectrum, you have guys who come from flight instruction with no jet time and get an upgrade over guys with 7,000TT. Recently they upgraded a guy to a 300. This guy has no jet time and likes to takeoff with his hands in his lap until rotation. Apparently that is what they are looking for in a PIC.

Leadership at this company is basically, fly safe, but get the job done. The major complaint among pilots is getting yelled at when they have a question or concern.

You will most likely have two type ratings and will constantly be in training. All of you will probably get a boner reading that, however it really blows. You are paid like a SIC at any other charter place, yet you are typed as a single pilot PIC on multiple jets. Good luck though trying to remember those performance numbers when on approach, after not flying the aircraft for a month, single pilot.

HR is a mess. In recurrent, someone asked a question about health benefits, she couldn't remember. Someone else asked another question. She couldn't answer that one either. No problem right? You think she would get back to you on the questions she couldn't answer. She never does, nor returns calls or emails. I really don't know what she does for the company other than collect a pay check.

The reason everyone has their app is out is they are tired of being beaten up, underpaid, scrutinized at every opportunity from anyone in the company.

Everyone is asking for honesty, and my honest opinion regarding this company is:

Everyone is hiring right now. Don't waste your mid 20s in a rental car driving between Wichita and Kansas City, after sleeping in a budget Holiday Inn.

Tango, I'm not sure how long you've worked at Air Share, but my initial reaction to your post was "what did you expect?" I'm certain you knew the aircraft types and pay scales before you took the job, right? Every aircraft in their fleet is single-pilot certified except the Lear 45s. If you don't think you have the skillset to fly the planes single-pilot then why did you sign up? It seems like all that training is meant for a very good reason.

And what do you expect to upgrade to? Everything they operate is arguably an entry level aircraft. If you're the guy looking for mids and large cabin, you won't find it at Air Share, so why even worry about upgrades? Based on all the hiring going on, I'm sure a couple thousand B300 turbine time will be just as valuable on the market as a few hundred in a VLJ.

As far as pay goes, if you don't like it why are you staying? My assumption is they have you locked into some training contract, but those can be easily managed with a good negotiation at another company. And if you can add value to your role, then people will pay you more. You just have to find the right place and be willing to put in a few years of grunt work.

As for your other concerns, there are some things that all candidates need to consider:

1. This company's "regional" model allows it to keep its customers' costs low by the mere fact that its bases are geographically located within 3-4 hours’ drive of each other (except BUF). Again, I ask "what did you expect" when it comes to travel between bases? Every company with multiple bases will have commutes. You should have easily determined that there was no airline service between MCI and TUL, or ICT and MCI. On the flip side, you would think they'd recognize employee cost savings when they're willing to drive, and reward you for that, but maybe that's not the case.

2. As for your 10 or 12 day rotation, if you're looking for time at home with the wife and kids, why did you choose a fractional? You're not going to find that QOL at any fractional, whether it's Air Share, Netjets, or Flops. The question I'd ask is are you flying all of those days? If so, try to stay healthy on the road, eat well, and use it to your advantage and build the time. If you're not flying, then request a different domicile where there's more activity. If what you say is true, it really doesn't matter where you live since they've got you on the road for your entire tour, right?

3. On the topic of an optimizer, every medium to large airline uses some sort of automation to schedule its flights. They would be stupid not to. It's not possible to handle the volume otherwise without an unsustainable amount of overhead. Don't blame your dispatchers for schedule changes; that's what their job is, and they can't control when a customer books a flight. Remember, this is not 121 stuff. And if you think your pay is low, why not ask one of your dispatchers what they think of their pay? I bet you'd find that the demands placed on them are every bit as much as you, and they're making considerably less per hour than any pilot (yes, they do get to sleep in their own bed at night). That said, I really wonder if they pay their dispatchers more than $12-14/hr? Maybe the problem is they don't pay people enough to care, so therefore they don't want to perform, and unfortunately the poop usually falls on the pilots, especially when it comes to manipulating a crew schedule.

But, seriously, how much time have you spent in their OCC? Have you interacted (and I mean truly interacted, and not just gone in to b.s.) and asked to see how/why they change your plans? I'm wondering if they implement this as part of your IOE/recurrent training. Maybe you could suggest that.

4. And, not to continue the beat down, but when it comes to management's scrutiny of your expenses or belittling your questions, again I ask, "what did you expect?" Your COO came from Colgan (that's a discussion worthy of a forum all on its own), your DO is from American Airlines, and the OCC manager came from Pinnacle and Mesa (how ironic he used to work with the COO). Unfortunate as it may be, you're essentially working for a regional. I guess you should consider yourself lucky not to have to live at a crash pad for 10 nights, although I'm sure the COO has thought about it. Just be careful when they start saying your travel doesn't count as duty time. Read your history books if you don't know what I mean.

5. HR - now that's a funny one. Toys R Us. Enough said, other than I'm sorry.

6. Simply based on the fleet types and your allegation that they are "constantly training new hire SICs that come from flight instruction," it would appear Air Share is an hours-building stepping stone into bigger equipment at other companies, nothing more nothing less. That's not necessarily a bad thing as long as it's also a safe operation. Use it to your advantage, build some time and get out.

There are 2 things you can guarantee about fractionals; you work max duty days and you're constantly on the road, hence why Teamsters now run Netjets and Flops. The bottom line is do your due diligence on the places you want to work and the people who run them. All of this information is easily accessible with a little google kung fu. This forum is great for that. But recognize when to blame and when to take action for yourself. Companies are hiring, but the job industry is still tough out there, and sometimes you have to take a little less now to gain a little more later. You shouldn't accept any job at any company without digging for information on your own, and if you don't, then there's no one else to blame but yourself.