I made about 60k my first year there as a FE. Salary plus a mileage rate, when you’re busy it really adds up. Since I left the structure was revamped, and pay is even better now. They also offer a commutable schedule.

The Boeing was a different world than the Falcons and Convairs; higher standards, higher pay, tougher trips, and a more close-knit group. I was there two years, and loved most of it. Getting called out at 4am to fly an hour and wait 7 for freight is never fun in itself, but we had great crews, sweet planes, and relative freedom to do whatever you wanted as long as the job gets done; easily the most fun I'll ever have in my career. It's freight, they push you to go, but if you say no, they're equally cool with it. I remember we landed in ELP at the end of a long trip and the company told us to reposition immediately to TOL and load the plane there for the next crew. We went to a steakhouse and had a nice meal first. Never heard a word from the company about that.

Most of the time all you have to do while loading is supervise; but everyone, including that captain, is usually helping push the pallet jack or strap things down. When you get paid by the mile and it's the middle of the night, it just makes more sense to help out the Mexicans so you can get home and back to sleep much quicker. I've yet to see anything like it, when needed, there is a cockpit gradient and ranks, but for the most part you're all there together as a team to do whatever you can to make the job easier for everyone else. Since you ask, initial and recurrent training does include forklift certification. However, I’ve only seen it sued on the road for real twice, both times it was the same captain, and he did it because had just popped a 5 Hour Energy and thought driving the forklift was hilarious.

The people on here complaining about IFL haven’t actually worked for them. There are definitely things to complain about, but I don’t know of anybody who has left that doesn’t look back at their time at IFL and smile. All I do at my current job is tell IFL stories, it was a great time.