Originally Posted by
Edgewoodrx
I'm an older pilot in my late 50,s presently flying Part 135 night freight. After a break from flying for a few years I have taken this entry level freight job to regain currency and make myself marketable. Looking at AMF as a final stopping place in my career.
I know being a freight dog is hardly a primadonna life and I accept that. My current job is all weather, humping freight, back side of the clock, etc, etc. Please don't interpret this as a spoiled whiner post. I'm ok with hard work but before I commit to my last few flying years with a company I have some QOL questions that need answering.
Here's my questions for those who can help:
1. How long (typically) are the crew days? I know there are exceptions but what could a guy really expect each day. I ask because if my commute to the airport is 1 hour and the crew day is the max 14 hours I feel I am setting myself up for failure if I expect to do a 16 hour day, 5 days a week.
2. If the work day is 14 hours, do most people generally live in an apartment 15 minutes from their base?
3. I am specifically interested in DFW. do any scheduled runs actually start from there or would I be a Dallas based relief pilot and be on the road 20 days a month?
I attended their pilot open house and asked these questions but really did not get a straight answer. Really nice folks and they seemed very interested in getting me started but I really wanted to get the straight scoop from recent/current AMF guys. Any extra info good or bad would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Since you are interested specifically in DFW, I'll address this with the actual runs we have.
The DFW base has a total number of slots for 2 BE99 pilots, 4 BE1900's and 2 SA227's. That isn't open positions, but the number we need to cover the runs out of the base. Once we get back to having all of the runs covered completely, we would obviously want a couple of reserve pilots as well.
Most of the runs are 14-15 hour duty day runs as you mentioned. Some of them actually get their required 9 hours rest at a hotel in the outstation during the day. For the couple that do get their rest at night, AMF still supplies a hotel during the day if you are going to be at the out station over 5 hours, which all of ours do.