getting popcorn for this one........

 

Amen..........

 

Yep. Buttered with some garlic salt for me.

 

Nah, I'll relent. Jet Jockey, there is a wealth of information here in the over four year history of this thread. You may wish to peruse the pages at your leisure and glean what you wish or use the 'search this thread' function at the top of the page. Just about any question you may have can be answered this way. It's not that the participants here aren't friendly (most of them anyway) but we have answered these questions so many times that it is easier to suggest that some homework here will bring you the information you are looking for as well as a ton of valuable information to questions you had not thought of asking yet. Welcome aboard.

 

What Talon says is true. I'm in the same boat as you in trying to get hired, but the folks in this thread are very helpful. If you do some searching, one ambitious member here has even indexed the entire 900+ page thread.

 

It is run very much like a regional. You will have no problem with the transition.

 

Or just stay at the regional until a major airline calls you.

 

Okay, I'll take the bait...INCOMING!!!

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/hi...ir-hiring.html

 

vs.

I am on my fourth career. I've had more than 40 jobs, and eight flying jobs. Atlas is BY FAR the best job i have ever had, in the best career field I have ever had.

Am I surprised by the differences above? No. The only thing that surprises me is the vehemence of the first guy.

There are a lot of pilots out there would never apply to Atlas because they know it is a bad job for them. The worst parts of Atlas, for some people: Being gone over 2 weeks. Sleep schedule messed up by schedule and time zones. Schedule constantly changing. Going to odd destinations. Not getting paid enough. Having to do so much travelling and other stuff with not very much structure....a lot of stuff on your own.

This thread is the best one there is to find out if Atlas is for you. But, I don't feel bad for guys that come here and leave (as long as they've done their homework). It is one thing to read about Atlas, or talk to guys about it....some guys think it will be pretty good, or at least better than their "crappy" job, and when they get here they find out that it is not as good as they thought.

The guy quoted above? I have a hard time believing he did his homework before he was hired on here, OR he was a Polar guy...the Polar lifestyle changed significantly after the merger. If I was a Polar guy who seriously didn't like the changes, I would have left already.

God bless and namaste

 

This can be done quickly.

Executive Summary:
Atlas is 100% charter, so they do their best to do whatever the customer asks them to do. Trips last between 1 day and about 19 days. You can do 30 plus days in a row if you like. Min 5 days off between trips if you ask for it. Fly anywhere except Antarctica. Fly anything: people to porcupines. Fly a lot, or sit in a hotel a lot, or sit at home a lot. Sometimes land once a month or less.

Train in Miami. Deadhead as an airline or Atlas passenger all over, sometimes with more deadhead legs than operating legs. Usually stay in nice hotels...more great than crappy. Have your schedule changed like it was litter paper for 1000 rabbits. Learn how to check your phone to find out where you are. Develop a map in your head for a bunch of major cities and their subway systems.

Xtra Details On Destinations:
Fly cold to places you, and sometimes Atlas, have never been before (Chelyabinsk, Tblisi, Malta, Colombo, Taranto, Avalon, Lilongwe, Recife, Cape Verde, Luanda, Venice, Constanta, Nuremberg, Bishkek, Baku, DWC, Dhaka, Karachi, Hanoi, Jakarta, Auckland, Cebu, Djerba, Zhengzhou)...those are SOME of the places I have been to for the first time since I started at Atlas. Sometimes no one in the whole crew, including the loadmaster and the engineer, have ever been to the location you are going. That happened to me on OE going into Kazakhstan, among other places. One time I flew into Philly with a senior captain and senior FO. Neither one of them had ever been into PHL!!! Sometimes its a crazy world!