I have an interesting question. Before I ask let me give a brief back round in order to help you understand why I am asking this question. First off I have a fascination with how freight moves. I am 24 and own a small business that consist of three expedite trucks leased to a carrier, this is actually a family business run in conjunction with my mother….i know I know kind of funny I run it with my mom…but she is trusting and a good business women. I am attending college for a 2 year degree in small business management and am thinking of eventually finishing my four year. Currently working as a supervisor at a delivery company…..good hrs and leaves allot of time for flying and school. I do have three years in at a four year university majoring in flight, but I stopped going in order to start my business. I am currently starting work on my instrument (ground school starts in a few weeks) and the rest of my commercial. After that I plan for my multi. After at least the inst, comm., and multi are done and my 2 year degree (depending might finish online) I would like to build up more trucks after we pass the three year mark and have reached profitability. Now to make a long story short I would like to eventually get a light a/c to fly cargo…this would be a long time down the road, a good economy, and allot of trucks lol. But I just as well would be happy with three trucks and flying for ATI or Capital for my carrier! Okay, what I would like is your best advice on how I should go about gaining flight experience in order to achieve eather of the goals. For example would getting my flight engineers rating be worth it in order to get on with a cargo airline? Should I fly for a 135 or even stick it out a fly for a 121 like ATI? Getting my CFI’s? Any advice would be great! Thank you!

 

Sounds like another UPS/FEDEX in the making haha. Which by the way both of those companies require you to have to Flight Engineer (FEX) written to apply for the job. You would need to get some hours, what would probably be best for you is to instruct since you already have a business. So definately get your CFI certificates.

Flying cargo would be a good option since that is what you are already involed with. You could look at Welcome To AirNet Systems, Inc. they have a pretty good program as far as flying cargo. Most, if not all, cargo carriers require that you have about 1200TT also.

 

ahahahah, could call it FEDUPEX!! Thank you for the advise!! You are right about with the cfi certificate, I am starting more and more to see the value of CFI! For the FEX written would I nead an endorsement from an instructor?

 

Personally, I would suggest aggressively pursuing your 4-year degree first or at the very least along with acquiring your ratings. This is invaluable education for running your own business. Major in some fashion of business or finance. Don't wait - get 'er done.
It's great that you're working with your Mom, she brings experience to the table and allows you the time to do these other things.

After reading your post I'm not sure if you have really defined what direction you want to pursue with your own career ambitions. Have you?

If your goal is to expand your freight operation, then keep your eye on the goal. Do everything in your power to learn that business from the inside out. If you are looking to learn the business from a pilot perspective then pick the company you consider to be a good role model and plan your steps to get hired by that company - for the purpose of learning their business model and operations. What are their minimums? What do you need to do to achieve the minimums?

I don't think shooting to be hired by FedEx or UPS would be a good goal unless you are choosing the path of a career pilot (it will simply take too long for you to get there) - - Define your ultimate career goal.

So, if you are looking to learn the flying operation of moving cargo for the purpose of expanding your own company (that is an important distinction) then start looking at companies where you might be hired in the not-so-distant future...AND that parallel what your own company does. Ameriflight, AirNet, etc.

 

I will take a look in to four year, I am going to try to take as many classes at the community college as I can to save money, But there are many good universities around the CLE area where I can get my 4 year in something business related. I was not clear with my own carrier path in my post. My carrier goal is to run my business full time, with trucks as the main operation and aircraft as a smaller portion of the business. Right now what I am trying to do is 1. finish my degree (4year) 2.Finish flight ratings 3. build time 4.get my business through the slow times 5. grow once freight picks up. 5. keep myself continually learning the freight business 6.Get on with a small freight airline for a period of time to learn the business hands on. There might be more that I have not named lol.
As for my current experience with the freight business it goes
1.Job shadow Grandaire in hs (example of a bad role model)
2.FedEx Ground sort facility
3.UPS Driver helper (wanted to see how they operate)
4. My business!
5.Supervisor for a small delivery company (current job)

I am hoping this might be appealing to a small air freight company (part135) I might even be able to do both flying and some sort of management. Do you think I am in the right direction in order to get hired with a 135 like Ameriflight or Air Net?

Thank you Lori!

Andrew