SoFloFlyer

Out of curiosity, what was the difference between you and them? Experience, knowledge, work ethic, etc...

CaptDave

I’m not sure, honestly, but if I had to guess, I’d say non-121 and non-US flying backgrounds? Age? I dunno. Maybe.

Direct Law

Capt Dave so what is your background. 121 only Domestic flying. I can read between the lines on what you are saying. Is that why you got the 737 and not the 777. I do agree that their are a lot of shady operators and civil aviation organizations but try passing a checkride with the Chinese Koreans Japanese British Australians or even the Chileans the first time. You be surprised.

JonnyKnoxville

I think he was just confirming the 60% failure rate for new hires at Southern Air and that failure rate specifically applied to his actual class. I do not think he was in any way saying he was any better than anyone else.

Thanks CaptDave for your anecdotal evidence of this shocking statistic.

Biggbird

Can someone explain how the trip extensions work at southern? I’m interested in the southern777/atlas 747 gigs. 17 days a month doesn't sound bad. 20 days per month plus the commute to the gateway airport (which counts as part of the 17/20? Maybe not?) is alot of time away.

I’m tempted to leave my regional but am finding a lot of reasons to pump the brakes on this. Heavy time isnt worth being away 22 days a month for 61 hours(50 the first year). I like cargo but this is a far cry from any “mainline” cargo gig like UPS, Fedex. Are there guys that leapfrog to those places after flying here for a year or 2?

Am I missing something?

WacoQCF

You can’t come to Atlas / Southern hoping to leapfrog to another company. While a good number of people do pull it off, even more feel trapped and are unable to decode why better airlines will not contact them.

With the high failure rates, a recent bust makes it even more dangerous to try this stunt in order to get wide-body flight time.

Once employed under AAWW you have to assume that is the career you’ll have until 65. Maybe you can break out, but 2000 of your coworkers are trying the same thing.


1st year pay is about $42k (4 months at $1600; 8 months at 50 hours guarantee. Pay is 80 p/hr)
2nd year pay is about $74k (12 months at $6200 with 62 hour guarantee. Pay is $100 p/hr).

Two months per year you can only get guarantee pay due to training in Miami. Maybe one month of the year you will exceed guarantee by say 15 hours. So enjoy a max of 77 hours.

4runner

Yes, but as someone else mentioned, there’s 2000 other folks attempting the same thing. Go to a job fair and speak to Omni or Kalitta. I’m at one or the other and we all at normal levels of griping. Not full on temper tantrum and not Zen Buddhism. We’re in between and generally satisfied with our employers, unions and contracts. We need to improve a lot, but grateful for what we have and thank those in our leadership that worked hard to get us our respective contracts.

boeingdvr

Doesn’t sound bad. Your right, as you sit in your house, on your body clock, and a decent night sleep.

Day 0- Commute to CVG to LAX
DAY 1. CVG-Bahrain, mim rest
Day 2- BAH- Some hole in Asia, maybe 18 hours of rest
Day 3 Asia-CVG ( body clock is truly mucked ) give they guy a 24/7
Day 5- in a fog, but I can do this CVG-BAH, min rest
Day 6- damn, I feel like ****, how many more days to go, quick look at PCD, damn 12 more to go. Schedule change, BACK to CVG. 18 hours of rest
Day 7- CVG-LEG. What the ****.
Day 8- LEG- ASIA 24/7 ( happy ending ) because at this point, I feel like ****, and need something
Day 9- ASIA- CVG MIN REST
DAY 10- layover in CVG
DAY 11 CVG-BAH min rest what the hell did I do.
Day12- BAH- ASIA
DAY 13, ok, I can do this. Only a few more days to go! Oh ****, what’s this, what the ****, they just extended me 3 more days, plus a late commute home.
Day 14- 9 more days to go
Day 21- commute home
8 days off

Back out to do it all again.

Are you getting the picture ? If you don’t believe me, come see for yourself- the patterns are build non stop flying around the world with the absolute min rest the company can give you.

Come on, we are hiring. Come ruin your body clock with me!

CaptDave

I have prior 121 and have been flying commercial since 2007. I have no doubt that there are some tough organizations out there that would put me to shame on a type ride. Reasons for the recent busts: unstable approaches (2000-3000fpm below 1000AGL), not stowing speed brakes during stall recovery, and loss of control resulting in busting the MDA.

Precisely. Three out of the five of us busted. It was NOT and easy type ride.

JonnyKnoxville

Congratulations on running the gauntlet and coming out the other side unscathed.