go to ABX.

 

Good luck! I've never seen a hiring environment like this. Take advantage of these opportunities. You will have a steep learning curve without prior jet experience but if you study hard you can do it.

 

This advice is based on your experience level. Go to a regional and at your level even turboprops. Jumping right into 767 international is a BIG leap and if it doesn’t work out, you’ll have to explain that on a PRIA. Now it may seem neat and a good idea but really, it isn’t. In addition, sorry to say this, but ABX isn’t a Delta or United. If you have the study mind set AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE SKILL SET, go to a wholly owned or at least somewhere with a flow or Aviate, build your hours and go to a major. A lot of people get stuck on the 121 supplemental flying and never get off.

Right now is an amazing time and it won’t last forever so go grab a seat where you’ll be happy for a few years. Get passes and travel and enjoy the bonuses while they last. Find a decent regional with AQP and enjoy flying during the day. COMMUTING SUCKS.

If you’ve never been to CVG, and in the middle of the night, you should go see what your getting into. ABX has hot CVG reserve where you get to sit at the airport in the middle of the night waiting for the phone to go off. That hub is like going to a Quiet Riot concert AND you hope you never get runned over by the most insane drivers you’ve ever seen. Then there’s the van driver who is blasting his music at levels you can’t imagine at 2am. It will ware on you in a hurry I promise and that’s like 90% of the flying. THERE IS NO STARBUCKS AT THE DHL HUB CVG!

Enjoy your time off now and wait for that regional while applying to others. You will soon be drinking from a fire hose and studying like back in college cramming for the finals. Stay away from the 121 supplental charter world, it’s just awful. Stay on your own time zone, fly during the day and NEVER HAVE LOOK AT A NOTOC WHERE YOUR CONVINCED YOU’RE GOING TO BLOW UP.

All the best. Now here it comes!

 

is it really that bad?

 

Counterpoint to Braniff DC8's argument for anyone considering ACMI:

The regionals are horrific. So much so, that the increased pay and bonuses are likened to bribery for indentured servitude on parts of regional forums. PSA had one pilot who was so dissatisfied with their training department that he created an entire website in order to ridicule them. I have flown for a wholly owned regional, a corporate carrier and an ACMI. By far, the worst experiences were at the regional. Regarding the PRIA issue that Braniff brings up, it is more of a jump to go from CFI/CFII flying to operating a 767. It is also a jump that has been normalized in this industry. Embry-Riddle and Frontier have a program where their CFI's go directly to flying the Airbus. Spirit had a program where a CFI would be onboarded as a ground instructor, teach ground school for 2 years, then start training as an A320 FO.

At the same time, the wholly owned regionals have been severely limiting the number of pilots they bring to their mainline counterparts (Endeavor to Delta, Envoy to AA, etc.) outside of the flow. SkyWest has pages in their forum dedicated to how unfair their management was by requesting that Delta and United meter the number of newhires from SkyWest. You won't encounter these problems at an ACMI, particularly ABX. UPS has hired a TON of ABX pilots. In one of their recent social media posts, both the UPS CA and FO showcased, came from ABX. If you want to go back to flying passengers, United has been known to hire ABX pilots before they even finish IOE.

Like FedEx and UPS, most DHL flying is on the back of the clock. You'll either love it or hate it. The "hot reserve" that ABX has is not the same as airport reserve for a regional. In a regional, you'll get 8 hours of airport appreciation time where you have the luxury of wandering around aimlessly or sitting in the cheapest chair they could find and trying to sleep. At ABX, they just get you a hotel room for your entire shift.

Please, for the love of God, don't pick an airline based on whether or not they have a Starbuck's in the hub.

Regarding the Notice to Captain (NOTOC), every cargo carrier can have hazardous materials of some kind on their flights. If you don't want to ever have that onboard, fly passengers and the worst you'll have to deal with will be batteries and dry ice.

Ultimately, to each their own. Hopefully, this post will be helpful.

 

No. I haven't seen the referenced van driver in some time.

 

For the sake of accuracy, I need to point out that the hotel for airport reserve is a temporary thing. Once somebody finally decides Covid is over, it will go back to being at the airport. Even at the airport, though, it's not like you're stuck wandering the terminal for hours on end. There is a lounge area with TVs and recliners and there are dedicated bunk rooms for the R1 crews. If you have transportation available to you, they also make allowances for you to leave the airport for a short time to get food.

 

The turnover rate among new-hires at ABX says different. The turnover rate is so high that the last captain upgrade had been here only 18 months and we are rapidly running out of people who are both willing and able to upgrade.

The advice about going to somewhere you want to be for a few years is solid, though. The longer this airline hiring spree goes on, the greater the chance that there will be an event that causes hiring to stop for an extended period. So I would not encourage anyone to go somewhere like ABX if you don't like the thought of doing that kind of work for several years. I don't think it's nearly as bad as some like to say it is, but then I also spent many happy years in a job that has been described as a job that no normal person will do, so I'm kinda weird that way.

 

Thank you everybody for the information. It's certainly a lot to think about

 

On the up side you don't have to deal with drunk belligerent passengers, passenger medical emergencies, or do pax announcements.