Focus, Southern Air, Gemini Cargo????
 

Any pilots from Focus, Southern Air or Gemini Cargo in the forum?? I want to know if those pilots like the company or what they like or thislike about them. And what is upgrade time?? They were in the carrer fair in AEROSERVICE TRAINING CENTER, MIA. Is it worth to fly for them??:confused: :confused: How is the freigther life, is it better than PAX??:confused:

Thanx...

Oscar,
I work for Southern and and over all I like it. It is a tough life being gone as much as we are but improvements are on the way. I would not recommend it for a young family.
We are currently voting on a new contract and should know if it passes after the 1st of August. Not a huge improvement in pay but quality of life should get better. I will not go into the details until the voting is complete.
Cargo over pax- definately.
Upgrade time is based upon many factor: time in heavy aircraft, time with Southern, overall experience, and general "command ability". They have had direct entry captains and others that just needed some experience with the company. Others will never make it.
The majority of the guys are great, but like every company there are weiners.
Having PFEs is a good thing. Most have great deal of experience and work their tails off. They have kept me out of trouble more than once.
There are worse places to work. Where? Ask the guys that are joining us from Champion, Tradewinds, and Skywest, among others.
They keep hiring more than they are loosing so they must be adding more planes. They don't tell us until it happens.
It would be a good place for a younger pilot to get PIC experience. If you have the experience to get hired, get the time to upgrade and spend a couple years flying left seat. Move on to better things.
The worst thing is crew scheduling. The blind leading the blind. Only one of them has a clue and she is hamstrung be the idiot in charge. Ask me tomorrow and I will tell you what I really think.
The VP of ops, Mike Hartley, is gone and has not been replaced permanently yet.
You can check my other post I have answered a lot of questions in those.
Good luck.

__________________
747 Size does matter.

curious about southern
 

18, what r the schedules like right now? how long out on the road typically? is the flying mostly Asia? where r overnights and how long at each? r u strong-armed into staying on the road much? any pay incentives to keep flying longer? where do people go from southern? what is the fastest you can upgrade, assuming you have all boxes checked? sorry 4 all the q's, just curious about leaping to southern...

Fliteinfo.com has some pretty good threads on this subject.

1. Typically 17-20 days.
2. Layovers are in Seoul and Shanghai on the asian side. (Hong Kong is gone for now). ANC, ATL, and DFW predominate on the domestic side. A few LAX, JFK, ORD and maybe MIA.
3. Asian layovers run 2-4 days. Domestic vary. I've seen 4 days at ATL on the bid package, but usually 1-2 days. ANC's are usually 1-2 days.
4. They don't strong arm. It just happens.
5. 3 hours of flight pay (above what you fly) for each "day off" worked. This is also above the guarantee.
6. Fastest upgrade is immediate. Average about 6 months - for some never. Depends on your background/ability more than seniority.
7. We haven't had large defections recently. A few DL/UA furloughees are being recalled. The occasional JB and CAL hiring. Last year we had major defections to Focus/Polar, but you'd have to axe them how "smart" a move that was for them. I think one left for MAX Jet.

Iron Is that an anti-ALPA cap? Where can I get one? Looks great!! REDWAVE:eek:

Itaewon Market, Seoul. Underground shopping center. "Friendship" shop. It's a dress store in the front and in the back the guy sells Polo style shirts, t-shirts, caps, etc. Mostly airline logos. Found that hat with the hated ALPA logo on it and he embroidered the red part after I drew it out for him. About $12.

You could make some $ selling it. If you head over again let me know as I would love one. ALPO loves you until you don't pay dues and then the knives to the back come!! REDWAVE:eek:

Ironspud,
Thanks for answering maddogs questions. Been busy the last couple days and haven't had time to play on computer.

_______________________
747 Size does matter

Here are two other post's on Focus:

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...0384#post40384

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...1420#post51420

Sounds like a guy who cant get a job with an ALPA carrier.........

17-20 days gone? The only thing worse than ALPA is flying without them....

I'm currently working with EXPRESSJET AIRLINES.... And I think we are an ALPA carrier:D .

FDX11 How about a guy that spent 27 years flying with an ALPA carrier. Don't be so quick to judge a person. Alpa took my dues for all those years but did nothing as airline after airline have screwed their pilots by taking pensions. As I stated, once you're done paying dues they could care less about you. Woerth(less) and his band of merry men should be run off the property. How much of a paycut did he take from his $450,000? How much did he lose from his pension? You guys need to get as much pension $ in your own names as possible before it's too late. After this I deserve to wear a hat with an anti-ALPA logo if I want. REDWAVE:eek:

For what it's worth, ALPA (with some help) saved my dad's pension last week - as long as Bushy signs it.....

Sounds like a guy that needs to look around. I worked for an ALPA carrier...Emery. ALPA made no effort to keep our jobs and only when suit was filed against them did they make a pretense at representing us. They appointed a custodian that had received less than 10% of the vote when running for MEC chairman (he's now working at FedEx, make of that what you will). When the dues quit being deducted, ALPA disappears. Check with the Old Continental, Eastern, and TWA guys.

Back on the thread, I fly for Gemini and work 15-18 days in a row. I would take that in a heartbeat over what I was doing at Continental Express: 17 days off but trans-con commute meant less days at home. Now I get 15 days off at home completely uninterrupted. If you only get 3-4 days off you're just realxing one day then doing laundry to get back to work. I get to take a vacation every month. I really enjoy the schedule. Its not for everyone, but it works very well for my lifestyle and for my wife.

VB, hello again....... I've been busy with a couple of projects.... I forgot, how long have you been at Gemini?

I sent my app, but even though I triple their time requirements, the phone isn't ringing.

Any advice?

St

Talked to some people in Dulles recently. I think you will see a new hire class in the 4th and 1st quarter. Probably a DC10 and MD11 class. Be persistent.


There are also some split lines. The schedule is different in the 11 than the 10. We don't have many hardlines in the 10, the ones we do have are all below guarantee so you will generally be out for 17-18 days. The best amount of days off you will get in a 30 day month is 12 and 13 off in a 31 day month. Sure you may see 15 days off in the bid package but that is within the cycle not the month.
I really enjoy the work and for all our issues it is a good place to work. I just turned 14 days of vacation into 38 you can't do that in many places.

No, just a guy like myself who had our careers stolen with the aid of ALPA & APA. TWA.

How are you doing ole friend. Scuba?

Whale

So did it pass or fail? Details?

The contract between the Southern Air Crew Group and Southern Air Inc. passed 79 for and 6 against. Effective date for pay was retroed back to August 1.
Five year contract.
Main items are:
1. Five percent increase in pay effective Aug 1 2006.
2. Effective Aug 1 of 2008 pay increase of 5%.
3. Pay scale extended to 15 years.
4. Duty rig of 3.5 hours per day. So if you are out the full 20 days you will
be paid for at least 70 hours. If you fly and deadhead more than that you
be paid what you fly.
5. 3 hours extra pay for first day of guarenteed day off and 4 hours extra for
each day after.
6. If you are away from home for more than 20 days your duty rig will be 5
hours per day. Again if you fly more you will be paid the greater of the two.
7. First year of contract $2 per hour per diem, year 2 and 3, $2.25 and year
4 and 5, $2.50.
8. Vacation bids are set up so that vacation come in conjunction with days
off. This way even junior man will not have worry about wether he can
bid the month before his vacation to get days off with it.
9. Pilots and engineers will be able to move to other seat if they qualify for
that seat. However you will loose seniority for bidding.
10. The biggey for most was getting Home Baseing. No jump seating to work!
I know there will be some of you saying it is a peice of crap contract and you would never agree to it. But that is OK you don't have to live with it we
do.
It is definately not even close to perfect but it is a vast improvement over what we had before.
The company is abiding by the contract and that is what we wanted.

I know there will be some of you saying it is a peice of crap contract and you would never agree to it. But that is OK you don't have to live with it we
do.
It is definately not even close to perfect but it is a vast improvement over what we had before.
The company is abiding by the contract and that is what we wanted.[/QUOTE]


Baby steps! Congrats on the new contract.

Compared to Focus Air...
 

Looking at what the guys make at Focus compared to you... They are a little better off if they don't stay out past 19 days.
Focus only pasy 3.5 hours past 19 days (but its over a two month period so they could keep you out 21 days one month and 17 the next = no overtime)

No guarantee on home basing.

Not paid block to block only on flight plan.

No pay for DH.

$2 per hour perdiem - never a penny more.

I think your slary should be higher, but overall, not a bad contract for an ACMI carrier.

I think it is a little tougher to collect OT at Focus due to the way the pay structure is set up. Focus guys correct me if I'm wrong but I believe one has to fly over 120 hours in a two month span to collect any OT. Again I'm not positive about that, but that is what I understood, like Dutch was illuding to above.