captainv

Not updated with a full glass cockpit, if that's what you mean. No ACARS in the -200s.

bushpilot2004

Which base does the flying out of Travis AFB that Evergreen used to do? (HIK, GUM, etc)

atpcliff

I have done it. I don't think it's any one base....could be based anywhere and do that flying...like most of Atlas' flying...

Radioactive

Why don't Atlas pilots fly what they are awarded on their bid line? Do they get a premium payment for their layover changing, schedule revised or added legs?

Braniff DC8

It's called Charter Radio! That is just the way it works in that world. My dad did it, I did it. Pack your bag for a month and hang on for dear life!

742Dash

A normal airline knows its schedule months in advance.

Atlas is not a normal airline. It does a lot of charter. It does military. It does ACMI, where if the customer says "crap" Atlas either does it or gets hemorrhoids trying.

There are parts that are firm, such as DHL, but even then if you are in ICN on a DHL trip and they need a body for a pop up charter, guess what... Or more realistically, they needed a body so they stole George in HKG, which they are covering by airmailing Steve from NGO, and now you are in the ICN hotel looking at how YOUR schedule just blew up with a commercial to NGO. Meanwhile George (remember George?) is figuring out where XYZcrapstann is, and wondering if a 74 has ever been in there (very possibly not).

Pay and contract issues aside, this is the nature of the business. Some guys enjoy it, some guys deal with it and some guys hate it.

My wife has long since given up trying to keep track of where I am. Some of my neighbors actually think that I am with the CIA.

DC8DRIVER

Nope. No premium anything for the changes. That's just the way that Atlas rolls.

Schedule changes are a plague that infects this airline. The Atlas scheduling department is so addicted to this absurd method of crewing aircraft that they know of absolutely no other way to operate their department.

Historically, as an ACMI carrier, Atlas needed the flexibility of transferrable pilots due to the uncertain and ever-changing nature of on-demand charter services for our fickle customers. Now, even though half of our flights are flown for DHL and their set-in-stone, gotta-be-on-time, planned-months-ahead schedules, Atlas cannot for their life leave a CVG based pilot on their awarded schedule. There is this perpetual domino effect of schedule changes going on at Atlas that has been happening for over twenty years, and it won't stop.

Rather than put a reserve pilot in your place when your flight is delayed or a pilot calls in sick, Atlas will simply pull another pilot from the nearest plane and stick him in your open seat. The process repeats itself with the now short-crewed, next-door plane until every 747 (or 76) has had a turn at this insane game of musical chairs. Frequently, the shuffle involves crews deadheading internationally (in business class no less) occasionally passing another crewmember flying the opposite direction (in business class no less) to another empty Atlas cockpit seat.

Despite the misguided belief that operating Atlas without a normal sized reserve pilot group saves our company lots of money, there is obviously an absurd cost to this mindless knee-jerk way of operating, and there is nothing our schedulers can do to get this monkey off of their backs.

So yeah, lots of schedule changes. No premium pay. You are basically bidding a footprint for work days. Where you'll end up is unknown until after you are there. Come to Atlas prepared to accept this as a way of life.

8

Twin Wasp

Because Atlas reacts, they don't plan. QANTAS is notorious for changing the US start/end point of the trip between JFK and ORD with just a couple days notice. Or if a plane is delayed two or three stations up line the whole schedule can crater. And no, no and no.

Whaledriver

They are still dealing with the ripple effects of an FO that called in sick 15 years ago.

DC8DRIVER

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+1