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Omni Air

Old 09-26-2012, 06:45 PM
  #521  
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Originally Posted by seoceancrosser View Post
Everyone that would like to work at Omni should do one thing; go to the APC website and look at the pay calculator. That is what you will make before taxes and not a penny more. You will be gone 18 days every month to earn that. You will probably fly 20-50 hours a month depending on which fleet you are on. You will never break guarantee. Omni will go out of their way to make sure that you don't. You will sit in hotel rooms for multiple days in different countries until your 18 days are up with nothing to show for it. There is no daily credit.

If you do go to Omni, begin training, decide that Omni is not for you, or have a personal event in your life that you must tend to, then your withdrawl from training will be counted as a failure on your record.

These are just a few of the minor problems that exist at Omni. Be very careful on pulling the trigger on Omni.
Even if you are gone 18 days out of the month, guess what, it can be, again can be all at once. BUT, They get get you to and from work. Now, I know gateway travel is BS and being held out sucks but it sure is better than being an RJ or for that matter a Major carrier driver who doesn't live in base who has to commute to work the night before, on a "day off", fly their two, three, four, or five day trip, get back to base so late at night they have to spend another night away from. Then in the morning list them self on a standby/jumpseat to try, try to get back home on what is now another "day off." I know this isn't always the case but usually commuting on a day off at least twice a month happens. A lot of us here at Omni came from or have been a part of that life. For me even if I do work 18 straight, which I never have, yet, it's probably still more days actually at home than trying to commute to a base. Those day just happen to be all at once, so what?

Yes. We do sit in hotel in other foreign countries for days on end, I'm in one now in Germany have been for two days with a day and a half to go. But how many Americans wait their whole life for a vacation in Germany, Honolulu, Anchorage or Bishkek, ha. I know the last one is a little far stretched but still, how many Americans even know where that place is? Now, I know we're limited to what or where we can go once we get to where we're going but there's always those time when you're doing a Caribbean charter out of Gatwick and you have a whole day off at the Gatwick Hilton and London is only a 30 minute train ride away. I fell if you don't take advantage of that, that's your loss. I know it can be hard to take advantage of Djibouti but, places like that usually aren't for long. Yeah, SNN can get old but there's not a lot going on there these days.

Yeah we don't fly over guarantee but for the most part most pilots on reserve at "the airlines" don't either. You shouldn't base your salary on what you think you'll fly. You should base it on what you know you're going to make that year. As for the total hours, yeah we only fly around 250-350 a year. Unless you're on the triple from what I've heard, it's less. But for me, and again this is just me, I'd rather have this low time in my logbook with flights from and into ETAR, EGGK, EINN, OMDM, OKBK, or SYCJ rather than my logbook looking like CLT-FAY-CLT-SAV-CLT-MRY with an over night in Myrtle Beach to do those or similar flight the next three days.

Again, these are just my thoughts. I agree with NightIP, Deadstick, Liog41, it's what you make of it. And as a former RJ guy, I don't regret my decision. It can be a rough life being gone for longer stretches of days but again the actual days off I have compared to commuting, are actually greater. We all can't all be working for SWA, living in base, making 120K+ a year, dropping trips and have them picked, with 22 days off a month.
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Old 09-26-2012, 06:58 PM
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I 100% agree! I never want to go to Abeline or Midland Texas again!
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Old 09-26-2012, 08:25 PM
  #523  
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Blackbox, you are not seeing the big picture. Don't compare going to work to going on a vacation. Sometimes you get lucky, get a good crew to hang out with in a decent place. That is not of your choosing. Other times you do not. A vacation is with people that I like on my time of my choosing. There are many places that you will visit with Omni, but it will not be a vacation.

That is not what my post is about to begin with. It is about being very careful on deciding on Omni. Omni is not a career place nor do they want you to make a career there. If you are looking for a home, then you should look elsewhere.
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Old 09-26-2012, 08:46 PM
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Originally Posted by seoceancrosser View Post
Blackbox, you are not seeing the big picture. Don't compare going to work to going on a vacation. Sometimes you get lucky, get a good crew to hang out with in a decent place. That is not of your choosing. Other times you do not. A vacation is with people that I like on my time of my choosing. There are many places that you will visit with Omni, but it will not be a vacation.

That is not what my post is about to begin with. It is about being very careful on deciding on Omni. Omni is not a career place nor do they want you to make a career there. If you are looking for a home, then you should look elsewhere.
I know it's not a career/home but the opportunity for those like me to come here and do what we do at Omni as apposed to being stuck in the right seat of an RJ for 5+ years, I'll take this. Regionals aren't, or at least shouldn't be looked at as careers either. Still hundreds of pilots flock there every year to do out-n-backs for days on end. Yes, they do build more time but again, I'd rather do this.
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Old 09-26-2012, 09:31 PM
  #525  
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I sent my Resume in yesterday. I hope i here something back from them. I like the idea of having to make the decision on joining Omni. Sure sounds better then sitting in the bottom 10% of the company for 5 years and about to take a big pay cut.
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Old 09-27-2012, 06:00 AM
  #526  
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That is not what my post is about to begin with. It is about being very careful on deciding on Omni. Omni is not a career place nor do they want you to make a career there. If you are looking for a home, then you should look elsewhere.[/QUOTE]

Omni is a career choice for some - I have been here 13+ years and have enjoyed everyone - plan to stay here until forced to retire - I have been flying this type ACMI / DOD flying for over 18 years - it is not for everyone and takes a special type person to do it and have a spouse that understands the situation / schedule -
to those applying to Omni - good luck see you on the line
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Old 09-27-2012, 07:42 AM
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My QOL has been very good, but I'm probably more the exception than the rule. For the year 2012 the longest I've been gone from home was 13 days. The only month this year in which I wasn't awarded a split line (ie aprox. 9 on/6 off) and was available for the full 18 days, I had a 4 day long call reserve stint in ATL wherein I was able to jumpseat home. In the US you'll spend more time in ATL than anywhere else, so for me living in an adjacent state I'll usually jumpseat home knowing that I can easily make that 12 hour call out back to ATL if need be. For QOL, this has been paramount, and I even save the company money on hotels.

So for me, living in the southeast and having an extremely understanding gf has made life pretty damn good. To illustrate the other side of things, I had lunch the other day with another FO friend of equal seniority whom had just finished a 40 day trip. He was scheduled the 18 days straight with the last day ending on the 26th of the month. He was then available for the first 18 days of the next month. After completing the first 18 days scheduling decided to extend him the last 4 days of the month, thus rolling him into the next 18 for a total of 40 days straight. This is all legal, as 4 days is the max one can be extended. These are the horror stories/circumstances that one needs to fully appreciate before considering this.

In fairness to Omni, and in parroting previous posters, there's far from a rose-tinted analysis presented at the interview. They paint a very accurate picture and almost try to convince you out of it.

For point of reference, I'm in my mid 20's and don't necessarily intend to make a career of this; my summation is this: Omni is by far the most rewarding, challenging, heartbreaking, exhausting, interesting flying you will ever do. The camaraderie is probably unmatched. Someday, when/if you move on to that legacy job, you'll know that the pinnacle of your aviation career is already behind you, and in a way, you're on the downhill.
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Old 09-27-2012, 08:14 AM
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Interesting post DeadStick. Thanks for the insightful perspective. H
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Old 09-27-2012, 09:01 AM
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I second the good post.
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Old 09-27-2012, 10:41 AM
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Omni has two main sources of long term income. DOD and Vacations Hawaii. Caribbean Airlines is not a long term client as Caribbean has acquired two 767's to be self sustaining soon therefore replacing Omni services. There are occasional sub-services that pop up, but they are few and far between. Other than that Omni doesn't have any business. Be careful on pulling that trigger on Omni.
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