Does Wal-mart have corporate pilots?

 

As far as I know they still do.


I'm sure as much time as they spend in China they must have at least a G IV or V, Global Express or something capable.

As I recall they had a fleet of Lears but I don't remember the details.

 

Walmart has like 8 or 10 lear 35's, 2 lear 45's, 2 challengers and 1 global express. I went to a speech that the chief pilot gave at UND last year around the career fair time. Sounds like a pretty good company to work for.

 

hope their pilots make more than the door greeter

 

Hardly... ehehehe.

 

Yep, here is the link to apply to Wal Mart aviation.
http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMSto...te.do?catg=285

 

"so what do you do for a living?" "i work for wallmart" ..........for some reason that dosent sound too glamorous

 

I wonder what the pay is . . .

 

yes I do work for wal-mart.... It's not a bad place to work. I'm in the warehouse though. Don't deal with the customer. Just pull the cases to send to the grocery stores. I was just thinking it would sweet to transfer into their aviation division from warehouse. They are always looking to transfer from within.

 

I found this on a previous thread and thought it might help answer any questions you have regarding their flight dept.
Doesn't sound like too bad of a gig.
Seems they flew turbo commanders if my memory serves. I wonder if they are still flying any of those, though this article doesn't mention any.
Good luck to all.

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We do fly the hell out of our planes, our lears fly anywhere from 800 to 1400 hours each per year, and its starting to show. Some of our Lears have over 10,000 hours on them and are nearing 16 years old. We did start trading our LJ35's for LJ45's, but that process has slowed WAY down. We have 2 LJ45s now.
It is a good job, though. Pay for Lear CPT starts at 69,000 + a 13-20% bonus on top of that, FO's start at 47k w/a 7000 raise after 1 year + bonus. Medical benefits are below average for preventative care (you will pay for all of your preventative care up to your deductable) and above average for catastrophic care, (no limit. they'll send you to the MAYO clinic, etc).
We do have profit sharing and 401k that are pretty good. WM puts in 2%+2% into a 401k/Profit sharing acct. every year, fully vested after 7 years. We were getting stock options, now we get a stock grant-Captains at 8000 year stock grant, fully vesting after 5 years.
We know our off schedule (7 hard days off per month) one year in advance.
Overall average is 400-600 hours per year of flying.
Overnights are up, maybe 6 avg. month, and weekend flying is way up, maybe 4-5 weekend days a month, either flying or standby. 2 weeks of vacation p/year, 3 weeks after 7 years and 4 weeks after 15 years.
We do work hard, but we also are very standardized and we have duty time restrictions that are strict. Passengers are great. We fly EVERYWHERE, so boredome does not set in, ever.
Quality of life is pretty good. Wal Mart is an enormous company, and the "culture" is rapidly changing.
Be prepared to spend months, even years talking with the legal department anytime you want to get anything changed, it can be worse that dealing with the government. So, there are benefits and drawbacks to a large flight department.

We do have an excellent group of pilots I will say: really good people, and highly competent and very standardized- many of our Lear captains have over 5000 hours of learjet time. Some of our FOs have over 5000 hours of jet time. We have a superior Director of Aviation, two equally superior Chief Pilots, and also great maintenance, and a good standards department. Training is FSI every 6 months with many additional safety courses.
Upgrade into the Challenger and Global are running 8 years to maybe 15 years or never. So, thats the problem, spend 10 years flying the Learjet, and the company will start reducing your Cost of Living increases every year, from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 to 0% raise. So, they really do NOT value longevity-period, they can say they do, but they do not.
Why should they pay you 100K a year as a learjet pilot when they can save 30k a year on a new Captain.
If you do upgrade to the Challenger its a 7% pay increase, 15% for the Global. So, our Challenger Captains make in the low to mid 90's and our Global pilots make in the high 90's to around 100k base pay. Oh, and you will still fly the Learjet, with no set off schedule anymore. They will give you a fair amt. of time off.
That brings me to another issue. Cost control, while important, is ridiculous at times.
Domestic, we are allowed $10.00 per day for meals while on a day trip with duty time up to 14 hours, thats right 10 bucks, and thats including tax and tip-oh, and you are not supposed to tip any more than 15%.
For an idle day, you are allowed 25 per day, 6 for bfast, 8 for lunch, and 11 for dinner- 25 per day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. These amounts have not changed since 1998- 8 years, and will see no increase in the foreseeable future, Hello inflation!
They will approve slightly more, but you always are made to feel almost guilty, and like a free spender if you spend 14.00 on lunch for a 14 hour duty day. We do stay in decent hotels and get to have rental cars.
NO job is without frustrations. So, overall after 3+ years here, it is a good job, just not sure if its a long term career destination.
I know there are lots of better jobs out there.