It depends. In the winter you will fly less, maybe 25 hrs/month. In the summer, 60/month or more. As a captain I get 60-80/month all year. We are heavy on FOs.


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Well, don't just "head up that way", you need a confirmed slot for the interview, and you need to have your paperwork done etc.
The process is: Apply, get the application, send in the application, if you look good, they'll call you and tell it's been approved and then you schedule an interview slot.

 

I assumed the OP had a slot. Maybe I was wrong in my assessment?

 

I assume he doesn't, given that the interview confirmation has pretty specific details about the day, including which sim they use and so on.

"2. Simulator check:

*The Simulator is at Velocity Aviation: DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (KPDK), a member of our flight operations department will escort you to the location.
a. The simulator check will be done on a full motion Redbird Flight Simulator.

b. You will be asked to track and hold at an NDB/VOR, fly an ILS approach, and a missed approach.
c. We are primarily looking for good procedures and a consistent instrument scan."

This was on my PDK interview confirmation.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Yes, i assumed it was an open recruiting session. . Upon further inspection, I saw that it was an invite and time slot event.

Best of luck to you all heading that way or that were at the earlier events.

 

Thank you so much

 

Boutique, Surf Air, or PlaneSense, Tradewind?

Sound off.

 

What're you goals? What's important to you? If you have ATP mins go to an airline.

 

I have friends at Boutique, I heard it used to be better than it is right now. Explosive growth, good Captain pay, but terrible schedules, frequent MX delays, they're losing some routes to regionals, and their labor - management relationship is pretty poor right now, some say its symptomatic of a company with awful growing pains. I'd say it's a company on the decline, the time to have been flying for them was ~2 years ago.

Never heard anything bad about Surf Air. I know recently their flying was absorbed by Encompass Aviation. They are a startup like BTQ, so their potential for success in the long term is somewhat unknown. You do have to live in California though (don't know what the Texas side of things is like, and Europe is entirely unrelated)

I've heard Tradewind isn't terrible if you're alright with alternating between the Carribean and Northeast. They don't have a training contract, same as Surf Air, which is nice. Pay is decent.

I just interviewed with PS and I'm waiting to hear back. I think I like it most out of the four because they have a large and modern fleet (they're still buying airplanes), they've been around the longest (survived 9/11 and 2008, which is a good sign for the business model), they've got a ton of bases which don't require seniority to bid (so I don't have to live in the Carribean or the Northeast), they include the commute as part of their work cycle, you can get to a jet if you're willing to wait around long enough (many years), and they're expanding their jet program with the PC-24 and adding more pilots to it. I also think their pay is reasonable, although I hope to be seeing some better efforts for CA retention in the next year or so.

I'd say the consensus on most pilot forums is there's no reason to go to any of these companies if you're goal is 121. In today's hiring environment, it's faster to simply instruct at a pilot mill in FL or AZ for a year or so and you're off to a regional class date. I'm interested in 91/91K/135 as a career, so I want to try this on for size.

 

I would second what you said here. It's why I chose PS over the competitors. Just seemed to fit with what I was looking for. Good people for the most part. Great benefits etc. There is another company close to home called Nicholas Air. Good company but only hiring captains and the starting pay for a pc12 CA is in the 40's. OT rates are 400 a day for captains and 250 or so for F.O.s from what I am told by a friend that works there. Experience plays into your salary tier and what you bring to the table also helps.