Couple of Avantair Questions
 

Hello All, I have a couple of questions for all of you Avantair guys/gals out there:

How often are you getting new planes? I see that there are still around 50 orders.

What are the copays for office visits and prescriptions under your insurance plans?

Is upgrade still running at about a year?

How are bases assigned? Is there a chance I would NOT get Denver if I wanted it? How do you bid on the bases?

I see that you are not paid during training. How long does training usually last? Do you have a chance to get home at all during training?

Thanks for the responses in advance. I think Avantair is a great niche in the Frac market, and I anticipate it will only get better. I am sending in my app today:)

Yes, we are still taking planes but I think we have bypassed a couple deliveries to catch up on sales.

I don't know the copays, I'll ask my wife. It also depends on which plan you get I think.

Upgrades right now are less than a year. The guy I'm flying with is upgrading next month at the nine month mark. I don't expect this trend to last forever and figure it will be back at a year sometime soon.

When hired you select your base from the list of open bases. I'm almost 100% sure you could get Denver.

You get paid when you pass the checkride. You are, however, paid per diem at $48 a day ($2.00 per hour) and the hotel is paid for. Training is around 3 weeks I think. If you live near PBI or PIE then I suppose you could get home on weekends and such. I do live near PBI but still seldom went home so as to study. If you live in Denver then you will not really be able to go home unless there is a break in training for some reason.

I truly love it here and have no plans to leave. Good luck.

Great info Glasspilot. Quick question: what is the probability as a newhire you would be assigned the Avanti vs. the Avanti II? I realize all new airplanes are Avanti IIs. Is it luck of the draw? Will pilots be cross-qualified at some point?

BTW, I was relieved when Avantair sold the Phenom 100s to Executive AirShares. I think Avantair will be much better off focusing on what they are good at - flying the P180s and growing that fleet. Why make it more complex?

It is a straight 50/50 chance to get either or. The deciding factor is how the sim is set up when you do your flight training. FlightSafety's sim can be configured for either the Avanti I or the Avanti II. It takes around 4 hours to convert it so they leave it in each configuration for around a month and then switch.

So it just depends on how it's set up when you get there.

Thanks GlasssPilot. I am looking to make a career move right now. There is just no stability in the airlines and I am tired of going to the same places over and over again. Hopefully I will get an interview soon! I have a good gut feeling about Avantair and their future.

Hey Flex,

Glass pretty much covered everything. I wish I could answer on the co-pays, but I run my insurance through my side business so I don't use Avantair's plan at this time.

I don't like that new hires are not on salary during training, but we are not having a problem getting people into class so I doubt it will change any time soon. I don't know if it was only because my group was TDY doing airplane training, but our checks were ready for us on the day of the check ride, via Fedex. That was nice after 3 weeks of negative cash flow from savings. :eek:

Upgrades are running less than a year for some folks (mostly depends on experience) and a year to a year+ for others. As may other folks have said before, past performance is not indicative of future returns. Upgrade depends solely upon attrition and further growth. We still have some attrition and we are growing, albeit slower than this time last year. Once the economy turns around and oil comes down from sky high levels, I think you will see us accepting deliveries faster than we are now.

Avantair certainly does have a great niche in the market. People can't believe our fuel flows in the mid thirties. (600-700 pph TOTAL). The cabin could be compared to a Hawker while cruise speed is only about 15% slower. The airplane really sells itself once a potential owner gets on board.


Who likes Alaska?

We don't get up there often, but hopefully all of us get a chance to go visit Alaska at some point. If the WX was good, they must have had some great views. I'm jealous of this crew, for sure! :cool:

How far can you live from your base?

Its 2 hours drive distance (they mapquest it), although we recently got a new handbook and in the fine print they now allow "commuting". But the cost to and from your base is your expense so it kind the pointless.

Co-pays depend on plan, I filed single so I only pay like $3 every check but my co-pay is high.

Upgrades about 10 mo - 1 yr, deliveries about 3-4 weeks, I think the last one tho was sometime in late June??

After your checkride you get handed your check, training is not that expensive pretty much only paying for food. The Holiday Inn there in St Pete gives you breakfast and 2 drink vouchers everyday, in West Palm you get $15 voucher for any meal at the Crowne Plaza, if you get the Hilton Garden Inn no benefits unless you are like Gold or Diamond VIP

Good seniority and work enviroment

sounds awesome to me, now...who can i convince to walk in my resume?

Out of curiosity, what does that first paycheck look like after training? Is it just the total of the $48 per day per diem from the three week training period, or is it your normal salary pay? Anyone care to share how much they got. I'm still trying to decide if I should apply or not, a month with no pay sounds tough right now.