throttlejockey

I just got a call for an interview with Kalitta. I really dont know very much about them. What are their schedules like, are people happy there, how stable are they, etc? Anyone who can help, please do.

Angry Blackman

The place is one of the most dangerous places to work. The pilot's are *****s who will rationalize why it's OK to fly broken aircraft from point A to point B to point C until someone deceides it OK to right the airplane up.
Some examples:
B747 engine falls off aircraft during climbout over Chicago.
DC8 # 1 engine falls off at 35,000 feet during cruise over Denver.
DC8 crashes in Gitmo (Cuba) because the entire crew had been up nearly 23.5 hours.
Middle of winter -Standby attitude indicator fails in Texas, FE says will get it fixed in Toledo, Ohio. Weather is 900 feet overcast / 2.5 miles in light snow. Copilot walks off the airplane. Flight cancelled 24 hours until part arrives following morning. Captain was willing to take aircraft, tried to convince copilot to get back on aircraft.
Military
Middle of winter - flight departs Ypsilanti to Dover to Germany to Turkey - Captain arrives with his VFR Garmon GPS unit, sets up the antennas on captain/copilot windows mounts receiver on windscreen and proceeds to fly the north atlantic tracks relying on a VFR GPS unit, while the INS'S drift off into la-la land.
September 3, 1993 FAA inspector gave a route check to a Kallita crew, asked the Captain what he thought of the condition of the aircraft. The captain stated "Good aircraft, No problems". At this point the inspector produced a list of fourteen items that the crew chose to ignore.
Examples where - Altitude alert no aural warning, Wet compass light inop, RMI 15~20 difference between the Captain's and FO's, FO's ADI inop-precesses, Light inop on the Captain's horizon and RMI. Needles to say the Capt lost his certificate. The fed was not from Detroit.
This is the bull**** you will deal with on an everyday basis. Connie will fire any pilot who starts writing-up and / or parking airplanes.
Be careful when working with - DC Sanderlin, Al Soskin, Harvey Sigman, George Grindrod and Leo Crum.
THERE WAS AN ARTICLE IN THE ANN HARBOR NEWS DATED AUGUST 8, 1993 CITING 73 INCIDENTS OVER 10 YEARS IN WHICH COUNTLESS PILOTS WERE KILLED AND AIRCRAFT DESTROYED. WORKING FOR KALITTA. IT WILL RAISE THE HAIR ON YOUR BACK.
I failed to mention the Detroit FSDO is on the take and will do nothing, short of the FBI and Justice Department showing up.

Angry Blackman

Your experience flying CRJ and BE-1900 should explain why your being interviewd to fly a B747 that fly's everywhere in the world. The more experienced people would not touch Kallita if it was the last employer in aviation. And with limited knowledge flying widebody jets that are broken, to international destinations you haven't been too, is setting you up for either an accident or incident that will ultimately result in the loss of your hard earned FAA certificate(s). Which at that point will end your chances of working for a real airline.

OrionFE

That was the "old" Kalitta. Connie has since left Drag Racing and started rebuilding the company again after the "nightmares" of the 90's. He ownes all the airplanes, is putting money into them, ie. glass cockpits, electronic jepps, etc.. The company is making money and there is a new contract in the works with a 15% or better pay raise. The company still has the old 90's reputation lingering around, but it is definately on the upswing. More new blood has been hired in the cockpit since 2000. Things are a lot better these days!

Freighter Captain

To tail on to Orion's remarks, I have a good friend that works at Kalitta who says that things are much improved. It's still a typical part 121 nonsched, but they treat you good, pay you good, and don't dance around maint. issues.

747Dog

To counter just a few of the things that were said regarding Kalitta Air and to help trottljockey with his decision here is a few words from a Kalitta Air employee. I am a FO and been here for a year. To an extent, most of the things written by angry blackman are true. But, most of his information is 10 yrs old or older. That puts it in AIA days. A lot has changed since those days. Including the Crew. There may have been some mavericks here, but I would put my group of guys and gals up against any crew of any company as far as crew skill goes. They have experienced more than most and lived to tell about it. This is Kalitta Air with a Union (albeit the Teamsters). The engine falling off is true but it was not the fault of our maintenance. That was a crack repair done by Pratt & Whitney and they took (quitetly) responsibility for it. Most of the other points made were early days and without a union. How about Northwest and there drunk pilots several years ago, does that mean all NW pilots are that way and its a terrible place to work. We have 14 747 100's and 200's operating online. We have Dual FMS and by the end of the year will begin incorporating the Electronic Flight Bag in all AC. We are a DEBT FREE COMPANY. We are projected to do over 700 million in revenue this year and exceed 1 billion next year. Flying 17 days on and 13-14 off each mo. Turned down first TA and hope to vote on a revised TA by the end of the year. Working for Kalitta Air is not perfect. Looking at the industry right now, I would like someone to show me one who is. Even the FED EX guys complain about their situation. There are quirks here, I will admit, but we have to potential to be the premier place to be in the industry. Hope this helps throttlejocky and for the rest, its just my opinion.

Rama

Its an okay place to work. Scheduling is the most common complaint, mx could use some improvement though it seems to be getting better. Most of the guys are good people. Atlas has newer equipment and pays better, but you don't have protected days off the way kalitta does. The new T/A will bring better pay (still not enough) home basing and should address the scheduling problem.
There are better and worse places to work. Just keep in mind you will be gone 17 or 18 days every month. Good Luck!

Typhoonpilot

AB:

Tell us how you really feel I remember working for a scumbag non-sched outfit in the early 90s and all of us could take solace that we didn't work for Kalitta. I saw that DC-8 on the ramp at Stapleton the day after the incident. Thought to myself, how odd, a DC-8 with most of it's number one engine gone, wonder how they did that The story the ramper told us was they hit mountain wave activity.

I really do hope it has changed for the better.

TP

Kill Bill

this may be out of left field but i have some decisions to make in the next 18 months.

i can retire early from my airline in about 22 months. the only reason i would do this is to preserve my A fund lump sum.

so the question is, is it feasable to take a job at kalitta or whomever, and expect a CA upgrade in a few years? if so, what are the payscales, etc like?

this is just a preliminary exploration of my options.

thanks.

747Dog

I dont know your situation, but at Kalitta right now captain upgrade is in 1-1.5 yrs. Pay scale can be found on the airline tab on Airline Pilot home page. Click on Kalitta Air and the whole current payscale is there. It isnt the best right now, which is what we are trying to correct with the current TA. Good thing is that Kalitta is making money big time right now and we are expanding as fast as we can. We are working hard on better compensation and hopfully will have something in place by the first of the year. Any other questions about the company, I will try to answer them.