One does not need to be retired military. As long as you are a veteran, the age restriction is lifted and you are able to work for 20 years as 6c (law enforcement). We have one in my office who will be in his 70s at retirement. We do not even have annual PT requirements as we did many years ago.

AIA Question
 

I am a commercial single and multi with a King Air 300 SIC Type Rating and CFI/CFII and soon to be AMEI with a total of close to a 1000 hours and counting. I just applied for to be an AIA. All of my time is on fixed wing. Reading the threads here it sounds that the only platform available for me is a C206/210. Besides PR, where are the Kings Airs (250, 300, and 350), Citations, Pilatus that the website advertises located? What are the chances of me flying one those platforms after the academy? Will the agency pay for me to get a rotary wing add-on? And if so, how likely is that? Any insight into these is appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Your life will be working nights flying the Predator B in San Angelo, Sierra Vista or Grand forks.

Go 121!

Are the only options for new hires Dash-8, Cessna 206/210, or RPA?

Appreciate the response. I do think they could really improve recruiting if some of those southern border locations had the option of flying the King Air or a PC-12 or something similar. I realize it’s not quite that simple as just moving airplanes around, especially with national security concerns and mission related reasons. But it just seems in the current aviation market (and foreseeable future) it’s going to be hard to convince someone with 1500+ hours to come fly a Cessna 206/210 or RPA.

I’ll continue to keep my eye on CBP though and see how things look in the next couple of years. As current military (non-flying), the idea of getting the opportunity to fly for an actual mission is very enticing. But it’s hard to justify a southern border location AND flying a piston single, even if the pay and benefits are pretty good.

Maybe CBP recruiting will see this thread!

Kaputt,

The problems with CBP are not the folks that frequent this website nor the designated Air & Marine recruiters. The problems are farther up the food chain. Basically, no one has any power to CHANGE or FIX anything but a SES. No GS15 or lower can fix the damage that has been done over the years to the program.

HQ and their minions run the show. The rest unfortunately are cannon fodder. What was once a respected pilot program is no longer. You are just labor. Think Army Aviation run by the Border Patrol. This is exactly what happens when non pilots or pilot trainees are put in charge of professional pilots period.

Do you and your buddies a favor and look elsewhere. The 121 world is a better place to be. I'm quite content where I am but call it the way I see it. 7 and change to go!

Wow that definitely does not look like anything they advertised. Does anyone know what kind of assets are at McCallen, TX?

So what is a professional pilot?

Someone who flies for a living, and understands what all that entails.

The military for example almost always promotes tactical operators to be the leaders of their specialty corps, to avoid the problem of managers who don't understand what it is they are managing.

All,

Words from the AC. All who meet the min quals WILL receive a tentative offer. Whether or not you pass the poly, background, fletc and come out the other end is obviously on you. Good luck to those pursuing.

Cheers

Well that sounds fantastic. Is that because AMO is having a hard time getting pilots on board? How long do you see that lasting? Thanks for the info.

Yes, AMO pilot hiring has been very low over the last 5 years. If memory serves me, I believe the agency hired about 100 or so in a 6 year time period. With airline pilot hiring in overdrive, AMO will be desperately hiring pilots for the next decade!

I have 6.5 years of local law enforcement experience and currently working on my pilot ratings (fixed wing). What are the odds of actually getting to fly a plane and not just a UAV? I currently live in Bismarck, ND, so Grand Forks wouldn't be out of the question for a move.

Yeah sitting at 370hrs right now, and the goal has been 1500 for airlines, but wouldn't mind looking into CBP. But, if what you say about 1-2 flying days a month is normal, then probably not.

Are there any new hire locations that are a non-uas branch? 1300 hour (200 turbine pic, 30 hours sic part 91 jet time) commercial single/multi, CFI, cfii, Mei, and currently a full time police officer for 12 years. Career sounds interesting but I did not spend 60k out of my own pocket for every rating possible just to go fly drones. Any valuable input? Thanks a lot.

Is it like this on the southern border as well? Or can you fly a lot down there?

To be fair, if a work week is only 5 days, 3-4 days of flying isn't bad. Lol

Puerto Rico
 

Is there anyone who is based in Puerto Rico that can give some insight on living conditions. Availability of housing. Taxes? What is the leadership like?

So are the AIA's affected by the government shutdown? how about previous shutdowns?

So are the AIA's affected by the gov. shutdown? have they missed any pay during previous shutdowns?

I didn't know there were extra taxes involved in receiving all that back pay at once and that can't be good for morale. Hope it gets resolved soon...

What happens is when you get the backpay the IRS assumes that is your rate of pay for the entire year so you have more money withheld for taxes. So when you file your taxes you won't end up paying more taxes but will get a larger return.

CBP Leadership turns down 25% pay increase
 

Recently the pilots of CBP became aware of our "Leaderships" true feelings about the pilot group. CBP was offered an opportunity to participate in a DOD special salary table for its pilots. The special pay table would have given an across the board 25% raise to the pilot group. All CBP "leadership" had to do was say YES. They said NO!

When asked to provide the reason for denying the pay raise CBP "leadership: state the following:

-AMO does not think putting all locations on the DoD SSR would be beneficial to the program long term

- Concerns with the GS-13 eventually making the same as GS-14 and GS-15's on some of the tables

-There would be no incentive for anyone to take on leadership positions when they would be making the same salary based on the pay cap.

"Leadership" is scrambling now to cover their tracks and the original email chain has been deleted. Most of us are used to having totally incompetent leaders.......(its the government after all). But this is a new low, our "leaders" are now actively engaged in keeping us from getting a pay raise. Pilots are leaving this place as fast as they can get out, recruitment is struggling to get applicants and still they will do NOTHING to keep the experienced people they already have.

For anybody thinking of coming to CBP Air and Marine......go ANYPLACE else. If any airline will look at you you should go there instead. In the long run you will literally make millions of dollars more and have way better benefits.

I honestly don’t know why anyone goes to or stays at CBP to fly. Airlines have been hiring for a few years now. Plenty of info and people out there talking about how bad it is, yet people still sign up and/or stay. Sounds like there are a lot of other gigs besides the airlines that are better as well. Anyway, good luck to you all.

When I got hired at Air and Marine it was a great gig. Airlines were furloughing and I personally knew several unemployed airline guys. I was one of them for a while. The Air and Marine job was a God send. I swore I would never look for another job as long as I lived. Times have changed! There are guys who are planning to stay but usually because their spouse has a good job or because they have fewer than 5 years left. The writing is on the wall......this ship is sinking and most the rats are running for it.

I must also endorse all of what is said above, as a former OAM Pilot (2008 - 2017).

These guys are speaking the truth, and unfortunately the management of Air and Marine has destroyed a great program ...and taken the morale with it.

Every OAM Pilot I know is either resigning, or will be headed to an airline as soon as they hit retirement eligibility. For those stuck with less than 7 years to retire, they are simply bearing with the scenario they are given.

What OAM will likely end up with is a bunch of low time rotor or commercial airplane pilots looking to build time to 1500 hours (and maybe a King Air type rating) before they can leave.

That's funny, because that's the way it is in the FAA. When you become a manager, you get a 7% pay-bump, but it's based on your current grade, so if you are a 13, you can end up making less money than the 14 principal inspectors that work for you. It's been this way since...forever. Then there's the pay steps, so again, regardless of your grade, there's no guarantee that taking a management/leadership position will net you any more money. The way it works most of the time is people wait until they are a high 14 and then make the move to a manager, which has the added bonus of getting someone in there that's actually done the job for a while and knows what they are doing. Unfortunately, we are hurting so much for managers (and people in general) that sometimes short term 13s or people that have been inspectors for only a year have jumped to management positions, which often ends up being a "blind leading the blind" situation with lots of craziness coming down from up top. Luckily, I've been spared from that, but I've seen it plenty.

Everything these guys have written is true. I spent 11 years there because I kept telling myself it couldn’t get any worse. It was a tough decision to leave but in hindsight it was the best decision I ever made. I kick myself daily for not having left sooner. You really have to experience it yourself to grasp the full incompetence of management at AMO, OAM or whatever they call themselves these days. They’ve managed to destroy one of the most sought after jobs in less than a decade. If your looking for a job with a steady paycheck, good benefits and a mediocre retirement and not worried about job satisfaction then this job is for you.

This pretty much covers the supervisor to pilot ratio after the mass exodus over the last couple of years.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=elsY08Edgwk

Ok folks I just read thru 13 pages of how terrible it is to be an AIA right now. Other than the fact you’ll be stuck flying a UAS or C-206. Can someone elaborate on what is making it so terrible? Is this because no one is flying as much as they want? What is management doing to you on a daily basis to make it this bad? I’ll be honest. The reason I ask is because I’m thinking about applying. I’m looking for a job that gets me home most nights with my family, steady decent pay check and retirement. I love flying but I’ve flown enough that if I got stuck in a UAS I’d be ok with it.

If you’ve only read through 13 pages you didn’t try very hard. All the information you seek is out there. If you want to fly UAS and C-206s this is probably the perfect job for you. As far as being in your own bed every night, good luck with that.

Well I may have misspoke about this being the perfect job for you if you lose your mind flying up and down the same road for 6 hours. If that bothers you then you aren’t going to like the job. If you can get past that and flying a C-206 or UAS for the next 20 years doesn’t bother you then go for it. The information you seek is all over the internet. Do some research, talk to a recruiter, and make the determination on whether the job will work for you. You will have a steady check (May have to wait for backpay when the government is shutdown), descent benefits, and a retirement. As far as your own bed most nights that is really location specific. Until you know your branch assignment it would be difficult to determine how much traveling you would do.

I’d ask some pretty pointed questions if you do talk to the recruiter. They will tell you exactly what you want to hear. I’d start with your initial duty location. Most people would consider it a less than desirable location but I wouldn’t worry about that because you can transfer in 3 years. It only took me 6 years to get out of my first duty location and it happened quickly because instead of continuing to chase prime locations I accepted another less desirable local.

You would have to write a novel to explain everything that is wrong with this agency in one place. I wouldn’t let these message boards and the fact that 100s of people have fled the place in the last couple years deter you. This job might very well work for you. You’re the only one who can make that determination. Good luck with the job hunt! If you do decide to pursue the job and get hired please come back in a few years and let us know how it’s going!

BAJ135 I really appreciate the feed back. That traffic watch job was a LONG time ago. I’ve had the opportunity to see a few boarder missions, and If I had to choose between that and traffic watch. Definitely not traffic watch. I think I’ve flown almost every type of CBP aircraft out there except for the Dash and MQ-9 and any of them are better than that traffic watch C-172. That was a great time builder job though.

I’ve done more research on this AIA job than most. A lot of things have to fall into place for this work out.

I've had continued interest in flying for CBP for awhile now. But something that I've seen as a big detriment is the fact that there seems to be no clear path to moving on to other air-frames with other mission sets.

I personally could probably manage a Southern Border location and a C206 assignment if there was the possibility of upgrading into one of the King Air's Dash-8s, PC-12s, P-3s, etc... down the road. But every time I've spoken with someone in CBP, they can't guarantee you would ever see one of those aircraft.

I'm not at the point yet where I can make the jump to any real aviation job (still on active duty and still low flight hours), but as of right now I'd say if you have an interest in law enforcement and also flying, the FFDO program might be something to consider. I will continue to keep my eye on CBP though for any possible improvements.

I'll also add, that it does seem that the job may be a better fit for Rotor Wing guys. For obvious reasons, the helos do a ton of work for CBP.

Security
 

No operational details about FFDO (or FAMs) please.

All,

Apparently there is a new proposal of a 35% cola / special salary rate.

Good news. Any idea how long it may take to get approved?

Also, would multi turbine time be competitive to getting assigned the Dash in Puerto Rico? And how many hours a year do the guys down there fly?

Years... if ever.

CBP is spinning this as a 35% pay raise. It definitely is NOT. I live in a high cost of living area and this "raise" would make almost no difference whatsoever. Your local cost of living is basically subtracted out of the 35%........so for some of us that means 6 or 7% raise. Additionally, The bi-weekly and annual pay caps have not been raised. So basically you will just hit your pay cap every two weeks (but don't worry, they will be sure to show you how much money you would have earned.....also known as money you are giving back the agency or amount of time you worked for free.)

Its been said MANY times before on this message board but I cant over state how incompetent our leadership is. They are completely unwilling to do the work necessary to get us a real raise and they don't even bother to hide their disdain for the pilot group.

There are definitely worse jobs out there but there are also a lot of WAY better jobs too. Once you are in the system here it is hard to get out......mostly crappy flight time that wont set you up to move on to better things. Most of us that are flying multi-turbine here are planning our escape.

Well sir, I couldn't agree with you more. However, since I'm one of the minions under "RUS," I'll gladly take the 19.63% raise of base pay. With that said, the AC recently said that pilots are all the same and that they should be compensated the same. So, let's pay a C-206 copilot the same as a P3 aircraft commander. What a joke!

New hire locations
 

Anybody here currently working in any of the new hire locations?
Can you tell me what your QOL and schedule is like at your location?
I’m not really intrested in flying drones, so Arizona is out of the question for now.
What’s it like having your family in Puerto Rico? I see they have a DoD school for your children, so that’s good. Beaches look nice.
How do you move from GS-11 to GS-12? How long does it take? And from GS12 to GS-13?
Can you get hired on as a GS-13 or GS-12? Can you get hired on at higher than year 1?
What’s it take to get to supervisor or director or whatever GS14 and GS15 are?

So retirement is 1% or 1.1% for every year of service and based on your highest 3 year average, right? So 20 years of service gives you 20% and 30 years gives you 30%, right? Somebody on here mentioned 50% but I don’t see how that’s possible.

I see a lot of negative in these forums, anybody feel positive about this job?