Care to elaborate?

Everyone has heard a lot lately. Most of it is not true. The company is definitely changing; as it should when the financial environment it is operating in changes. However, calling it a dumpster fire is quite an overexaggeration in my opinion.

Right now it’s getting competitive to get in the door at Alpine. Most of our bases are fully staffed and we're being a little more selective. However, for pilots that just have Part 135 PIC mins then by all means put in an app when you see an opening because it's not just about the hours. Getting in is also about your overall background and the kind of impression you make in the interview.

TXskies, the 1900 captain position for TUL got filled and trained very quickly, but there might be another coming up in a month or two. As most of us know HR departments aren't always fast at removing filled positions. I brought this up with our Chief and he addressed it with our HR, and as you can see there aren't any open pilot positions on our website at the moment. We also just started a couple new runs in Fargo, but I already have 2 pilots in training for that base right now. But don't worry, there’s usually one or two more openings coming up just around the corner. If you send me your resume I'll look it over and either tell you if there's an obvious issue with it, or just forward it directly to our Chief if I don't see anything. We do keep a short list of qualified applicants to contact when positions open. Send me a PM if you're interested in that and let me know what bases you want the most, but like I said we're fully staffed at the moment.

The bigger bases: Salt Lake City, Billings, Denver, Sioux Falls, Fargo, Atlanta

The small bases: Omaha, Wichita, Tulsa, Ontario (ONT)

The charter base: Denison (GYI)

Anybody else interested in Alpine right now should know that we have no urgent openings. Staffing is really solid so we've been interviewing for classes that won't be starting for a couple months. I know a couple pilots that applied thinking we could get them in training and turn on a paycheck for them within just a couple days or a couple weeks, and that's simply not the case. Even if we opened a job tomorrow and you got an interview the next day it's likely your class would be in May or June. We started the year running a couple classes a month, but demand for new pilots has quickly dropped because attrition is low and we're running really stable. So for now it's just one class once a month and we're not training any new pilots in April because we just didn’t need any.

Oh man I love a good rumor! We are not doing any layoffs and our line schedules are pretty sweet and easy. We had a few pilots depart Billings to fly bigger planes or fire fighting planes last month, but it was nothing major and I already trained their replacements who will be finishing SOE within days. We are still hiring as needed and on the 1900 side we've trained 15 captains since January, but overall very few pilots have departed over the past few months so there's very little demand to hire more at the moment. It's pretty much the opposite of a dumpster fire. Attrition is the lowest I've seen in 5 years at Alpine and the line pilots are mostly working easy schedules.

We moved our flight following department to Provo (Utah) where the rest of the HR and admin offices are located, so yeah that took away the flight following jobs in Billings and added the same number of new jobs in Provo. We also set up a new maintenance training facility in Provo and that got opened just about a week ago. In SLC we stopped flying a single very short weekday run, along with a couple Saturday only out and backs. But seriously, everyone knew this was coming because the freight levels just didn't justify flying a 1900 on those routes. Nothing shocking happened and none of our staff was fired or forced to relocate because of it, but in exchange we picked up more 1900 flying in Fargo which only added more pilot jobs over there so in the end we came out ahead. What I'm seeing is that we are stable and there is nothing but normal day-to-day freight business stuff going on, so I really have no idea why you think the COO is "flying the company into the ground". If you're actually an Alpine pilot then you probably know who I am and that I'm always willing to talk and help address ANY issues that affect you guys, and if you're new then just ask any 1900 pilot because I've trained nearly every single one of them. Feel free to send me a PM here to stay anonymous, or shoot me a direct text or email if you’re not worried about that and want to talk more directly. Or hell, tell the leadership team what's concerning you by simply by sending it through the safety reporting system.

As a final disclaimer I do not speak for Alpine directly, I was not handed any notes or asked to come make a post here. I got a couple standard emails from APC that there was new activity in this thread and these are simply my best answers. When I originally started posting here I was just a line pilot, now I’m the guy who runs all of the 1900 training. I don't run the company or make the big decisions but I usually have a pretty good idea of what’s going on to help the line pilots figure things out. I think just about any line pilot at Alpine will tell you that I’ve always given them the most honest guidance I can, and I do the same here on APC as I just want to help my fellow pilots succeed. I'll try to be around more frequently in case there's any followup questions, and with training running a couple slow pace laps for a month or two I should have the free time to do it.

-Nate Hahn

Like I said in my reply above, you never know what's around the corner.

We have an opening for a street hire 1900 Captain in Tulsa, and possibly another in Wichita. The company indoc for these positions would start on Monday May 6th and training would conclude with a checkride on Tuesday the 28th of May, and all of the Indoc and 1900 training will take place in Centennial, Colorado. Nothing is on our website yet so I'm giving you guys the chance to get in early. You can send me a PM if you meet all of the standard Part 135 PIC minimums, and as a reminder all of our pilots live in base so you have to either live there now or be willing to move there after training.

TXskies, I sent you a PM already if you're still interested.

This means for May we're looking to upgrade a couple of the current 99 Captains to 1900 Captains, and also hire a couple direct 1900 Captains off the street, so we're still adding pilots and not firing any. Nothing has flown into the ground to start a dumpster fire yet, but if it happens I'll let you guys know and scream fire as I head for the exit. 😁

any idea of they will hiring first officers this year?

Sorry, but there are currently no plans to hire any new SIC's in the near future, and right now I don't have a guess of when they might look for more.

I got offered a job by Alpine air. I couldn't make the start date so I didn't go. However just with my experience on dealing with them they run a first class operation. All the people I delt with were awesome. I wished it worked out for he.


Kurt

Hey guys, change of plans from me. I think it's time for me to stop posting here, like I've said before this was always an unofficial thing I did on the side and it's been fun, but now it's time for me to wrap it up. I'm still around at Alpine for now, and if you come to 1900 training you'll probably see me in Denver. We have an official recruiter account that posted a reply to you guys once or twice, hopefully they keep it up. Good luck to all of you in your aviation journey and I'll see you around.

Sure makes it sounds like it’s all falling apart….