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TeamSasquatch 11-15-2021 06:16 PM


Originally Posted by JLTD;[url=tel:3323082
3323082[/url]]Yeah thanks for that I appreciate the comment. Waiting on a cold ramp I've done, flew cargo out of Minot for awhile, with all that entails...including lots of daily 70°F temperature swings. :D

Air ambulance is rewarding for sure, did that in Montana for 2-1/2 years. But I'm past the point in my career where the
"hurry up Go! Go! Go!" is fun, I'd just like to enjoy flying again.


Alpine Pilot, thanks for the detailed writeup! Glad you beat the bronchitis...and looking forward to the photos from the line.


If you can do Minot, you can do anywhere.

Alpine Pilot 01-04-2022 05:44 AM

Thought I'd update you guys. After talking to Cole (our Chief) about the upcoming training schedule as we come out of peak, we also discussed our staffing a bit. I know we have a position or two open at SLC, Denver, and Soux Falls each. We also have several pilot positions open in Billings where we had a group of pilots get hired to go fly fire and they're starting to head out for training now.

Alpine Pilot 02-07-2022 02:41 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Recently we got a raise and changed our pay structure to remove the bonus system, so here's a new explanation of how we get paid.

Previously we had our base pay paid every 2 weeks, then a bonus that was paid quarterly, and then our daily per-diem.

Now we just have our base pay and the daily per-diem.

First, they took the original bonus and absorbed it into into the base pay table. Then they increased the new base pay table by an additional $5k a year for the brand new pilots in the 99 or 1900, and another $5k on top of that for the pilots at 2 years of service that are qualified in the 1900. I know that when I applied for a home loan last year it was a little problematic explaining the bonus structure to the bank, so this will probably help simplify situations like that.

Below is our new pay table. We are still paid every 2 weeks for 26 pay periods per year. Our base pay guarantee is 5 days a week (10 per pay period), and that's what gets you the annual base pay shown in the chart. Each week you get scheduled to work less than 5 days, you still get paid for 5. If you simply got scheduled for 3 days and a reserve, you still get paid the day rate for 5 days.

A few ways to earn additional pay include:

1) If you break guarantee and work 6 days a week, you get paid an extra day based on your day rate from the pay table.

2) The day rate is based on one complete trip from the home station and back. If I fly (SLC - JAC - SLC) that's a single day rate trip. If I fly (SLC - PUC - VEL - SLC) there was an extra leg, but it's still a single trip. If Fedex has tons of cargo and they want me to do the Jackson trip twice in a single day, so I fly (SLC - JAC - SLC) and then quick turn to do (SLC - JAC - SLC) again, I'll get an additional day of pay. This doesn't happen very often in SLC right now, but there's a couple postal routes in BIL and FSD that involve 2 full trips per night, so they can pay double if you fly both trips.

3) Per-diem isn't included in the pay table. Every day you spend at the outstation Alpine reimburses you $35, or $55 if you spend 24 hours TDY at another base flying or attending training. On most of our routes we fly to an outstation in the morning, spend the day at an apartment with a crew car, and then fly home in the evening. These trips pay the $35 per day for per-diem. If you average 4 days a week on a route, you'll see about $7k a year in per-diem.

4) Join the training department and/or become a check airman. Your base pay increases, and you're paid an additional hourly rate for any instruction given if you become an instructor. Check airman also earn additional pay for any check rides and line checks given. This January was my 3 year anniversary at Alpine and for the past year I've worked in the training department as a 1900 instructor. I've really enjoyed it and the extra pay is nice if you don't mind the extra time away from home. I commute between Denver, where the simulator center is at, and SLC where I live and fly the line. Teaching a recurrent 1900 class takes me away from home for 5-6 days, teaching a full initial type class takes me away for about 13-14 days. However, just know that hiring for the training department is internal and requires that you fly the line a bit first.

So there's the update, let me know if you have any questions.

JLTD 02-07-2022 03:25 PM

Thanks for the pay update...nice that they've simplified the bonus structure. I'm still on the fence, as having 2 in college and taking a pay cut isn't the smartest move. That said, I wanted to ask about the instructor situation. I live in Centennial and am wondering just how long you need to fly the line to become qualified to be an instructor?

Appreciate all the perspective you've put out there...still waiting on the line pics though ;)

250kt Final 02-07-2022 04:32 PM

What about the separate Christmas bonus ?

Anything extra for being dual qualified? There use to be.

Eagle05 02-07-2022 05:27 PM

First Officer
 
Does Alpine still hire first officers for us more rotary types? What’s the life and pay like for them?

Alpine Pilot 02-09-2022 08:22 AM


Originally Posted by JLTD (Post 3368321)
Thanks for the pay update...nice that they've simplified the bonus structure. I'm still on the fence, as having 2 in college and taking a pay cut isn't the smartest move. That said, I wanted to ask about the instructor situation. I live in Centennial and am wondering just how long you need to fly the line to become qualified to be an instructor?

Appreciate all the perspective you've put out there...still waiting on the line pics though ;)

The instructor gig just depends on all the normal stuff you would expect. Things like past experience, how you get along with other pilots, fit in with the training team, waiting until we have a need for another instructor, etc. There's no specific time on the line required, but having at least a few months helps you understand how to teach some of the materials and relate with the line pilots. Living in Centennial where we train at would certainly help though, we don't have any instructors currently located in the Denver area. I'll be at ATS from the 12th to the 26th of February, so if you want to come see the training center I could show you around.

The pics... yeah I know, I'll get to it but a lot of other things needed attention and I wan't actually on the line much the past couple of months. I'll be around to take pictures again next month when I return from Denver.

Alpine Pilot 02-09-2022 08:35 AM


Originally Posted by 250kt Final (Post 3368380)
What about the separate Christmas bonus ?

Anything extra for being dual qualified? There use to be.

There hasn't been a big Christmas bonus while I've been here, but there's usually a couple hundred added to a check in December. What they've said to expect is "Christmas bonus revamp, we will attempt to more align this budget with our company goals." I have no idea what that means, so we'll have to wait and see.

As far as dual qualified pay. They said they were trying to simplify the pay-scale, and we have way more 1900's than 99's now, so they simply chucked the dual qualified column and automatically apply the higher rate to all pilots qualified in the 1900. There's only one 99 in Denver and FSD, so not much opportunity for half of our pilots to stay dual qualified anyway.

Alpine Pilot 02-09-2022 09:43 AM


Originally Posted by Eagle05 (Post 3368434)
Does Alpine still hire first officers for us more rotary types? What’s the life and pay like for them?

I was a rotary guy before Alpine and this was my first gig after getting all of my fixed wing add-ons. I had about 1100 hrs rotary built in R44's, Jet Rangers, Long Rangers, and a little OH-58 time. I also had almost 200 fixed wing and technically met all of the minimums for a PIC position in a 99. However, in airplanes I had only flown Diamonds and Sport Cruisers. So, to let me get used to these aircraft that are WAY more powerful than the DA42 I flew for my multi-engine training, I few right seat in a 99 for a few months.

We have an FAA approved PDP program for our 99 and 1900, you can legally log SIC time in our right seat. However, right now we are not specifically hiring SIC's or recruiting SIC's. For now, we occasionally use the option to train a pilot as an SIC and have them fly in the right seat if...

a) You legally meet all of the hour requirements like I did, seem like a good fit for the company, but are coming from something like a rotary background so you should build some experience in these aircraft. This is basically for the sake of safety and common sense before we give you the PIC keys to a twin turbine airplane and cut you loose into the world of single pilot ifr flying.

b) You have an airplane background, but lots of your time was built flight instructing and you're something like 100 hours short of the cross country time requirement because of it. We can, and might if you're otherwise a strong applicant, train you as an SIC. This way you build the last few hours you need and gain some good experince in the aircraft before going through the PIC training and taking command as a single pilot ifr captain.

As far as SIC pay goes... I don't have the SIC pay scale in front of me so there may be an error here, but if you have less than 900 hours total time I think SIC pays something like $30 per hour, and over 900 hours total time it switches to something like $30k a year until you take a PIC check ride. As I said above, it's not something we're really hiring or recruiting for so PLEASE don't spam Cole with 300 hour applicants looking to get out of flight instruction because that's not what we're doing right now. The only pilot we put in the right seat with low hours also worked on the line as ground crew for nearly 2 years while she went to flight school. While going to school she was also working as an Alpine employee assisting pilots and providing GPU starts in either rain, shine, the dead of winter, or the heat of summer.

We don't have many of these positions and most of our pilots still fly single pilot ifr without an auto pilot installed. Work life is the same as it is for the other line pilots, if not easier because most things are on the Captains shoulders and not yours. I flew 5 days a week trying to build time as fast as I could, but occasionally I chose to only fly 4 if I wanted to go camping or something with my wife. I could have flown 6 days a week, but my wife is a school teacher and I tried to give her the weekends she deserved. It's going to depend on what base you go, how bad they need you on the line, and how bad you want to build your time to get that PIC pay.

Alpine Pilot 02-09-2022 10:07 AM

One more thing about cross country time since I mentioned it above. This quote is from the Bold Method link I posted a few pages back. People keep telling us they are short on the cross country time requirement even though we ask them pretty specifically about this. They just don't realize that the 135 requirement for cross country is different and it has taken a few conversations to make it click for some people.


Originally Posted by Alpine Pilot (Post 3369523)
7) Part 135 Pilot Qualifications
To act as PIC under FAR Part 135, pilots must have either 100 hours of cross country time for VFR flights or 500 hours of cross country time for IFR flights. These Part 135 requirements follow the FAA's basic definition of cross country flight as being "point to point."

FAR 135.243(b/c)

Any flight, no matter how short, if taken from one point of departure to a separate point of landing may be counted towards these requirements!

And where I told JLTD "I'll be at ATS from the 12th to the 26th of February, so if you want to come see the training center I could show you around.", that offer goes to anybody that happens to be in the area while I'm there.

Also, we have moved our indoc and 99 training to Denver as well. Until now all of the 99 flight training has been in the actual aircraft and mostly based out of Billings. To help reduce the strain on the line we've worked with ATS to convert a B200 sim into a BE99 configuration and will hopefully start utilizing it as an FTD soon. It's not going to be mounted on hydraulics for full motion like the 1900 sim, at least not yet, but this will let us reduce the time required to train in the actual aircraft. In the FTD we can improve IFR flying and teach emergencies, checklists, and flows before hitting the line to fly the aircraft.


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