PM me and I will give it to you captfred

Brett

 

Hey AMF guys a quick question:

I've heard from several people (who aren't AMF pilots so go figure) that most of the flying you do is get up early, go to an outstation, then sit until the evening and fly back. Is this true? I saw an AMF Metro fly in and out of my home airport several times a day and a look at Flightaware seems to show planes go on a bit of a circuit. Anyway just curious as I'm tempted to drop my current gig in hopes of getting more quality time flying for Ameriflight now that they have a few openings.

 

Most of the runs are similar to what you just described with between 2-6 legs, depending on what and who you are flying for.

 

Fantastic! I had a feeling it was a misconception because I can't see how anyone would work with that kind of schedule. I'm hoping to get in the navajo out of OAK. Hopefully when my training contract expires I can make the leap. My current job is just not getting me the hours I want to have by the time the economy turns around.

Which is my next question: Has AMF noticed a decrease in flying because of the drop in shipping? I would imagine with FedEx and UPS feeling some pain you guys would be cutting back. However, its hard to argue with the job postings online.

 

The schedule described to you was fairly accurate; most pilots do fly out early, lay over, and come back in the evening. It's just the nature of the job- the customers need their stuff as early as possible, and it comes back after the close of business. If you were watching the Metro during peak season that might explain the roundtripping. Otherwise, most pilots leave between 5 and 7AM and come back between 5 and 9PM, with differences between the bases.

A PA31 slot in OAK would pretty much be a lock if you asked for it. As for hours, it's likely you can average three to five hours a day. I'm not sure of the reason for the sudden increase in hiring, but as long as the market doesn't drop much more I figure stuff will stay fairly steady, so it's a decent time to get hired.
My feeling is that air freight is a little inelastic- a lot of companies need what they need and cost is secondary. As long as customers want to offer next-day air to a destination, they need a feeder, so even if volumes drop off we're still flying the routes.

 

Well the long days wouldn't be so bad. I just didn't like the idea of doing two legs a day with a huge layover in between. But I imagine there would be a few routes like that; just not all. As it is I'm lucky to get a few hours a week and I'd like to build up my log book a bit faster than that.

 

There are some runs that will keep you fairly busy. I know one run that you will fly 2.0 or less and have about a 12 hour layover. there are other runs that you fly 6.0 with about a 4 hour layover. all depends.

 

Just bumping my question. Thanks.

 

Depends on the base too. Most of SLC's runs are 2 hours a day with an 8 or 9 hour layover.

 

NightIP

Care if I send you a PM?