colonials13

Can anyone please tell me why AMF requires the same amount of PIC time (500 hours) for EMB120 FOs and Accelerated Captain Program FOs, when the Total Time Requirements are 500 hours and 800 hours respectively?

Jetlife

There are people that make 50k at both Horizon and Skywest their first year. It’s easily doable. I don’t think it beats regional pay overall. Plus regional pay is too dynamic. The typical 5 day AMF schedule gives maybe 10 days off a month. If you worked a regional job and only had 10 days a month off you could make some pretty good money.

Honestly the AMF payscale is still very much behind. You are talking about being a captain on a turbo prop. You can go make double that flying a King Air. Not trying to crap on AMF but man, it’s baltenly obvious where the issues are and what needs to be fixed. I figured guys in turboprop stuff were starting at 75k.

Luewk

Well thanks for the input man I appreciate it. Thanks to anyone else who contributes info here also. Just trying to figure out what to do after instructing/if I need to do CFI all the way to ATP minimums.
It seems like Cfi/135 - regionals - major is still the best/most practical way to do things.

dera

I'd definitely recommend a 135 gig between CFI and regionals. Find a good one and you'll have the most fun you're ever going to have in your flying career.
Don't even dream about going to Majors from AMF. It just does not work that way.

ZippyNH

Most do...
The payscale and bonus system is currently getting simplified a bit...some bonuses are getting rolled into the regular pay to make it simpler to understand...and more tax advantageous. Unfortunately the bonuses structure makes calculations of actual yearly pay harder, but it's getting better.
The only people that start at 50k are the lowest multi time hires...often ACP upgrade for the first few months...
A BE-19/SA-227 new hire starts at 67k (may also get a 10k when the check ride is passed and 10k at 18 months)....then another 20 k if you stay to about 36 months in the form of the peak to peak bonus (might be 6-8+ more depending on the season you start).
So many first year and pilots beat the 75k by a fair bit, especially if you stay 3 years.

And like at many places, OT is available, as are TDY assignments that both may extra... likewise a HBC that does an extra weeks work for OT is a decent $$ ...do it a couple times a year when you are scheduled for two weeks off, and it adds up.

itsmytime

awesome! so if I work over both of my vacations, I can make some good coin.

Luewk

For someone like me it seems like the wrong move unfortunately. I'm young and don't have too many commitments holding me in one particular place + I'd like to get to a major ASAP and going CFI-135-regional-major seems like it would take awhile longer than just CFI-regional-major.
If you have any more insight or know a 135 op which allows me to "skip" regionals please let me know!

Fr8Thrust

Honestly that is a poor attitude to have. What you are essentially saying is you want to “skip” becoming a better pilot. No doctor wants to shortcut their experience and go right into performing surgery, so why should a pilot. It’s a once in a lifetime experience that opens many doors. I promise you that. You can move up the ranks at AMF rather quickly, faster than at any regional, and those application “checkmarks” are valued highly at the majors.

ZippyNH

+1
Becoming an IOE captain, an company instructor, or check airman are all great experience to have. Leadership is always good to show in any application so you stand out.
Hiring will not always be as easy as it is at the moment.
Always look at any job, and say, if something crazy happened, will I be able to to be happy here for a few extra years?

Jetlife

You’re defining better as flying single pilot freight. That doesn’t make you a better airline pilot. I’ve seen it. What makes you a better pilot? Fly challenging stuff as a hobby, and at work, challenge yourself. 50% of my landings in the Bus are with all automation off including auto thrust. Why? Because it keeps me sharp. I have seen AMF pilots get into a jet and a professional encorionment and struggle. The “hold my beer and watch this” mentality doesn’t work in the more professional jobs. The bottom feeder 135 charter jobs sure maybe...

This rhetoric is just sold to you by management that airlines love AMF pilots and that AMF makes the best pilots. My last two jobs, including the largest fractions jet job on the planet, had never heard of AMF. The more ingrained in single pilot turbo prop freight ops you are, the steeper the learning curve culturally and flying ability wise, really is.

The old DO and at one time, temporarily CEO of AMF couldn’t get hired as a pilot at SWA, he had to go there as a sim instructor.

Again AMF has its place and it is an option if that type of flying is appealing to you. But “better” is a subjective term. Does it make you better at flying in bad weather by yourself in old equipment? Absolutely, without a doubt it does that. Does it make you a better pilot in anything modern in a real multi crew environment? No, it doesn’t, period.