Pilot Sharp

Hey anyone have some up to date information on Pilot hiring at Neptune. Also what the quality of life is for a pilot there. I have read the previous pages, but the info is pretty old. I am an ATP A&P and around 3,500TT regional pilot looking at different options.

Shaft34

Best thing I think you could do is to visit a tanker base and talk to the crews. Seems to be a fair amount of Neptune planes in SoCal at the moment. Or give them a call and stop by Missoula office. Can't imagine they wouldn't shoot straight when telling you what to expect. They want pilots who will stick around and get a return on their training investment.

Otherwise, the info in the previous 7ish posts are still accurate. The BAE guys I worked with earlier in the season indicated they were working towards more pilots, but you can't just create a tanker captain overnight. A few guys retiring or whatever makes a big dent in capability.

JohnBurke

Neptune did most of their hiring last fall, and brought a few more on this spring. Some didn't make it. A few went to the P2V, most to the BAE.

Pilot Sharp

Thanks guys I appreciate it!

Dak in back

Would love to fly for a firefighting outfit, but I really want to learn the operation first. Seems to me the best way would by to train as a spotter or bird-dog. A lot of these outfits fly King Airs. I have around 1100 pic in the king air family. Does anyone know who operates the spotter planes and if I'm even close to being competitive time wise?

JohnBurke

Bird Dogs are canadian fire platforms, and are found rarely in the USA.

Spotter aircraft are generally single engine, and perform occasional fire patrols of a given fire district or forest. They're typically charter aircraft flown by a pilot carded for point to point, sometimes referred to as fire patrol.

The position to which you're referring is Air Attack; the majority of air attack platforms are Twin Commanders and TurboCommanders, and a few King Air's, Cessna 340's, etc.

The two biggest air attack operators presently are Spur Aviation and Ponderosa Aviation; formerly the same company, now split, located in Safford, AZ, and Twin Falls, ID. They fly all Twin and Turbo Commanders. They're Part 135 outfits, and in order to be hired, you'll need to meet basic ATP and 135 minimums, as well as have mountain experience, etc.

Firefighting is seasonal, and makes it more difficult to get hired elsewhere when done with the season, especially if you're planning to go back to fire the next season. It's definitely not a time building job.

Your application window will be approximately November through February, when most of the hiring will be done. Hiring can be done up until the start of the season, but only to fill sudden vacancies; most of the time all hiring and training is done a few months in advance.

Yoda2

I always thought it was strange that Saffords identifier is SAD, and that Hwy 666 will take you there...

RNO Flyer

It's been a few years since updates to this thread. Anybody have any updates or experience with Neptune? With increasingly busy fire seasons, anybody have current info as to what lifestyle and pay look like?