I am a CFI currently nearing the 500TT mark and thinking of applying with Air Net, I am just wondering if anyone has any pros and cons on working for them and flying night freight, thanks

bne

 

It's night freight, you can pretty much go from there. I'm switching out of the 135 gig for now, but I flew for a very similiar company, and knew a few Airnet pilots. They have various runs that are outbased all over. Most are built into their system where they hub in and out of LCK(rickenbacher(spelled wrong probably)). There's also a few runs that are on their own routing too. Last I heard, upgrade to the lears was 1.5+yrs avg. Pending on if you can take the first available slot or a certain base. They do have benefits and a schedule for the most part. Expect to fly a ton. At my company, I did 1300hrs my first 12 months. It's unscheduled, whereas I think Airnet might run under the "scheduled" 135 and it's limited to 1200.

 

Flying freight at night can be very hard on some and others enjoy it. Flying on the back side of the day, alone in a lot of scary weather can wear you out real fast if you don't enjoy it. Now, I do want to stress that AirNet has never forced me to do anything I didn't want to do. That means flying in bad weather and flying broken airplanes. Off course, there will be questions as to why, when and what, but as long as you have a good explanation it will be exepted.

AirNet is unscheduled, I know it's odd with so many flights that appear to be scheduled, and you can fly 1400 hrs in a year.

My first reason to recommend AirNet would be the kind of flying we do. Most airplanes have autopilots and they work well, but you will get a lot of hands on flying experience. You do all your own flight-, fuel and performance planing. You will get to make a lot of decisions on your own. For me this is what flying is all about and it is what makes it fun. And for the most part you will get to do a lot of it. My first year I flew 1200 hrs.

Some people have a hard time with trying to sleep during the day and working night. I mean they are having trouble sleeping. That can be really tough and it will wear you out quick. Another thing about sleeping days and working nights is that your social life will suffer, if you let it. As result of working nights you will have to manage your sleep schedule if you want to retain a more "normal" social life. Not everybody is able/capable of this.

Pay is one big sore point for most of our pilot group and there is som talk on managment level to change this. I am hopefull, but don't quite belive it until I see it. At this point it the pay is just OK, but will be come a problem if not addressed.

There is also a lot of talk about the future of the company since Check 21. What is means is that the bread and butter of this company is slowly disapearing: Cancelled checks.
However I think our company is doing a decent job of bringing in new work for this company. Organ delivery, Blood and tissue samples, Nuclear medecine, Movie reels for Sony and so on. There is a lot more to be done and so far it looks good. We do appear to have a new CEO who has a vision for this company.

Health care has so far not been a problem for the company. After all the pilot group is composed mostly of young people in their late teen's and early twenty's. It's a basic program that cover the most, but at a stiff price.

Then there is the 121 vs. 135 problem. Some carriers do list 121 time as a requirement (Airtran) and suspect others considers it when they have two equally qualified applicants. I think it is all about who you know! I see it over and over again. We have one Captain that went to Airtran about two years ago. If your future plans includes corporate or fractional there will be no problem. We have had a lot of folks go to Netjets and other corporate gigs.

There is a lot of exciting things going on in the industry right now and don't think it has been this good to be a pilot in a little while. If nothing else AirNet is a good employer (among the options out there for the group that can and will apply for the type of flying job that AirNet is) and leaves you with some good experience that you can almost take anywhere!

GL,

 

thanks a lot for your input, i am doing a FAM flight out of STP next week in a LJ35 so that will give me a better idea of what it is all about!

 

Whats a FAM flight?

 

In the Navy, a FAM flight is a familiarization flight. High work consisting of emergencies and drills, followed by pattern work.

 

So do companies do this or just certain ones. what does it take to get one? (I am talking outside of the navy of course)

 

I sent in my resume to AirNet and they offered me an interview and offered me a FAM flight to get a chance to ride along with a crew and see how things all work, so they set it up

 

Cool, I am really interested in trying them out. If you dont mind keep me updated on what all you think of it all, (Crew, Interview, Training, etc...)

Thanks!
pilot_man

 

Yea, a FAM flight is a familiarzation flight. They have a bit of info on it on their website. Pretty much just a flight where you ride a long in the jumpseat and get to see what airnet is about. I just called them up and aksed if I could do it. They said name the date and you're set. Bne744, I will be doing mine out of STP as well. Do you live around the stp area? Where are you instructing at? Sorry, I don't think I can PM yet