Why all the talk about Deadheading in the last few posts?!!

1. Atlas owns your backside for 17 days.

2. They pay you a rig...most of the time the rig is greater than block time or DH.

3. International travel (DH) is ALWAYS in Business Class (or better) per the CBA.

4. Duty day greater than 16 hours on a domestic US deadhead is also in Business Class (or better). I just did that very thing...total duty day 18 hours...operate RMS to BWI, DH BWI-ATL-AEX in First Class.

Deadheading is a way of life here...we do not (for the most part) do out and back hub turns (especially on the 744). So, the airplane is operating on a long thin line...therefore, you either wait for the next airplane to come around, or they position you elsewhere to operate the next segment. Either way, CRT (trip rig) is mostly controlling.

You will get the call in nine days; sometime after lunch and your chances of getting hired are seventy-eight percent. Hope this helps.

And as far as deadheading, international is NOT always in business class. Ninety percent of MY deadheads are on an Atlas plane - or as I like to tell my non-pilot friends, they send the company plane to pick me up. Although you don't get any airline miles, it turns out that avoiding the pax terminal and having your own airborne suite without crowds and old, mean FA's is kinda nice!

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Until they put 8 guys on the plane, and your are tripping all over each other for 10 hours...

Both DC8 and AtlasShrugged raise good points about deadheading on company airplanes...thanks for the clarification.

Forgive the many posts that I'm about to unleash (to build up my posts so that I can PM posters) but like everyone here has already said, and as is much deserved, thank you all so much for the willingness to share so much valuable information with us Atlas-wannabes! I am still working my way through the plethora of pages of posts but I have recently received an amazing surprise!...

I received a call on Oct. 2nd as well and took the written test Oct 3rd (oh nelly!) and now find myself scheduled for the interview on the 18th with scottc!! This forum has been invaluable! Thanks to the amazing gouges, the written test was less of a stressor than anticipated!

I went to whe Woman in Aviation Int. conference where I was able to meet DB face to face while submitting my resume. Like Flygirl I too received the early invitation to update my resume/PAQ just before the window opened and took months before they finally called, which, by the way, came completely unexpected! I had stopped dwelling on it and taken this forums advice to relax and be patient and only after I submitted to that frame of mind, I got the call, so like I said, invaluable advice

I did ask, during the phone interview, what the projected training future was at Atlas, she told me that they are moving fairly quickly through their pool with only about 10 pilots left. She also mentioned that there was about one more class (could be interview class vs training class, after reflecting on her answer later I realized that difference was not made clear (but I was on cloud 9 at the time too which may have been a factor) scheduled for the rest of the year then the next classes would start up again early next year.

Oh, and I updated my resume every 3-4 weeks after the initial submission. From what I can gather however, is that they highly value face to face time so not a bad idea to chase conferences that they attend. DB mentioned that there were no other scheduled conferences for Atlas this year. Unless there is something at the beginning of next year, I imagine they more than likely be at the WIAI conference again.

My aviation experience, like most posters on here, I thought, may have fallen short of what they were looking for due to the lack of immediate gratification one gets when a phone call comes shortly after resume submission but seems I was psyching myself out for no reason as in the end they did call. For those of you worry-warts like me, the advice here is sound, stop worrying as Atlas is good at diversifying. Here are my stats:

~5,000TT; 3,000+ PIC; ~500jet; 1,700+ PIC121 turboprop.