USA Jet Question

[KL24]

Just wondering if it's common to break guarantee as an FO on the DC-9. Are guys flying / crediting more than 55 hrs a month regularly or is that about all you can expect to make. Thanks.

 

[Way2Broke]

On demand freight is not that predictable. There is alot of training and IOE going on right now, that displaces pilots from the "rotation." This is true for the Falcon and DC-9. This has made it hard to break guarantee lately. Does the guarantee get broken, yes! Can you predict when it is more likely to be broken, you can try but then again you could win the lottery too.

There are still rumors of a pay raise and/or raise in monthly guarantee floating around out there. Let me put it to ya this way, its like fishin, you never know when your gonna catch the big un'. But you ain't gonna catch um' if you ain't got a hook in the water.

 

[LR25]

The 2 years I worked there, I never broke guarantee on regular time.

THe guys who sell days off might.

 

[pilotyip]

Depends upon selling days and luck

USA Jet is the finest DA-20 operator in the business. We feel our training program is good enough to train anyone who has basic flying skills. USA Jet does all of its training under Part 121 N & O; the DA-20 has 5 weeks of full time ground school prior to starting sim training, which runs one week and 25 hours for F/O's. All DA-20 F/O's receive 25 hours of supervised IOE prior to being released to line operations, we observe 100 min time in seat for pairing restrictions and in the past have turned down trips because of only low time pairs available. We have not hired a Captain off the street since 1998. Our safety record speaks for it self and is the standard for the industry. No training is done in airplanes on ride along legs. We have had pilots go to major airlines and tell us, except for fancy bells and whistles, the USA Jet training was as good as they got at their major. No USA Jet pilot has failed training at his next job. At an unnamed national passenger operator, 50% of the new hire pilots washed out of DC-9 training, USA Jet pilots had a 100% pass rate based upon their USA Jet Training. Some pilots hired by a large player in the business waived all testing and sim evals for USA Jet pilots, because of the known quality of their USA Jet Training. While in full time ground school you are paid full pay of $34 K per year to start? We have program on track for 6-figure pay in 6 years for all Captains. 10 hard days off every 28 day bid period. While in a duty status, you have to live in the immediate YIP area. Pilots are expected to assist in loading and unloading cargo. Benefits are good with a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan you would be eligible for after 90 days. Pay goes up for F/O’s $2/hr in the 3rd year. Captain could be as early as a year, depends upon turnover and growth. Company covers all hotel costs on the road and gives the pilots $1.83 per hour pre-diem while away from YIP to cover meals. Time away from home is the luck of the draw, one guy’s fly’s 80 hours and is gone from home 6 days, and the next guy flies 45 hours and is gone 12 days. Some guys spend one night a month in a hotel way from home, but fly many night time round trips. It is a non-sked, hence no schedule. BTW one of DA-20 Capt's made 280 hours of pay for two months in the spring, big big checks.

 

[kingaira90]

Some guys never break gnt, others do on a regular basis. If your seat and aircraft are short staffed, it will help in flying a lot. If you sells days, it will help in making more money at least. It also gives you more chances to fly, thus more chances to break gnt. I think I broke gnt 4-6 times last year. But DA-20 FO was short most of the year, and I sold 3 days most months. -kingaira90

 

[RedBelly]

USA Jet is a whole different ballgame then when I was there. In my 5+ years, I flew a low 3.9 hours & a high of 160 in a month.

 

[CFIIer]

what are competitive flight times to get hired on with?

 

[pilotyip]

Mins DA-20 1000TT, 500ME, competitve 1500TT, 750 ME, DC-9 mins 2000TT, 1200 ME with one year of mil or 121 crew experience, competitve 4500TT, 3500TT, with 3 yrs 121 PIC time

 

[Gearmonkey]

USA Jet is the finest DA-20 operator in the business. We feel our training program is good enough to train anyone who has basic flying skills.

I'm gonna throw the BS card on that one. I can think of a finer operator out there that doesn't have on again/off again layoffs randomly. Always break guarantee and we get our scheduled raises no matter what "business dictates". What's wrong with training in the airplane on 91 legs?

 

[Way2Broke]

I'm gonna throw the BS card on that one. I can think of a finer operator out there that doesn't have on again/off again layoffs randomly. Always break guarantee and we get our scheduled raises no matter what "business dictates". What's wrong with training in the airplane on 91 legs?

Without those on again/off again lay offs USA Jet wouldn't have been able to restructure and survive the post 9-11 / automotive down turn. More airlines furloughed/layed off during that time period than those that didn't. During a very bad time in the automotive freight business USA Jet diversified, added private charter DC-9's and emerged a better company. Kudos to them.

Your really going to tell me that training in the airplane part 91 is better than classroom, CTD, and full motion sim training? Have you ever been though a real training program? Say what you want about the layoffs (we all know layoffs suck) the training at USA Jet is as good as you will find anywhere.

Your quote is, "You gonna push them up past EPR and make them crackle?" Did they teach you that in the airplane or in the sim?

 

[PUNISHER]

Saying you work for the finest Falcon 20 operator is like saying you're the coolest kid with down syndrome. You may be cool with your super awesome, best in the world training program but when it comes down to it you're still retarded.

 

[Metro752]

Make it stop, it hurts.

 

[pilotyip]

Not for cool people

Saying you work for the finest Falcon 20 operator is like saying you're the coolest kid with down syndrome. You may be cool with your super awesome, best in the world training program but when it comes down to it you're still retarded.

If a pilot really feels they are cool, and above gaining experience in the on-demand business, they definably should not apply at USA Jet, they should go straight to DAL, SWA, FedEx or UPS that is where all the cool pilots go. But for those who want to build a solid foundation for the flying career, a place like USA Jet where you get hired at 1000TT, at 35K per year, gain real experience in flying a two man team in CRM environment and find your moving to the DC-9 as an F/0 after 6 months, USA Jet might be the place. Then finding yourself hired at a career position after years would be icing on the cake. For pilots who feel they are better than this, best of luck.

 

[hammer2]

And you get fries with that too!

 

[kingaira90]

I'm gonna throw the BS card on that one. I can think of a finer operator out there that doesn't have on again/off again layoffs randomly. Always break guarantee and we get our scheduled raises no matter what "business dictates". What's wrong with training in the airplane on 91 legs?

Have they raised the gnt above 300-350wk for the FO and 400wk for the CPT? Hopefully they have! I know they went to second year pay off the bat which is good. That was my biggest difficulty there. If you don't fly much you didn't get paid enough to live on. I left Kalitta to USA jet the year after the USA jet paycut. I figured out how much the pay was with the paycut. It was about 5000 more than I made my first year at Kalitta. And in reality from talking to guys here it was more like 12000 more on year 1 pay.

If business slow at at Kalitta, you feel it the very next paycheck. The same cost cutting is built directly into the way you are payed, by the mile with a low gnt.

While I think the ground schools were similar, it was nice to only go through 1 aircraft's ground school at a time. Makes it very difficult to remember the correct stuff when they are always back to back.

I can say hands down it was better to have ground school followed directly by CPT then directly to the SIM. Everything added on each other and their was little time to forget. Then you get back from the sim, maybe have a few days off to catch up on sleep then go do bounces and get on the road and do IOE. Of course the last 2 depend on the amount of flying and training cpts flying. But it helped a lot to do everything back to back, no time to forget. At least not forget all of it.

It is nice to be able to move directly to the -9, get load pay, crew meals, and a paycheck on gnt that you can live on.

Of course it wasn't all bad. I really liked the guys I flew with at Kalitta (a pain or 2, but you get that anywhere). Fun flying, lots of diversity, I liked paid wait time.

I hear the guys doing the DOD stuff are making great money. Which is GREAT for them! Although being gone from home for 2 weeks at a time must suck! Maybe good for a single guy. And the Air ambulance specialist stuff is gone 2 weeks at a time too, right? How many guys are actually flying trips out of YIP on a regular basis? I enjoyed coming home after a short trip. Which made the ambo and pax stuff nice.

Neither places is bad. Just different was of doing business.-kingaira90

 

[PUNISHER]

Of course it wasn't all bad. I really liked the guys I flew with at Kalitta (a pain or 2, but you get that anywhere). Fun flying, lots of diversity, I liked paid wait time.

I hear the guys doing the DOD stuff are making great money. Which is GREAT for them! Although being gone from home for 2 weeks at a time must suck! Maybe good for a single guy. And the Air ambulance specialist stuff is gone 2 weeks at a time too, right? How many guys are actually flying trips out of YIP on a regular basis? I enjoyed coming home after a short trip. Which made the ambo and pax stuff nice.

Neither places is bad. Just different was of doing business.-kingaira90

Well said.
Kalitta has definitely changed since we started that ground school back in NOV of O4. I seriously thought about leaving too but at the time there just wasn't much else available. They have increased pay and the flying is very much different then it was a few years ago. The DOD treats us well.
Since the first of the year the earliest call out I've had was about 15 hours, so in other words we really are doing very little, true on-demand flying. We get crew meals now, which is a big plus. On the down side we work are arses off. Like you said above we don't do many trips out of YIP anymore. You are pretty much gone for 2 weeks at a time unless you request to fly out of YIP, which = back on the pager. Most guys are happy to be gone doing contract work and have some what of a schedule. Like you said, they are both good companies just different ways of doing things.

 

[kingaira90]

Glad things have improved. You guys deserve it! -kingaira90

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

If U want a bunch of info on USA Jet, PM me with your email.

Good Luck!

cliff
GRB

PS-Had about 23 days on, and now on about 23 days off. Freaky.

 

[kingaira90]

Well said.
Kalitta has definitely changed since we started that ground school back in NOV of O4. I seriously thought about leaving too but at the time there just wasn't much else available. They have increased pay and the flying is very much different then it was a few years ago. The DOD treats us well.
Since the first of the year the earliest call out I've had was about 15 hours, so in other words we really are doing very little, true on-demand flying. We get crew meals now, which is a big plus. On the down side we work are arses off. Like you said above we don't do many trips out of YIP anymore. You are pretty much gone for 2 weeks at a time unless you request to fly out of YIP, which = back on the pager. Most guys are happy to be gone doing contract work and have some what of a schedule. Like you said, they are both good companies just different ways of doing things.

forgot to ask, how has the pay changed? Other than the 2nd year f/o pay from day one. Thanks-kingaira90

 

[B-J-J Fighter]

Cliff are you in the left seat of the DC 9 now?