AEPS Bankruptcy

[Kit Darby]

OOPS! wrong link form the latest pilot hiring news release. Here is the right one: http://www.jet-jobs.com/press releases/4.17.02.html

Kit

 

[bobbysamd]

Pilot shortage v. hiring boom

Very cagey, Kit. Now, you're playing games with "pilot shortage."

No, there is no shortage of people who want to be pilots. But, Kit, are jobs going wanting for lack of pilots? I don't think so, Kit.

I'm sure that Nancy Stuke at United has told you that her files are bulging with thousands of qualified applicants. I am careful to use your terminology, Kit. "Qualified" applicants. I mean, for example, such folks as extremely experienced commuter pilots and well-qualified military pilots with thousands of hours in the heavies and not fast movers. Here, again, Kit, qualified and experienced. Not 350-hour wonders whom United has been known to hire.

I'm not talking about aviation magazine editors who lift your "statistics," Kit. Of course, it didn't hurt that you had FAPA advertise in a couple of these magazines. Checkbook journalism? Maybe. Just the same, reputable news media quoted your FAPA statistics in the mid-'80s as their source of stories about the "pilot shortage" and that forty-thousand pilots would be needed during the ten-year period beginning then.

I am not a semanticist, Kit. But, I do see and read words and understand their plain meaning, and I see through what you're saying.

Thanks for responding, Kit. I do respect that.

 

[generaltso]

Look Air Inc. is a business. They want to try to sell as much stuff as they can... I can't fault them for that. I am a member, and I do enjoy what they offer as far as airline information. Also I put the magazine in the bath room and read it while I cr@p.

But bobby you must remember that they are a business. Have you ever seen the commercial where McDonalds claims it insists on using "only the finest beef"? Do you think that is true? Do you really think Papa johns is the best because it uses the "freshest ingredients"?

The bottom line is any business is going to bend the truth to favor what they offer to get more customers. That's the way it is, thats the way it always has been, and that's the way it always will be.

 

[de727ups]

A question and a UPS comment...

Kit....what is your personal opinion about PFT programs such as Gulfstream? I'm sure the career pilot magazine has been accepting advertising dollars from this outfit for years.

About UPS....we are not going to be hiring line pilots this year. I'm sticking my neck out a bit by saying that because I'm not a fortune teller...but that's my best guess and I'd put money on it. UPS may be hiring management pilots but these are not regular UPS, union, pilot positions....I would hate to see people be overly encouraged about UPS pilot hiring by seeing UPS management attending your conference.

I subscribed to FAPA years ago and felt like it was worth the money....especially the magazine. As I got older and wiser, and had more experience, I could see that you shouldn't believe everything you read....

 

[Caveman]

"The funny thing is that I have never met anybody that was hired from AEPS or UPAS."

I interviewed and was offered 3 jobs as a direct result of being an AEPS member. Two 121 airlines and 1 freight company. All of them flying turbine equipment. I got what I paid for and at $10 a month it was money well spent.

 

[flydog]

I have to call Mr Jim Dent of AEPS a liar

The Miami Herald article is a list of bankruptcy filings which is made public as is required by the courts

The name of the company and address match that of AEPS that we all know and love

If you check the links for the Department of State that Kit Darby posted you will also see that Jim Dent, AEPS, WED and the company AEPS that is noted in the bankruptcy filing are one and the same

So unless the Florida Secretary of State, the Bankruptcy Court and the Miami Herald are lying then Jim Dent and the crooks at AEPS are the liars

I guess the attitude that this is america and you can do what you want with your money is a good point but if we all followed suit then you could also say dont buy oil or work at Enron and let them do business as usual.

I am not saying that what AEPS does is illegal but I think it is certainly immoral and shameful

AEPS provides no service other than to promote companies that are usually PFT and take advantage of aspiring young pilots dreams to make a buck. Try to pick up an Aviation Career magazine without an article on some crappy operation like American Eagle or Gulfstream where all the pilots they interviewed sounded like the they planned to retire there.

Publisher says they have 85,000 members! Does anyone know how many aviation jobs are out there? I would venture a guess at less than 200 if you discount the few regionals and fractionals that are hiring. AEPS has less than 10 jobs that were posted during the last week. Your odds of AEPS getting you a job are about as good as getting on with Fedex with a DUI and a murder conviction and no turbine time

Without exception almost 90% of all the companies I have contacted through AEPS requested I pay for training, a type rating, or sign a contract where if I left in the first 5 years I owed them my firstborn. The rest received so many resumes through regular channels that the "AEPS applicant priority" was lost in the stack of 10,000 resumes

Nobody needs AEPS to land a job at Southwest, Fedex, or any of the majors that attend the Air Fairs but thats what theyll lead you to believe to get your money. The bottom line is no one would buy their magazine or attend their air fairs unless Southwest, Fedex and some of the other majors were there

 

[dispatchguy]

Tomorrow I fly to PHX and I get to whiz in a cup as a part of a pre-employment whiz quiz for a dispatcher position advertised on AEPS, and also my first dispatch job was in response to an AEPS posting.

So, yes, people do get jobs off of AEPS. I usually send my own cover letter/resume instead of their database record, but I do consider what I pay to be well spent.

Would I have been hired not having been an AEPS member? Probably, but for me, as a dispatcher, its value is in the postings, as I dont have the time to sit there and surf the net looking at every airlines website each day/week seeing who's hiring what.

 

[flydog]

With all due respect dispatchers, airport managers, flight attendants, and mechanics dont count

None of those people are living on food stamps, spending $30,000 on ratings, another $60,000 on a college education and competing againist 5,000 other applicants for a single pilot position for which they are paid $18,000 to start after they have spent 10 yrs building flight time to realize their dream

 

[Kaman]

Pretty **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**ed Arrogant statement

Hey Dude,
I think you need a refund on some of that $60K you spent on your college education, because if you took Philosophy 101 you'd have an understading of the "Seven Common Fallacies" in making a coherent argument.
Normally, I don't or wouldn't comment on a thread like this, but I take exception to your arrgoant asinine remarks about other aviation professionals not "counting". Typical pilot-type remarks that I'd expect from a sniveling, crybaby that wants it all and thinks the world owes him a favor and everyone else should demure to his obvious "superiority" because "I'm a pilot"....
Attitudes like your's are what gives the piloting profession a bad name with other aviation professionals and moreover is the distinction between a pilot and an aviator. I would say that you are a "pilot".

Regards,
ex-Navy Rotorhead and Airport Operations Officer

 

[kilomike]

I second bobbysamd!!

Bobbysamd put it very well--thank you for standing up to "Kit" and his fabrications of a pilot shortage! There never was one and there never will be one. Spreading out this kind of information to drum up dollars from all those hopeful wannabes is a real sham.