Air Now?

[flyinacez]

Whats the scoop on this operation? Are they a good company to work for, mx, schedules..etc?
Thanks

 

[CheeseDick]

They recently lost a lawsuit in Binghamton?, NY. They fired a pilot who refused to fly for safety reasons. They claimed they fired him for other reasons; the pilot won.

Turns out they wanted him to do his night cargo run without an operable altimeter.

 

[millhouse21]

They also lost 2 airplanes recently. Both pilots survived though.

 

[Cokie907]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt! Yes, they have had a couple of crashes. I think they were both bandits, one at Keene and another at Manchester.

I was there from Feb 1998 to Jun 1999 and the only good thing I can say is that the job enabled me to discover Knoxville, TN (TYS). Thank God! Oh, and flying the EMB 110 single-pilot was a blast so long as I wasn't falling asleep at the yoke.

The lifestyle was miserable on scheduled runs but even more miserable on charter where they could call you at anytime with a "wheels up time" of 45 minutes from pager notification. A couple of days would go by without a call and then the pager would go off at 2am....so up and at em, grab that bag and off ya go. Then they own you for the next 14 hours of duty, which means you stay up working until 4pm. You get the idea....

My advice? In today's environment of regionals hiring like crazy, get hired by one and build SENIORITY while you build experience. If you LIVE IN BASE, you will actually have some fun times, a social life (with flight attendants and their friends) and not look back with tons of regrets 7 years later like I do.

 

[Autoparts2]

Airnow

You forgot about the most recent EMB 110 crash in South Carolina about 6 weeks ago. I think she ran out of gas.

 

[Catnhat]

They recently lost a lawsuit in Binghamton?, NY. They fired a pilot who refused to fly for safety reasons. They claimed they fired him for other reasons; the pilot won.

Turns out they wanted him to do his night cargo run without an operable altimeter.

The lawsuit was in Maine. Bangor I think.

Do a search here on AirNow. All the info you need. They've been beat up pretty good.

 

[bell47]

I flew for them for a very short while. I would NOT advise anyone to go there but thats just my opinion.In my expierience with them the MX was simply awful, and management was no better.If you want to fly in that part of the country talk to Wiggins Airways.For about the same pay as airnow you could go with Colgan in the same area too. I hope this helps, good luck.

 

[Reebo]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt! Yes, they have had a couple of crashes. I think they were both bandits, one at Keene and another at Manchester.

I was there from Feb 1998 to Jun 1999 and the only good thing I can say is that the job enabled me to discover Knoxville, TN (TYS). Thank God! Oh, and flying the EMB 110 single-pilot was a blast so long as I wasn't falling asleep at the yoke.

The lifestyle was miserable on scheduled runs but even more miserable on charter where they could call you at anytime with a "wheels up time" of 45 minutes from pager notification. A couple of days would go by without a call and then the pager would go off at 2am....so up and at em, grab that bag and off ya go. Then they own you for the next 14 hours of duty, which means you stay up working until 4pm. You get the idea....

My advice? In today's environment of regionals hiring like crazy, get hired by one and build SENIORITY while you build experience. If you LIVE IN BASE, you will actually have some fun times, a social life (with flight attendants and their friends) and not look back with tons of regrets 7 years later like I do.

Plankey, you're alive! give your BOY a call

 

[Geronimo4497]

Keene crash back in Jan 05 - Pilot killed
2 October? accidents - One in MHT, NH - Pilot hurt but alive; the other was in SC i beleive and she walked away (fuel starvation).

All of the above in the E110. Not so good.

 

[Hung Start]

Cokie:

If your name indicates you worked for that 310 operator out of Albany, then you have seen bad maintenance first hand. That guy had to be the winner!!!
I bet Airnow looked like the Rolls Royce of repairs compaired to the other guy.

Hung

 

[Diesel]

Aric won his suit up in BGR. It's one of the few times the maine human rights comission has awarded a judgment under the whistleblower act.

Just shows how screwed up things are at airnow.

 

[Cokie907]

Hey Hung,

Yeah, working at Northland was my first 135 experience and it was hard fought to get in there. Would you f'n believe? It was spring of 1995 and pilots weren't a dime a dozen, they were a PENNY a dozen. I had instructed at two USAFB's, one at KBED and the other at KCHS and things were so dismal, I was getting ready to give up. When my CFII got hired at Chatauqua, he recommended me for the position. Northland required an ATP with 200 hours in the C-310R...HA HA HA. Compare that to today's environment of PCL hiring Gulfstreamers with 500 hours.

Anyways, I did the summer of '95 flying out of ISP for Pablo and after several thunderstorm penetrations, I was anxious for winter. Then, the engines started making metal and overheating. That was when life got ugly. I hung on for 4 more months but ended up quitting flying at the end of January 1996. I enjoyed my furlough from prison until late 1997 when the hiring boom Kit Darby talked about all through the 90's, finally kicked in. The only job a non-current former freighter could attain was at good ole Business Airfreight. Go figure, 2 years later I'm sharing the pilot lounge with Pablo's guys at Signature Albany, NY. Flying the same routes, in the same equipment. The highlight of my career was when the CP at AirNow took me through the treetops during my C-310R requalification!!! You should have been there!

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Life's paradox!

Oh, almost forgot. Northland is out of business now, for about 3 years. They had a crash at EEN (as did Business Airfreight) and after that the Feds were all over Pablo like stink on you know what!

 

[Hung Start]

Yeah, was very sad. I knew Fernando, and I know he didn't go easily. I just couldn't believe the crap that Pablo put out there, sad but reality caught up. And you probably sat with me in ALB a night or two.

Glad you did ok.

Regards
Hung

 

[GLSoar]

No!

No! No No No No

 

[mav1morrison]

Airnow is a really good company, been there almost 3yrs. Recently they have had run of hmmm, bad luck to be poloite, but the company is sound. Mx is great whenever I've had a problem it's gotten fixed, and there has never been any pressure to fly with a broken airplane. I don't know the exact details of Arics deal but he cried fowl on more than one occasion, and I am pretty sure he won because there was not proper documentation for all the preceeding issues he and the company had.

 

[ACT700]

Cokie:

If your name indicates you worked for that 310 operator out of Albany, then you have seen bad maintenance first hand. That guy had to be the winner!!!
I bet Airnow looked like the Rolls Royce of repairs compaired to the other guy.

Hung

Hey hung start:

that ALB 310 guy you're talking about, was he, perhaps, mmhh, how to put this so as not to pi$$ off the politically correct crowd?, was he puerto rican?

 

[ACT700]

Hey Hung,

Yeah, working at Northland was my first 135 experience and it was hard fought to get in there. Would you f'n believe? It was spring of 1995 and pilots weren't a dime a dozen, they were a PENNY a dozen. I had instructed at two USAFB's, one at KBED and the other at KCHS and things were so dismal, I was getting ready to give up. When my CFII got hired at Chatauqua, he recommended me for the position. Northland required an ATP with 200 hours in the C-310R...HA HA HA. Compare that to today's environment of PCL hiring Gulfstreamers with 500 hours.

Anyways, I did the summer of '95 flying out of ISP for Pablo and after several thunderstorm penetrations, I was anxious for winter. Then, the engines started making metal and overheating. That was when life got ugly. I hung on for 4 more months but ended up quitting flying at the end of January 1996. I enjoyed my furlough from prison until late 1997 when the hiring boom Kit Darby talked about all through the 90's, finally kicked in. The only job a non-current former freighter could attain was at good ole Business Airfreight. Go figure, 2 years later I'm sharing the pilot lounge with Pablo's guys at Signature Albany, NY. Flying the same routes, in the same equipment. The highlight of my career was when the CP at AirNow took me through the treetops during my C-310R requalification!!! You should have been there!

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Life's paradox!

Oh, almost forgot. Northland is out of business now, for about 3 years. They had a crash at EEN (as did Business Airfreight) and after that the Feds were all over Pablo like stink on you know what!

hey cookie,

i flew for pablo for a very short while in, spring 2001, i think. the dude that was his chief pilot, he looked like a squirrel, and, man i can't remember, but he was a really weird guy.

that was definitely an interesting time flying the puerto rican low riders (pablo's two 310).
everybody hated the guy, especially the signature at albany.

whatever happened to pablo, he just disappeared overnight, it seemed?

 

[Hung Start]

Act:

Si Ameigo.

And I remember his CP very well, we used to call him "Major". Hair cropped way too tight. After Pablo went out I think he ended up at Alpha Flying in MHT. Not sure where he is now.

 

[Cokie907]

yes, the owner was Pablo and he was Puerto Rican. his chief back then was a crusty old curmudgeon named Ron W. and i'll reserve any further comment on him at this time.

i have no idea who the cp was in 2001 but i do know that after the EEN crash when the guy got burned up and died, that was the beginning of the end for Northland Aviation. the Feds swooped in and started going over everything with a finetooth comb. eventually, Key cancelled the contracts and Pablo had to liquidate to pay off his bills sometime around spring 2003, i think.

last i heard, in summer of 2004, Pablo was working as a Saab 340 FO for Shuttle America. (before that, he had been stocking shelves at the Wal Mart over in E. Greenbush, NY!!! ha ha)

its a small world and even smaller in aviation, not hard to keep tabs on people i suppose!

regards, cokie907