Frieght just sucks
Look ya'll, I've only been flying on demand freight for 8 years and in those on the pager 8 looooong years of my life. I have experienced a few different companies. Some were good to fly for, some, well let's just say I learned how to fly smart. I am still slaved to the evil, evil task master (pager) still flying at night in 40 year old jets. Yes, I have flown for Ameristar, and yes there are those who know who I am. I have a lot, a lot of respect to my bretheren who still fly for Ameristar, Grande Air and Cherry. Those of us who fly against all odds and complete the mission. How those companies have not lost more jets just amazes me. This is a tribute to those captains who are pushing the envolope every night and day. Kudos to you! The biggest problem is the FAA does not reconize what a difficult job we have. Not only are we battleing old airplanes, bad wx, poor mx (most companies, not every company), and strict timelines, we battle the FAA. If they had any balls at all would go after some of the less than desirable 135 operators (not the pilots) that blattenly "bend" the rules to meet thier agendas. Believe it or not there are a very few 135 companies that do have very good mx and obey the rules. Even flying for a safe operator, the FAA and the NTSB still leave too much grey area for the owners to abuse the pilots. There is no other professional industry in the world that would allow the professional employees to be coerced as part 135 flying allows. I emplore every part 135 pilot to go to the FAA website to put in suggestion about how screwed up the regs are. Look at Part 91 (k) this is the new fractional regs. This is what the 135 regs "should be". They basically say if you are on call you are on duty. Same as 121 scheduled operations, for the most part. The owners have gotten away with way too much already, some have gotten away with blood to make their profits off our backs! Anyway, is Ameristar unsafe? It is only unsafe as the captains allow it to be. I was a captain there and I didn't feel a warm and fuzzy, so I left. Unfortunatley I didn't have the nuts to do anything about it when I was there. You the skipper have the ultimate say if your aircraft goes out or not. Ameristar has lost two jets in a little over 2 years, Grande Air, 2 jets in 1 **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** day! There are a few operators, knock on wood, that have lost none. Why? Because the company uses strict SOP, respects the captains authority to make final decisions, be it mx, wx or fatigue. If the FAA won't punish the operators or change the rules, then the only other option is a total part 135 union that includes every pilot on the pager. Ameristar, USA Jet, Cherry Air and Grande Air. Let's face it, the 36 hour days are a bit much. Freight delays? Is this what the FAA inteded by an unforseeable delay? I'm not talking to the new jet pilot that is blinded by "jet time" I'm talking to ya'll that have been doing this long enough. How many of ya'll have fallen asleep on final? How many of ya'll get through a 30 some hour day on nicotine and caffine? FedEx says from 2200-0600 one leg flights should be limited to 11 hours of duty. If more than one leg is flown the duty time decreases. Now I ask my freight dog friends, how many times have you flown 4 legs or more and ended up in a lovely border town waiting on the customs paperwork or some sh@$. And think about this, FedEx is a scheduled operation. Not getting up at in the morn and being up all day to get paged one hour after you fall asleep. Yes, I too believe the pager is light activated...when you turn off the hotel light the pager will come to life. I'll get off my soapbox now. Hope I have inspired my freight dog bretheren. Let's get back to the topic, I'm sure the Moderators will appreciate this. Is Ameristar at fault? It's tough job no matter how you cut the cake. I do believe it may be tougher at Ameristar and Grande. And that's all I have to say about that.
