Ameristar is Hiring Pilots

[Wildwilly]

Aeronautic1 you seem to know alot about USA Jet & Ameristar. What is the turn over rate at USA Jet & Ameristar? How is the quality of life at USA Jet different than Kalitta, Ameristar, Royal, IFL, etc.

 

[T-Gates]

"Mudhole?! Slimy?! My home this is!" -Yoda.

LMAO!

 

[pilotyip]

Turnover at USA Jet

Can not comment on Ameristar turnover, but USA Jet has had 8 pilots leave this year, this includes one retirement. About 12%, average pilot has 6 yrears with the company. QOL, again this is the on-demand business, we honor days off and you can have any quality you want on those days. On your days on, you do not know when you will fly, where you will fly, or how long you will be gone. The only thing you know is you be home by 0600 on your days off. Again repeating clyde, if QOL is a major factor in the choice of a job stay away from the on-demand business.

 

[Freight Jock]

Ameristar's hiring mins

Anyone else find it odd that Ameristar raised their minimums? Seems to be against the trend theese days.....

Ameristar receives many resumes. They can afford to raise their mins.

 

[Freight Jock]

How many days off? Are you guaranteed you will be home before your days off start?

You get released on or before 6 AM on your first day off. Sometimes you're home the night before...sometimes you're home late in the day on your first day off. They are fare about giving you another day on the back side if you do get home late. BOTTOM LINE: Don't make plans that you can't break on your first day off.

 

[KingAirKiddo]

What type of availability do you have on your days on? In other words, are you "on the pager" 24/7 until your days off or do you have "call out windows" (such as 6AM to 6PM for example)?

Does somebody have a link to websites for each of these companies (Ameristar and USAJet)? I tried plugging them into Google and Yahoo but couldn't find a link.

Thanks...

KAK

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

I think every 135 on-demand outfit has their pilots on a pager 24-7 for all of the days they're on duty. If they didn't, they wouldn't be competitive with the other organizations.

THe FAA is re-writing -135 (& getting rid of -125), especially the rest and duty time sections (to include the -121 rest and duty times). They are due out next summer, so the 24-7 situation my change for the industry. I think that's the only way it will change.

Cliff
OAK

 

[Clyde]

What type of availability do you have on your days on? In other words, are you "on the pager" 24/7 until your days off or do you have "call out windows" (such as 6AM to 6PM for example)?

Does somebody have a link to websites for each of these companies (Ameristar and USAJet)? I tried plugging them into Google and Yahoo but couldn't find a link.

Thanks...

KAK

Kiddo,
This info is a few years old, but this is how it was at AJC when I was there.

Each month you had days on and days off. Depending on which month and what time of the year, you had more days off than in others. Also, being based in YIP at the time, I was home quite a bit because a lot of trips ended there.

Days on: at 0600cst on day one, the pager went on. It stayed on continuosly unless you were in crew rest or on days off. Pager goes off and you call the 800 number and talk to crew scheduling. You have 30 minutes to report to the airport, and supposedly 15 minutes after that to get airborn. I say supposedly because there were variables such as fueling, loading of cargo, paperwork, etc. The big thing was to get to the airport quickly, after that I would call and keep them informed. Never had any issues.

If you were on the road, than you proceeded to the airplane as quickly as feasible. Communication and effort were the big things.

Now, this made life easier: when I was on call in YIP, I would call scheduling to see what number on the list I was. If I was number one, I stayed put or went out with stuff in my car. If I was further down the list (especially without an FO or an aircraft in town) I would venture out further. I would let CS know so that if something did pop up, they could give more notice. If I was really far down the list, sometimes they would let me shut off my pager for a while. Example is if I wanted to go to the gym and didn't want to work out with my pager. This worked out really well.

One more thing: I always kept my bags packed and ready to go when I was on call. (I had certain clothes I used only for trips). If evening was approaching, I kept some food that could be cooked very quickly so I could eat on the way to the airport.

It's a different lifestyle, but it was the most fun I've had in aviation. I will caution, however, that this lifestyle isn't for everybody. Before one commits to this type of flying (especially where a training contract is involved) research it very, very carefully.

As I said before, there were other avenues I could have gone. But, this route gave me a lot of jet time, quick upgrade to the left seat, good pay, and very valuable experience. The flying doesen't get any harder than this.

 

[KingAirKiddo]

Thanks for the info.

I'm just trying to evaluate different options in the event things start to get nasty at my regional airline (don't really have the warm fuzzy feeling right now ). Lifestyle/QOL isn't all that big of a consideration for me right now since I'm currently single...money and relative job stability are my driving factors, as well as a chance to upgrade in a reasonable amount of time.

Anyway, thanks again.

KAK

 

[Clyde]

Thanks for the info.

I'm just trying to evaluate different options in the event things start to get nasty at my regional airline (don't really have the warm fuzzy feeling right now ). Lifestyle/QOL isn't all that big of a consideration for me right now since I'm currently single...money and relative job stability are my driving factors, as well as a chance to upgrade in a reasonable amount of time.

Anyway, thanks again.

KAK

Kiddo,
Anything I can do to help. Being single is a big plus in this part of the industry. As far as pay, that will vary from company to company and during certain economic times, but in my experience pay was relatively higher on this side of the fence. Again, I left in 2001, so things could have changed.

As far as stability, cargo has to move and it seemed like there was always lots of it. People tend to flock to cargo when the others are laying off, that's what attracted me to it.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with. On-demand definitley has it's pro's and con's, and it will pay to research them both.