Boeing Sim Instructor

[Take A]

Does anyone have info about being a Sim Instructor at Boeing in Washington?

Is it a nice facility? Pay? Flying opportunities? Something to walk away from "The Business" for? QOL?

 

[typhoonpilot]

You would be talking about Alteon, a Boeing company. Alteon is their training division. Originally Boeing did all their own training in house under the Boeing name. In 1998 Boeing and Flight Safety formed a joint venture which was named Flight Safety Boeing. FSB was the competitive answer to all the training centers being set up around the world by others. The Boeing in-house training at Seattle and Long Beach was transferred to this new company along with all of Flight Safety's transport category jet simulators. Boeing became unhappy with Flight Safety and bought them out to take back full control a few years ago.

Now that the history is out of the way I'll try to answer your question. I haven't been to the Seattle facility but I worked for Boeing and Flight Safety Boeing over a period of 4 years from 1998 to the end of 2002. Prior to the spin-off the Boeing pilots were also sim instructors. Since the spin-off there is much less interaction between the full time Boeing pilots and the sim instructors. So there isn't much chance of flying Boeing production, delivery, or other Boeing instructional flying. You could make contacts with customers and you would be current and qualified to do any contract flying that came along, but there is not any actual flying component to the postion of a sim instructor at Alteon.

The facilities are very good and the sims well looked after. Pay for a full time instructor would be around $6000 to $7000 per month.

I wouldn't say it is something to walk away from the business for. It is a nice retirement job, especially on a part-time basis.


Typhoonpilot

 

[Spooky 1]

Boeing

You would be talking about Alteon, a Boeing company. Alteon is their training division. Originally Boeing did all their own training in house under the Boeing name. In 1998 Boeing and Flight Safety formed a joint venture which was named Flight Safety Boeing. FSB was the competitive answer to all the training centers being set up around the world by others. The Boeing in-house training at Seattle and Long Beach was transferred to this new company along with all of Flight Safety's transport category jet simulators. Boeing became unhappy with Flight Safety and bought them out to take back full control a few years ago.

Now that the history is out of the way I'll try to answer your question. I haven't been to the Seattle facility but I worked for Boeing and Flight Safety Boeing over a period of 4 years from 1998 to the end of 2002. Prior to the spin-off the Boeing pilots were also sim instructors. Since the spin-off there is much less interaction between the full time Boeing pilots and the sim instructors. So there isn't much chance of flying Boeing production, delivery, or other Boeing instructional flying. You could make contacts with customers and you would be current and qualified to do any contract flying that came along, but there is not any actual flying component to the postion of a sim instructor at Alteon.

The facilities are very good and the sims well looked after. Pay for a full time instructor would be around $6000 to $7000 per month.

I wouldn't say it is something to walk away from the business for. It is a nice retirement job, especially on a part-time basis.


Typhoonpilot

Typhoonpilot

The word must not have gotten out to you over there in the ME yet. Alteon, is no longer the name of the training facility in Seattle. For reasons known only to a few, Boeing decided to rename the place Boeing Flight Training and seperate themselves from the other Alteon training facilites. I think it has something to do with the introduction of the B787, but not really sure. Basically the training remains unchanged to the casual observer, but the politics of the deal have had some unpopular trickle down effect. There are still those who are hoping to get their hands on a real airplane, but the chances of that are very slim it would appear. On the other hand The Boeing Comapny has been doing considerable hiring in the last year to staff the flight instructor cadre. Most if not all these new pilots start out in the B737, however some of them are getting into the B777 with less than a year onboard and should see the B787 right out of the box.

As you probably know there are several senior Boeing experimental test pilots that have pure civil aviation backgrounds having started their flying careers at the local FBO's in the Seattle area and moved up through Boeing engineering positions into the seats of the latest Boeing equipment. Ken Higgings, VP Flight Ops, is but just one of these fine folks.

 

[typhoonpilot]

Thanks Spooky, I wasn't aware of that. I do know someone hired on the 737 at Boeing recently, but wasn't aware they were doing a lot of hiring.

TP

 

[flx757]

We have hired 3 of their 737 sim instructors here at Alaska in the last year....supposedly because they were cutting back on their full-time sim instructor staff. I understand they still are hiring part-timers on an hourly basis with no benefits. That part is second hand...but the part about us hiring 3 of their previous full-timers is not.

Another thing...one of our 737 Captains has resigned to go to Boeing to be a flight instructor (not sim...but in the airplane, basically a Training Captain type position for the companies that buy the aircraft) on the 787 (right out of the box...at least that's the story he told when he left, which was a couple of months ago).

 

[typhoonpilot]

Hi FLX:

Based on what you say and what I've seen in the past with Boeing Seattle ( Alteon's ) training centers, it can be very cyclical. We've got two 777 ground/sim instructors here at Emirates who had worked in Seattle, but were going to lose their jobs post 9-11. It would appear they are on an upswing right now. That should last for awhile, but like anything it could easily change as well. It would appear there isn't much job security as a full time sim instructor there. In Long Beach most of the guys were part time as well, after 9-11 the only full time guys were the fleet managers.


TP

 

[JediNein]

The rumor is the Long Beach facility has closed or greatly reduced their client load, is this true?

 

[typhoonpilot]

Midnight Mike would have the answer to that, but I don't see him on this forum much anymore. He posts on Jetcareers a lot.

TP

 

[psysicx]

According to there webpage they are hiring.

 

[Midnight Mike]

Typhoonpilot

The word must not have gotten out to you over there in the ME yet. Alteon, is no longer the name of the training facility in Seattle. For reasons known only to a few, Boeing decided to rename the place Boeing Flight Training and seperate themselves from the other Alteon training facilites. I think it has something to do with the introduction of the B787, but not really sure. Basically the training remains unchanged to the casual observer, but the politics of the deal have had some unpopular trickle down effect. There are still those who are hoping to get their hands on a real airplane, but the chances of that are very slim it would appear. On the other hand The Boeing Comapny has been doing considerable hiring in the last year to staff the flight instructor cadre. Most if not all these new pilots start out in the B737, however some of them are getting into the B777 with less than a year onboard and should see the B787 right out of the box.

As you probably know there are several senior Boeing experimental test pilots that have pure civil aviation backgrounds having started their flying careers at the local FBO's in the Seattle area and moved up through Boeing engineering positions into the seats of the latest Boeing equipment. Ken Higgings, VP Flight Ops, is but just one of these fine folks.

Yep, Alteon in Seattle was sucked back into Boeing, So some of the Boeing instructors fly and some teach in the simulators, and some do both. It helps if you know somebody, as jobs are not always advertised.

I have no information about which equipment you will be on, everything is based on senority as they have a union up there......