Decent Alaska outfits to work for.

[qwerty]

Looking for any decent Alaska outfits to work for. I might be heading up there and I was wondering if any one could point me in the right direction.

I was also on FLYalaska.net and they provide a servcie for about 30 bucks on all the info on people flying up there. Is that worth it?
Thanks

 

[A1FlyBoy]

I'm also seeking info on some good companies in Alaska. I had also stumbled upon that $30 service. DON'T PAY IT. You can find plenty of firms by searching under different searches on hotbot and yahoo.

Seems like most AK businesses require 1000TT for insurance, however, rumor has it some air taxi / tour gigs require only 500+

If you find any drop me an email. I'll do the same.

 

[AK737FO]

Knock on some doors...

You may have trouble trying to find a job up here is you are low time and from "outside". The best rule of thumb is to come up and spend some time knocking on doors and shaking hands. This will go a lot farther than a resume mailed from some far away place. Spring time is the best time to look for work as every operator is gearing up for the summer season. I saw an add in the Anchorage daily news a few days ago, looking for Navajo pilots. These jobs will probably not go to a young guy from California who is mass mailing resumes, but it might go to a young guy standing in the office doing his best to earn a job.
Good luck and keep the faith, you will get there eventually!

 

[A Squared]

I second AK737FO's advice,

You're unlikely to get a job without being here. The hiring is cylical, just like hiring everywhere. In the early-mid 1990s you'd have a hard time getting a SE 135 flying job without 1000-1200 hours and some Alaska time. As recently as a year ago or so, 135 operators were hiring pilots with just barely SE 135 mins (500 hrs) I even know of one operator who hired a guy without the mins and let him fly a 172 for free to get the 500 hours (about 100 hours) I was told the story personally by the operator. Some of the operators were hiring into the right seat of a turboprop with as little as 200-500 hours as recently as last summer. Things have changed a lot since then. I don't know what realistic times are now. There are a couple of outfits which have programs where you fly right seat in a caravan to build time. (and even get paid...not much, but the money is flowing to you, and not away from you) I don't know the details, but presumably they have some sort of blessing from the FAA.


As a sign of the times, one operator now has an "internship" program that allows you to fly 250 hours in the right seat of a Navajo, for the bargain price of only $11,800. That's right YOU pay THEM $47 per hour for the privelige of sitting in a piston twin. Pretty pathetic. Ironicly, about a year or 2 ago, the DO of this same operator was featured in the Anchorage Daily News, lamenting how difficult it was to find pilots....now they're making pilots pay them.

regards

 

[LAZYB]

February 13, 2002
WARBELOW'S AIR VENTURES (Navajo Chieftain Pilots)
3758 University Ave, Fairbanks, AK 99709
Tel: no calls
Fax: (907) 474-3821
Email: mike@warbelows.com
Web Site: http://www.warbelows.com
Alaskan scheduled commuter airline with 10 PA31 Chieftains is looking to fill 2 positions for a March 4th class date. Applicants MUST have a multi-engine ATP and commit to work at least until Sept 15 2002. Job is based in Fairbanks with a five on, two off schedule. Starting pay is $4000 per month with overtime available. Company benefits include medical/401K/interline pass benefits. PA31 experience preferred. Excellent growth potential for long term employees. When applying, ref: climbto350.com

http://www.adn.com/jobs/

http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/111201/loc_mail_limits.shtml

http://www.penair.com/employment.htm

 

[sleddriver77]

A few tips on finding a job (135) in Alaska.
1. Jobs for "low time" pilots are still available. The best place to begin looking is Bethel, in the "beautiful" Yukon Kuskokwim delta. The average minimums are @1000-1500 of single engine PIC, and a commercial/instrument. Some outfits will take pilots with less time(@700 hours, IF the pilot has flown a good portion of that time in Alaska. Different companies have different requirements based on their accident record and therefore their insurance company. One outfit will take out of state low time pilots and employ them as a CFI for their affiliated flight school, and then transition them to part 135 once they have accumulated a satisfactory amount of Alaska time.

2. Bush flying jobs have their plusses and minuses. The Location sucks. The money is GREAT.I know C-172 drivers who make more than an RJ pilot I know. The time off is good. Most companies have a four week on, two week off or 20 day on/10 day off pilot rotation for bush based pilots. Pilots in Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau are stuck there.

3. All the companies are different. Some have better equipment than others, some push pilots into weather, some are poorly managed. One company that is currently looking for pilots just gave all it's pilots (some have been there for years) a big pay cut! (Why do ya think they're looking so hard?)

4. A note for displaced 121 drivers:
Alaskan 135 ain't 121. You will probably have to load the airplane. You will put fuel in it. You will unload it. You will get cold and dirty. Some companies avoid hiring ex-121 guys altogether, as they have seen 121 types come up here (with the I'm a JET PILOT mentality) and whine about how hard it is. It ain't exactly like mucking out horse stables, but nobody will be bringing you coffee either, Captain. :0)

The moral: If you want to work up here, come up,look around, and talk to pilots with different outfits. Companies up here prefer a face to a resume, because if they see the face, they know you're already here, as opposed to some guy who "maybe could be up in a couple of weeks." Even if you ask around down in the lower 48 (states), you'll probably know somebody that knows somebody who works up here.
Hope this helps.

 

[mar]

"Alaskan 135 ain't 121"

Yeah, but Alaskan 121 is more like Lower 48 135!

 

[qwerty]

Hey sleddriver77,

Thank you very much for taking the time to give out the info on Alaska. I have an Alaska Airlines voucher and was thinking about going up there for a week or so to find some work. Flying in Florida and SOCAL isn't going to impress anyone up there. Maybe I could teach slow flight and stalls up there instead of here....I'd just like to do something different than teaching in a 150.

 

[OtterFO]

To reiterate what Sleddriver77 said. You will be doing you own loading/unloading/servicing AND your are not getting paid when the prop(s) arnt turning.

This in mind, you are very motivated to get the props turning again. A two pilot crew with a BE-99 working together can load about 2700 lbs of by-pass mail in 20 mins, and unload in 7 mins.

As far as a first AK job. Many of my friends up here started by instructing in Anchorage or Fairbanks for 6-18 months. I was lucky, my DO at this job was my CP at a job in the lower 48. So he knew exactly what he was getting when I called asking for a job, and he hired me anyway........

Pound on some doors and make yourself visible, you'll find something up here...

 

[Brownshoe]

Give LAB in Juneau a call. They hire lowtime greenhorns to fly their Cherokees and to eventually move to the Navajos.
The money is not as good as Bethel but Southeast Alaska is beautiful.

Their # is 907-789-9160

 

[TurboS7]

Where do I sign up????I am ready...

 

[sleddriver77]

Beware the Southeast

Be cautious of some outfits in Southeast..... One is known to REALLY push pilots into weather..... Lots of low timers have bought it there while being forced (financially) to fly in dog**CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** weather..... and we all know mountains and bad weather and airplanes don't mix. Sure, it's pretty down there when the weather is (rarely) nice. But when it sucks, it SUCKS. It would be in poor taste for me to mention the particular outfit, but it goes back to the "ask around" concept. Everybody knows who these guys are.

 

[TurboS7]

Been there done that. A lot more fun with a big airplane in the Southeast.