Fine Air

[jborsdrf]

You're right it is Arrow Air, it seems as though a lot of people working there still refer to it as FIne Air. Is Toms NFL the place across from the Pan Am building ?

 

[mrvmo]

Yea it's across the street and just about a block west of the Pan Am building. They have pretty good happy hour specials to. On Thursdays it's five beers for eight bucks. All the food seems to be pretty good to.

 

[Publishers]

Fine

Frank Fine has no interest at this point in Arrow Air

 

[LearAv8r]

Ok, after sitting back and watching for a while I had to jump in. I was at Fine Air back around 1998. The deal there is that this is the time of year that the company hires a bunch of people, usually low time guys and trains them. They will use those crews to get them throught the holidays (increased freight, christmas, etc..) and then lay them off. I should know I was one of them and have seen this happen ever year. Also Arrow Air was originally sold to a different company and then acquired by Fine Air later. It is my guess that this was originally planned from the start. [between Frank Fine and Tony Tierre (sp)]

Frank and Barry Fine had a loan from Loy'ds of London for 200 million a while back. Part of the deal was that they had to have "allocated" the money before the payments were due (or in that general area) thus Arrow Air. The 50 and 60 series a/c that Fine has are junk, they were bought cheap and made flyable again. The Hush Kits on the a/c are also junk and don't work. Fine bought the company that made the kits. Too many limitations on the a/c weight to make the restrictions.

I have had three friends who had low time go over there and I have told each of them not to go. They see the 8's and get blurry eyed or somethng and go over there and of course they are all looking for a job.

Frank and Barry Fine and John Zappia are all crooks as far as I am concerned.

That is my opinion and I am sticking to it.......

LearAv8r-

 

[BigFlyr]

I have had three friends who had low time go over there and I have told each of them not to go. They see the 8's and get blurry eyed or somethng and go over there and of course they are all looking for a job.

Thanks for clearing that up...sounds right to me. Yes, it's unfortunate that both Fine Air and previously Arrow Air are well known for their hire and fire tactics. Only the most senior guys are there for any duration at all and morale in these companies tends to be very low. But like you said, lots of guys get stars in their eyes when they think about flying a DC-8 as compared to where they are now... at a low paying 135 operation or even worse, in front of a computer like yours truely!

 

[greasy8driver]

I worked for the Big A for three years. One of which was after the fine air buyout. Arrow was a fun place to work (for a young single guy) alot of BS but a good group of pilots. When I left I was at 66/hr. and 1.80/hr per diem. After Fine bought Arrow it went down hill fast (Frank and Barry are dirt bags) and into bankrupcy. I guess Frank and Barry were escorted off the property and there is a new owner and they are currently out of bankrupcy. As the earlier post stated they always beef up for the holiday season and furlough around feb. march, I bypassed that luckily. If you don't mind long duty days and some BS go do it. Its not a career job but you will get great international heavy jet experience. I got to fly through just about every continent in 3yrs.

Good Luck,

 

[buckdanny]

Sounds like a nice company as a starting job to build time and experience, but what kind of minimums are they looking at? Flying DC8s, they must have some pretty high mins, wouldn't pilots that meet them want to go fly for a better airline like fedex?

Buckdanny

 

[mrvmo]

You mean formerly Fine and now Arrow right? I thought that's what you meant. You had me worrying for a second.

 

[Snakum]

"Flying DC8s, they must have some pretty high mins"

Possibly, they do now. But, the guy I mentioned previously moved from FE to FO at 1200 TT. And one of the hang-arounds at the airport I used to haunt (a retired USAir Captain) also knew someone at Arrow who was right seat on the DC-8 at "around 1000 hours".

That said however, this was happening during the time COEX hired a CFI friend of mine at 650/200. From 1998 to early 2001 when everyone was hiring I imagine operators like Fine/Arrow, ATI, Tradewinds, etc. lowered their mins considerably.

I can just imagine their thinking ... "Who wants to fly an old, ratty, smoking DC-8 to stinkholes all over South America when Eagle and Coex can put 'em in a spiffy new ERJ? We'd better lower our mins to fill some seats!".

Now, with so many experienced pilots out looking for work ... their mins are probably in line with Polar and Atlas. Now, the answer to the "Who wants to fly an old DC-8 ..." question is "About a thousand guys in a ten-mile radius!".

Best of luck with 'em. If you do get in, how about filling us in on what it's like? We hear alot about regional and corporate lifestyles but rarely anything on the second-tier freighters.

Minh "Praying for a flight this month." Thong

 

[buckdanny]

I never really about this company until this thread came in.. I wish I could apply with them, but unfortunatly with the situation today I can say that I only have 1200 hours.. Now you friend who upgraded with 1200 was an FE before, so he knew the airplane inside out. I wish I could have a shot at flying a 4 engine jet, even if it's old and smoky at least just for the experience. Right now I'm more looking at ameriflight. Don't worry, I will fill in with info about anything that works out for me.

Buckdanny