Flight Express Info...

[Aviator]

Do you stay at the airport during a longer layover or does the company provide a hotel like Ameriflight?

 

[ClippedWings]

Do you stay at the airport during a longer layover or does the company provide a hotel like Ameriflight?

Lazy Boys in the local FBO.

 

[Boris Badenov]

The Belgian dude is definitely still there. Still lives in the hangar too. Still cooks like a maniac and still likes to drink and smoke a nice cigar on the weekend. Good guy, if you can get past the "Americans this americans that" schtick.

To answer your question, the hypothetical 5 leg run would be constant flying. I've never actually seen that one, but I started on a three leg run that paid minimum and you never really sat around. Now I'm on a 12 hour duty day run and 9 of those hours are spent cooling my heels. Net result: More money, less work.

 

[yzf6]

The Belgian dude is definitely still there. Still lives in the hangar too. Still cooks like a maniac and still likes to drink and smoke a nice cigar on the weekend. Good guy, if you can get past the "Americans this americans that" schtick.

good description! every night there was the HUGE salad and 2 hours of running around the hangars. good guy though.

icefr8dawg, no run at ILM that i know of, unless there's one out of nashville going there.

 

[yzf6]

What's wrong with those two cites? I'd love to work in either of those two routes....expecially Birmingham!

i've been to birmingham a couple times and it actually seems like a decent place.
jackson, however, i won't be too dissapointed if i never go there again. 2 weeks was plenty. nothing to do there, and the whole city is located within the bad part of town.

How could you fly 2 legs and sit around all with making $35k a year? Would that be longer run? From what i've found, pilots are paid $10/hour while on duty. So do you get paid per hour or by the route?

since there's so many different runs in the system, you'll find some like that where you fly a couple hours, sit around all day, then fly back home. pay is the same whether your flying or sleeping in the pilots lounge.

you get paid based on what the route says, or how long it actually takes you, whichever is more. say the run is supposed to take 10 hours, but your couriers are early and you get back in 9.. you still get paid for 10. the next day you've got weather delays and it takes you 12 hours.. you get paid for 12.

So lemme make sure i got this right. If you're the last man on the roster, you get whatever run that is left? So your run/route could potnetially change every month/bidding peroid? Would this mean you were living out of a suitcase for your first few months?

once you get a run it's yours. someone higher than you can't bump you off the run that you've been on for 2 months because they suddenly decided they want it. tough luck for them, they have to wait until you don't want it anymore. there's exceptions, but that's usually how it works.

 

[Beechnut]

Gary Hillyer hired my in 1999. I thought he went to Airtran. Did he go back to Flight Express or never leave? Is Ernst still the D.O. down there?

S.

 

[ClippedWings]

Gary went to Air Orlando flight school for a couple of years as the marketing director then went back to Flight Express (once a freight dawg always a freight dawg). Ernst is still there.

 

[millhouse21]

There are normally no overnights at Flight Express and therefore, no hotel. You are back at your base after up to 14 hours of duty. If the FBO has couches, great. Sometimes the FBOs get a little upset by all the freight dogs dirtying up the lazyboys and eating all the popcorn, though. One of my friends had a long (over 6 hours) sit at SGF and the FBO had banned all FLX guys from going in there. Some kind of spat with the company. Sucked for him.

The good news is that if you're lazy, you can find a 13 plus hour run with 2 legs and spend 11 hours sleeping in the FBO and being paid for it. I think there were a couple of those out of CPS and they typically went to senior 210 guys. I was LIT based and had all my sits at CPS in the hangar watching TV and listening to the Belgian guy bitch about Americans and George Bush. Good Times.

 

[Boris Badenov]

I'm the lucky inheritor of the SGF run, millhouse. They still allow us to stay just long enough to check the weather. Then it's off to our own devices. I hang around the terminal and use the wifi. Obviously.

 

[needapayraise]

I'm the lucky inheritor of the SGF run, millhouse. They still allow us to stay just long enough to check the weather. Then it's off to our own devices. I hang around the terminal and use the wifi. Obviously.

Do you buy gas at the FBO? Why do they treat you like that? When I was flying cancelled checks, I always made it a point to be on good terms with the FBO's that were on my route. I never had a problem with them treating me any differently than any other pilot. In fact most FBO's I dealt with back then told me that they liked us better that most coporate operators as all we needed typically was just fuel and didn't need our a$$es kissed by them like some corporate pilots and passengers did.

 

[millhouse21]

The way I understood it, there was some kind of dispute between FLX and that FBO. As a result we didn't normally buy fuel there but it was available if you needed it. My run involved a CPS-SGF-CPS round trip which didn't normally require refueling. A couple times I needed/wanted gas there because of the weather and the company never complained. However, there was some bad blood. I remember my friend complained that the self labeled "general aviation terminal" should be open to the public since it was city owned and not owned by the FBO. He didn't get very far with that argument. I'm sorry to hear that you are still suffering from that dispute. I heard that you can get on a bus and go to a public library.

Boris, I'm just wondering, but is there still somebody doing 701 from LIT? For some reason I'm feeling nostalgic. Maybe it's because FLX was a stellar company to work for; at least in comparison to my present employer.

 

[E62Pilot]

I see they have a Memphis base. Anyone have an idea how hard it would be to get. I am going to be furloughed soon and looking for options to stay flying in MEM and avoid commuting.

 

[singlespeed]

Is the "Dude" still there?

 

[yzf6]

is dude the dude that would crack open the coronas (with lime) before making it inside the FBO?


e62pilot: i didn't know there was a memphis base until now, but it's listed on the company website. i'll check to see if it still exists.

 

[Beechnut]

Yeah... I was a pretty good gig. I remember all those Orlando boys comming up to CPS at first and hating it during the winter I was there. We had a girl living there in the hanger that brought her parot with her. That damned things squaked ALL THE TIME. I think they cycled out all the mechanics that use to be there when I was there. But I do remember how well most of the pilots were treated (if you did your job, you know... TRIED to fly when it was cold and cloudy outside... like I said, low time Florida guys sometimes put up a fuss.) My route was 712 (?) CPS-SGF-HRO-Springdale ARK-SGF-CPS. I love that run.

The best part about that job at that time was there was only ONE SEAT ANYWHERE TO BE FOUND ON THAT AIRPLANE. No more stinking Euro students over here trying to bust out a Instrument Rating in 20 days. I hated that!

So... anyway. That place was a good time for what it was and gave me what I needed.

Goood luck!

S.

 

[wildfreightess]

Okay, for all the guys currently based at CPS, let me go on record that I am not the girl who moved the parrot into the hangar!:laugh:

hmmm..... do parrots eat mice? If so, I might consider getting one! I wonder how much beer I'd have to buy the mechanics to get away with it.

 

[aviatrix]

Okay, for all the guys currently based at CPS, let me go on record that I am not the girl who moved the parrot into the hangar!:laugh:

hmmm..... do parrots eat mice? If so, I might consider getting one! I wonder how much beer I'd have to buy the mechanics to get away with it.

Wow! A parrot, huh??? Well, I'm a girl who flew for FLX out of CPS, and lived in the hangar and I did not have a parrot either! Wonder who it was! Who has time for pets in that job?!?!? I flew from 4am to 4pm (FLX717).
Regardless, its a good job, with good benefits and great for resume enhancement. The mechanics at CPS are super!!! (If the same ones are still there!)

 

[Beechnut]

Naw, this gal weather issues and eventually went on to Vanguard and is now at FedEx. If you either one of you got along with the mechanics, you aren't her. She was complaining about the harrasement (spelled my way tonight) from one of the men there.

Glad to hear you two had different experiences there.

I was there from Jan of 1999 to April 1999. A few short months that I enjoyed.

S.

 

[millhouse21]

Is she the one who could never get the hangar doors open by herself? Also refused to fly in icing conditions (in a known-ice airplane) and quit after they had Frank ride along with her? It had been years but the mechanics were still talking about her when I was there!

 

[Beechnut]

That's the one. Candy or Candice.

She was about as worthless as they come.

Now at FedEx.

S.