Jet Aviators Beware of this company

[DECOMPRESSED]

Avbase Aviation CLE/ADS
Read AAALLLLL fine print of what they promise and believe only 1/4. Especially the PAY SCALE!!!!! Make sure you understand it completely. It might help if you bring in or ask a lawyer, accountant, financial advisor, and one of the few pilots remaining about the hidden subtitles. You'll need them to understand the bla bla bla, it's a great job bla bla bla. Oh yes, the pay scale and per diem will change at any given moment.
Their is no set schedule, you WILL BE called on your days off. (no extra pay and you MIGHT get the day back if you lucky.)
I will say if you don't mind flying your butt off and don't need the money it's not a bad place to be. You'll get great flight time and experience. Just no life.
Just a heads up to the mysteries lurking behind that great job.

 

[English]

I was offered a job with these guys right after being furloughed after 9/11. After reading your post, I'm glad I turned it down!

 

[On Your Six]

What types do they fly? I saw that you have Lear experience. Not particularly interested given my current gig - just curious...

 

[Flight level]

Everything I have heard about AVBASE has been negetive. There is no money or life. I heard one guy who knows some guys there say that he would rather work at KMart. It seems like another operator taking advantage of pilots.

 

[On Your Six]

What about getting typed on the G200 and flying it? Is that a posibility for newhires? Or do newhires typically start on the Ultra or Lears? I am not considering it - just curious.

 

[DECOMPRESSED]

On your six-
Yes , you can or they will type you on a G200 right off the bat if they have the opening, however, the last guy to do this was based in Florida. All I'll say is apparently he is looking to get out of the G200 asap due to being gone all the time. Again, if you don't care about how much your gone and the lack of pay, do it.
The types of A/C are Lear 55, 31, G200, Ultra. They're hiring right now, BUT be careful. If you sign a contract ( they will require it) and you try to leave before your term is up, you will be sued. (except for Texas based guys) Texas has a law that even if you sign a contract, the company cannot sue you for leaving.
Last, like other companies, most all of the A/C they operate are for sale.

 

[wingnutt]

Texas has a law that even if you sign a contract, the company cannot sue you for leaving.

you wouldnt have a link to such info, would you? after flying there for the last few years, ive come to believe the opposite is true.

 

[TAG2]

I was offered a job by them several years ago and they required a training contract that spanned the period until your next re-current was due and then you had to sign a new one. Needless to say, I passed. I have heard they do persue those that break the contract.

 

[Lear70]

you wouldnt have a link to such info, would you? after flying there for the last few years, ive come to believe the opposite is true.

There's quite a bit of case law on this across the internet. Try using West Law or one of the other search engines. Having been in Texas with two companies that had "Training Contracts", here's the quick skinny:

There's two kinds of contracts; one is the typical "Our training costs X amount of dolars, if you leave within Y amount of months, you will be charged Z amount of dolars for every month left in the contract duration". This kind of training contract is considered "indentured servitude" in several states, and is usually not enforceable, no matter how much they threaten. However, they can pass along that information as part of your PRIA documentation, and some employers don't like that you didn't pay up.

The second kind of contract is an actual "Training Contract", where they LOAN YOU THE MONEY TO COMPLETE YOUR TRAINING. This becomes a promissory note, which is enforceable in every state in the union. More and more companies are getting wise to this kind of training contract, as it's basically an interest-free loan the company makes and you repay at a certain amount per month which is added to your salary until your contract period is complete.

The second kind is what they had at Express One, and they were VERY aggressive in pusuing it, and no one I heard of ever got out of it until the company went bankrupt. They made one final push to get lump sum payments from people, then when they closed the doors couldn't legally come after anyone anymore. The kind they have at Flexjet is technically unenforceable in both Texas and Tennessee so they never bothered with me, even though I left 60 days after my recurrent PC (their training contract said anyone that left within a year of training would owe them cash, but if you were a Captain you were never more than 6 months out so it was a crock of sh*t and the company lost several battles in court.

Good luck, I think training contracts suck and don't blame people one bit as long as they don't just grab a type rating and run...

 

[pa56pa]

Blacklist ....

When I hear stories like this, I almost want to suggest that we add a "blacklist" of companies, i.e. charter companies.... he he he!! I can name a couple on the top of my head... I'm glad to say that as of May, I found a job at a charter company that runs itself like a corporate flight department which stresses to ensure that their pilots have a high quality of life... while enjoying their careers at the same time. The best part of this is that it's within a hop's distance from me.. NO MORE 400 mile COMMUTES to WORK.. RAGGED SCHEDULES.. ILLEGAL AND UNSAFE FLIGHTS and BITCHES AND DICKS for a BOSS!!!