Life at ALPHA

[molson247]

Just wondering what life over at Alpha is like? What's a normal schedule look like for you? Reserve? Do you fly on all of your days on? Average upgrade time? Getting serious about bailing from the 121 world in the spring. Thanks in advance....molson

 

[johnsonrod]

Just wondering what life over at Alpha is like? What's a normal schedule look like for you? Reserve? Do you fly on all of your days on? Average upgrade time? Getting serious about bailing from the 121 world in the spring. Thanks in advance....molson

I would look at the other fractionals too if you already have good 121 time. Avantair, Netjets, Flexjet and Citationshares are all hiring if you meet the minimums... If you don't, I would stick with 121 flying until you do.

 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

I would look at the other fractionals too if you already have good 121 time. Avantair, Netjets, Flexjet and Citationshares are all hiring if you meet the minimums... If you don't, I would stick with 121 flying until you do.

What he just said......Alpha is having big turnover issues for a reason. The others all offer more upside.

Mr. I.

 

[EatSleepFly]

I would look at the other fractionals too if you already have good 121 time. Avantair, Netjets, Flexjet and Citationshares are all hiring if you meet the minimums... If you don't, I would stick with 121 flying until you do.

Well it sounds like he wants out of 121, so what would be the point of sticking with it? Going to Alpha would build decent flight time and obviously he's already got multi turbine time, so after getting some fractional experience at Alpha, he'd be a shoe-in at one of the bigger ones. OR perhaps he wants to live wherever it is that Alpha is based. We don't know...

The man's asking for advice on Alpha, and in typical flightinfo fashion lately, the first reply is from someone with no experience there telling him to go somewhere else. Not trying to rag on you johnson, it's just a trend that has been annoying me lately.

All that said... sorry Molson, I can't help you, I don't know much about Alpha either. :nuts: Hopefully someone will chime in with a rare tidbit of useful information.

 

[johnsonrod]

Well it sounds like he wants out of 121, so what would be the point of sticking with it? Going to Alpha would build decent flight time and obviously he's already got multi turbine time, so after getting some fractional experience at Alpha, he'd be a shoe-in at one of the bigger ones. OR perhaps he wants to live wherever it is that Alpha is based. We don't know...

The man's asking for advice on Alpha, and in typical flightinfo fashion lately, the first reply is from someone with no experience there telling him to go somewhere else. Not trying to rag on you johnson, it's just a trend that has been annoying me lately.

All that said... sorry Molson, I can't help you, I don't know much about Alpha either. :nuts: Hopefully someone will chime in with a rare tidbit of useful information.

He can be shortsighted and leave now or be long-term oriented, get the minimums required for maximum flexibility and then leave then. Short-term vs. long-term. It's that easy. It's all about OPTIONS... If you have the necessary minimums you will have more options open to you.

I can't imagine what it would be like to leave early and then regret it when better opportunities present themselves requiring those same minimums. What would he do then? No pain, no gain (or, in this case, no nice plane)...

BTW, last time I checked, this was an information forum where opinions are offered ALL THE TIME. People are free to ignore at will.

 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

If your total time is indeed ~1300 then it may not be a bad option if you live near their bases. The pay may be acceptable to you if you're on 1st year RJ FO pay. Probably a pay cut if you're on 2nd year pay.

If you're near 2500TT, then you'll probably do far better at Flex, Avantair, CS or maybe even Netjets. In general, all offer more in the fractional world.

Mr. I.

 

[Geronimo4497]

Just wondering what life over at Alpha is like? What's a normal schedule look like for you? Reserve? Do you fly on all of your days on? Average upgrade time? Getting serious about bailing from the 121 world in the spring. Thanks in advance....molson

Well I recently left Alpha but can probably offer some help. Current schedule is 6 on 4 off. The company has plenty of co-pilots but is very short of captains (and about to get shorter; losing 4 captains would equate to 10% of the PIC ranks!). Consequently as a new hire you may find yourself sitting around quite a bit on your days on. If you have around 1500tt and have any sort of people skills you will upgrade very quickly.

The company is based in PSM with bases in PDK and FXE.

Keep in mind that they have an 18 month 'training understanding' for new hires. There is no longer a contract for upgrading and they say the FO contract goes away after the upgrade.

APC just posted this a while back. http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/fractional/planesense.html

 

[Shek]

Anybody willing to post the tentative payscale for the Grob?