Need gouge/info on Empire Air

[blingair]

Does anyone know anything about Empire Air (Fedex feeder) in Northern Idaho? I have an upcoming interview and any gouge, company info or lifestyle would be helpful.

 

[Greg Barclay]

Did you ever get the interview/gouge

I know you posted awhile ago, but did you ever get an interview or a gouge? If you have any info to pass on please let me know. I may have an interview in the next few weeks. What do I wear to their interview? Thanks.

 

[Xfr8dog]

You wear a suit and a tie to thier interview, just like any other interview... But as for your logbook, letters of rec, references resume etc, i hear you can get away with just shoving them into an old plastic shopping bag....

 

[cargoflyr69]

Does Empire have any ATR's up and running yet? I interviewed there fall of 2002 and that was the big talk out there as the f-27 were getting old. I turned them down for another job for many reasons. otherwise they seem like a great family oriented company.

As for a gouge, its like 14 months old..... I was there for F/O slots on the F-27. I flew into Spokane, WA and rented a car to get over to Coeur 'D Alene, ID on my own dime. Met with Judy Spelde, the HR recruiter and the director of ops, forgot his name. Got a quick tour of the building and then met with the 2 of them. Was mostly going over my resume and talking about my past employment. then a few sutiational questions and then a sim eval. They had one of thoes PC based things with a cheezey yoke and rudder setup. Was set up like a Be1900 and had to fly a VOR apch with many DME stepdown fixes then to a missed and a hold. that was it. no failures or emergencies. Went back home that afternoon.

I turned the job down mainly because of pay and flight hours. They's start at 24K salary but with only about 600 hours of flying per year it thought it'd take forever to upgrade. I ended up getting another 121 offer later the same week and chose that company. Good luck and hope things work out!

 

[cargodawg]

What do you specifically want to know? I've worked there almost 2 years. I now fly the F-27 and have also completed ATR training in HOU. We will be having a class in the very near future for F-27 FOs. Also according to the company newsletter the ATRs should start revenue flights in late Feb. I enjoy my job and the company treats us pretty darn good. I've been flying the line for about 2 years and have about 1400 hours of 121 experience and I am hoping to upgrade in less than six months. Opportinities for advancement have been relatively slow since 9-11 has slowed down many of our Captains from moving on. Although with the ATRs replacing the F-27s we should start to gain more contracts as we are getting more ATRs by the end of the year than we have Fs. As it looks now I think we have 8 ATRs.
I wore a black suit and tie to the interview and I was interviewed by HR,and also the DO for the technical part of the interview. Then I had a sim eval in a Frasca 141 and shot several approaches with no abnormal procedures or failures.

Best of luck!

 

[ATRCAPT]

Empire Airlines

Cargodawg, We've probably flow together! I'm a checkairman on the F-27 & ATR. Empire is a pretty descent company. once you get into the system you can you can fly as much or as little as you want. We have very short runs (Spokane to Yakima) and very long runs (Seattle to Juneau, AK). I'be been here nearly four years and have averaged around 600 hours a year. The ATR will be operating from the Spokane base by late Feb. Once the airplanes come on line we will probably pick up more contracts which means quicker upgrades and more of them. Relax, cargodawg. If you are who I think you are you'll be in the left seat shortly! As far as interviewing goes, just know your basic IFR procedures and have a half descent scan. The F-27 has no autopilot so we need folks who can hand fly non-precisions approaches to minimums. Wear you suit and act like professional pilot. This place is a pretty good career stepping stone. We have people flying for SWA, Frontier, AWA and Atlas. We also have people furloughed from American and Northwest! Hope this helps. C-ya on line.

 

[eddie]

Can any of you share some info. on the caravan side of Empire? Schedules, pay, etc...

Is the sim ride the same for both aircraft? I hope to interview sometime this spring.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[cargodawg]

eddie,

You wanted to know a bit about the caravan program. The pay is in the low 30s to start and I think (don't hold me to this) most of the runs are 4 day work weeks. Pretty basic get placed in a base then the station manager will put out a schedule for the pilots at your base, you will fly mostly m-th and will be home for the rest of the time off. 1st year you get 2 weeks vac. after 1yr 3weeks more after 5yrs. Oh if you want maximun time at home live at your base, although some do commute. Also about the sim, I have no idea if you use the same one. If they invite you to an interview don't be afraid of asking what the sim session will be like.

best of luck!!

 

[blingair]

ATRCAPT- your girlfriend from the Sandbar called- says the test came back positive, thought you'd want to know. Bosco.