Phoenix Air

[Secret Squirrel]

Anyone know about Phoenix Air Group in Cartersville Georgia? I know they may not be hiring for a while but interested in Quality of life, pay, and if all pilots based out of Cartersville. Thanks for any info.

 

[Palerider957]

I don't know much about them, except that they fly a lot. One Captain I flew with used to be one of their lear drivers and he said the work was pretty intense.

They do a lot of work for the DOD that involves useing classified electronic gizmos to test reaction time of U.S. Forces. They tow banners for aerial gunnery, and fly missions all over the world. This Captain said they are gone a lot.

I believe they have had their share of tradedies with at least one crash not too long ago.

That's about all I know. Good luck.

 

[BlackCoffee]

They are gone a lot. If you are single, go for it ! Spend time in Greece, Italy etc. They also did a run a while back in a G1 from avtec at RYY to Destin. Not a bad place, just dont be a family man.

 

[JimNtexas]

When I was in the Air Force in the early 90s I got to participate in the 'Faker' program, which is a program in which the Air Force leases civil aircraft from the private sector and uses them to support training and flight test activities.

The Faker program was intended to replace the mission of the active duty T-33s we used to have. We had crews and airplanes based all over the country.

While I was with the program the contract passed from Flight International in Newport News to Phoenix Air. Phoenix Air built us some Lears that carried an Electronic Warfare Officer and had really awesome capabilities. One of these aircraft was in a terrible accident in Fresno in which it caught fire and crashed on a public road. I don't like to talk about this, but there is an NTSB report on it.

Our fakers flew in many Red Flag and Green Flag exercises, something which I don't think most civil Lear pilots get to do.

I liked Mark Thompson, the CEO at Phoenix. He was a real old time capitalist and had lots of neat toys, like a real AC Cobra and a NASCAR racer which he wrecked on a regular basis.

I have no idea what they are up these days, but back then I think they paid above average and certainly had a wide variety of missions.

They had several other military contracts for flight test support and even flew Dart tow with a Lear sometimes. They also had all the permits to fly explosives, and did a lot of that kind of thing. Until recently, they had the contract to operate the Midway island airport.

They had a Gulfstream I with a large cargo door and hardpoints that Mark said was his favorite. This airplane sometimes carried missiles for various test programs.

It's been several years since I've talked to them, but I think Phoenix Air would be a really interesting place to work.

 

[Otter]

I have flown alongside a few of their guys and enjoyed an adult beverage or two during the weekends and found all of their pilots to be great guys. They did not complain about equipment or pay, so I assume both are good. The only other comment was how often they were out, big deployments and lots of international.

As has already been said, better to be single.

 

[Alaskaairlines]

Well here is some news:

Today at work I heard that they called and took a fron tdesk girl and told here she was going to Gulfstream Academy in 2 weeks. They are going to pay for all the training and give here a job flying a G1 up north I believe.

Anybody have info on G1's operating under them?

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Where do you work? She will be based out of Alaska? Is she already a pilot?

 

[Alaskaairlines]

I work at Era FBO in ANC, I am not 100% sure where she will fly out of, and yes, she has all her ratings together.

Sounds like she will be flying to some bush villages twice a week, and least the names sounded bush like!