Superior Aviation Drivers!!!

[John Wayne]

Hi guys, I am looking for operators that use the Van in the Denver area. I understand that Superior flys the Van out of KDEN. I had a few questions for anyone familiar with their operation. Past and present employees welcome to answer!

First : Is Denver an outstation or a hub for Superior? In other words would it be better to live near Denver? Or is Denver where the Vans come to drop their morning loads?

Second: In an effort to keep from soaking bandwidth, I would love to hear the good the bad and the ugly from any of you that care to share.Wages,typical duty day experiences, what the company is like to work for, job satisfaction etc.

Thanks John Wayne

 

[jetdriven]

superior flies mostly Metros out of KDEN for UPS feed into the smaller towns in colorado, kansas, and nebraska. I think they also have a couple navajo's and at least two 404's.

Keylime is another metro/navajo UPS feeder operator.

Planemasters used to have a Caravan in scottsbluff that ran to KDEN every night for UPS or abex.

 

[John Wayne]

Thanks for the help. How are they to work for as a company? How about Key Lime. What is the goudge on them?

 

[jetdriven]

they all suck about the same. You'll be flying airplanes with terrible maintenance, questionable equipment, in weather you'd never though you'd be in.

picture getting rime ice at an inch a minute in a piston twin.

 

[John Wayne]

Thanks for the heads up. Well sh*t there goes that idea. Just keep on keepin I guess.

JW

 

[jetdriven]

if its the only job you can get, take it. Just get out of there before you get violated or hurt. I lived through it!

 

[John Wayne]

Right now I am in decent shape. I just wanted to start looking into the Fr8 dog gig. I think that is where I will be most happy. (flying boxes of fake doggy doo) But the more I hear about some of these companies the more I question my judgement.
Idealy I would love to end up making a career of it. (STOP LAUGHING). I just want to be sure to focus my attention on the "right company"
I am willing to commute or move but the other thing that caught my interest was that Superior had a base out of Denver. To be able to bid on a slot that close to home would be bonus.
Sounds like they are just not the place for me.

Thanks again for the help on this. Drop me a PM if ya want to give me the "whole story" in private.
JW

 

[metrofo]

John Wayne,
Let me tell you I have been a fr8dog just about my entire flying career going on 12 years now, and if you are interested in making a career at one of these feeder operators, there is simply no better job to have than flying one of the caravans or f27's for Fedex. There are about 5 or 6 operators around the counrty that have all of this flying but by far the biggest is Mountain Air Cargo. I worked for Wiggins airways in the Northeast for about 3 years abd there were and are many people that choose to stay there for long periods of time. 10 plus years is not that uncommon. The pay is usually better than any other freight operator, but still not fantastic. expect to top out in the 60k range after 7 years or so in the caravan. The F27 with MAC is going to pay more in the left seat. Starting pay for a caravan is in the mid 30's. you will likely need a minimum of 2000 hours to be hired into the caravan though. You never have to worry about shoddy substandard maintenence or loose operating rules. Fedex is a class operation even at this lower feeder level. I also worked for Superior Aviation back in '93 flying the 404 and the Caravan. They were not too bad then but things may have gotten worse in the past ten years. I managed to make it to USAir in '99 but got laid off in '02 and find myself back into the night fr8 business. Its kind of something you can always fall back on.

 

[John Wayne]

Thanks guys.
I have been keeping my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open for some time now. I am not quite marketable hours wise. But will be soon. I wanted to start sending out the feelers now to see what was what. I will run a search for Mountian air cargo and see what is what.

Thanks for all the help.
JW

 

[Big Duke Six]

Fr8r MX

I think I may be able to add some perspective here for you. I do not have firsthand knowledge of the maintenance standards at Superior, but I do know about the situation at Key Lime. There may be many reasons to not like a particular job or company, but in Key Lime's case maintenance could not be one of them. If an airplane there has a squawk, it gets fixed (OK, minor ones have occassionally been deferred in order to address higher priority issues with other aircraft, but for the most part these have been very minor - I think that's pretty universal in the aviation world). If an airplane has an MEL item, it may not get fixed immediately, but it will be fixed within the time frame allowed by the MEL. Usually the only reason for any delay at all would be waiting for the part(s) to arrive. I flew Metro's for them for about two years and can honestly say that I never flew an airplane I was not comfortable in. The President of the company is (was) a mechanic, so they tend to take it very seriously, and encourage pilots to write up whatever they can in an airplane. I would not have stayed there that long if I had felt I was putting myself in danger. As far as I know, they have never had a maintenance-related incident or accident.

As for the flying, there is none like it. You either step up to the plate or you don't. You are by yourself (unlike Superior, who uses SIC's), so it's all up to you. How conservatively (or not) you fly is therefore also up to you. Yes they expect you to go if it's legal, but they also expect you to not go if it's not. You will be routinely operating the airplane up to the limits of its performance. You will also be at times operating at the limits of your own performance, so it may not be for everyone. Beyond that it's pretty much up to you to make it happen. The sense of satisfaction and accomplishment I, and many others who have done it, got stems from the feeling you get when you come home from work every day not just having endured it but having done it well despite the challenges and hurdles. Once you get past the pay and cruddy schedules, flying like this just can't be beat.