Trying to get into freight

Douglas said:
If you really want to fly freight, do it.
But I personally think that the best financial advice is to go to the regionals. Gasp. But it is true.
Unless you can get picked up by a freight outfit that can still pay amazingly well (relative to regionals) from the word go, the median freight wage will be out paced by the average regional after a year.

-Crew 121 time.
-FMS time.
Pilot demand for the future is unknown, so the weight of these things is unknown, but if the majors are on your wish list, a regional may be in your future anyway.

If you want to learn how to fly with the fire of fr8-dogg, do it.
But on a serious side: the flying is amazing, splitting your sleep schedule in to two 4 hour bits blows.
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I'm flying a lowly 208 and currently making >60k/yr (not sure exactly how much, just know it is more than that). Granted not typical

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jhugz said:
IDK how you guys hate this schedule. The UPS schedule is literally the easiest I've ever had. Weekends off, home all day, 8 hours in base, 10 hours in the outstation and less then 2.5 block of flying a day.
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FedEx has same schedule and I like it pretty well too.
 
SpiraMirabilis said:
FedEx has same schedule and I like it pretty well too.
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Do you have to work 50 weeks a year? The FedEx feeders I know get something like every 5 th week off. Seems like that would help alleviate the grind, so would 60 k a year. I never came close to that flying boxes.
 
Nark said:
I'm with the other dudes, go to a regional. Hit on the 3 non gay/granny/ghetto flight attendants. Money sucks initially, but look at what airlines what. (Emirites, Qatar, Cathay...) Also you'll build time faster. I don't know many freight dogs who fly 1000hrs/year. 121 schedulers try to put you right at 999.9.
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Didn't you go from a regional to freight?
 
Yep.

However I believe the OP and I are in different boats, I'm betting different goals too.
 
jhugz said:
IDK how you guys hate this schedule. The UPS schedule is literally the easiest I've ever had. Weekends off, home all day, 8 hours in base, 10 hours in the outstation and less then 2.5 block of flying a day.
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well, its . being gone 12 hours a day, 5 days a week is lame. even if you live in the base OR outstation.I feel really bad for the feeder runs that have a leg on saturday morning, essentially giving you one day off a week. It sucks and I don't know many pilots who actually enjoy the schedules after a few years of doing it.
 
SIUav8er said:
well, its . being gone 12 hours a day, 5 days a week is lame. even if you live in the base OR outstation.I feel really bad for the feeder runs that have a leg on saturday morning, essentially giving you one day off a week. It sucks and I don't know many pilots who actually enjoy the schedules after a few years of doing it.
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The Empire guys in ANC have it incredibly easy: show up at 9AM, done by 3 or so.

But yeah, as much as the flying sounds like a ton of fun the schedule does give me pause. We'll see.
 
SIUav8er said:
well, its . being gone 12 hours a day, 5 days a week is lame. even if you live in the base OR outstation.I feel really bad for the feeder runs that have a leg on saturday morning, essentially giving you one day off a week. It sucks and I don't know many pilots who actually enjoy the schedules after a few years of doing it.
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This job would suck if you're not outstation based, but if you are, it's cake. I fly saturday morning to get back to my outstation, but I also don't have to work on Monday till 7pmish. We have a lot of pilots here that don't mind the schedule and have been doing it for a very long time.
 
Nark said:
Also you'll build time faster. I don't know many freight dogs who fly 1000hrs/year. 121 schedulers try to put you right at 999.9.
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Quality vs quantity? If I went to a regional I would still be getting SIC time. Now it is all TPIC. The best part is that I still have the ability to go to a regional to get that FMS/121 time the majors want if I so desire. I also believe I have more job opportunities as a result of going freight than to a regional airline. In the end it depends on the person. Some people wont be able to do the freight lifestyle and prefer flying in the regionals. I personally think freight is an excellent thing to have on a resume and opens more doors than the regionals close.
 
jhugz said:
This job would suck if you're not outstation based, but if you are, it's cake. I fly saturday morning to get back to my outstation, but I also don't have to work on Monday till 7pmish. We have a lot of pilots here that don't mind the schedule and have been doing it for a very long time.
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The run I am doing now starts Monday PM and ends Friday AM. Essentially a 3 day weekend. I also racked up almost 15 hours during the week :).
 
We have a guy in Lubbock who works Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. His run is to fly to Abilene in the morning, unload his freight and fly directly back to Lubbock and he's done. He makes >$60,000/yr.
 
SpiraMirabilis said:
We have a guy in Lubbock who works Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. His run is to fly to Abilene in the morning, unload his freight and fly directly back to Lubbock and he's done. He makes >$60,000/yr.
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As great as that sounds it is a dead end job. The next job the guy will most likely take will initially pay less and have less time off. That isn't a bad thing; its just that the adjustment to his QOL would be interesting.

Sounds good for a retirement age job. Flying 3 mornings a week + 60Gs on top of retirement benefits from another job sounds great.
 
I don't quite make 60g's, but I will likely initially take a pay cut at any new gig I get.
 
KLB said:
I don't quite make 60g's, but I will likely initially take a pay cut at any new gig I get.
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Won't almost all of us? Isn't this the Catch 22 most regional captains are finding themselves in when considering going to the "Big Boys"?

I used to work with an old timer who flew flew freight at night from MAF to LBB spend the night and come back in the morning.... and then this dude would hop in a C172 and fly the pipeline on his "off" days. The dude was pulling right about 100k between the two but rarely took a day off for himself.
 
KLB said:
I don't quite make 60g's, but I will likely initially take a pay cut at any new gig I get.
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Depends on how you define any I suppose. I have to assume that any is limited somewhat by what you want to do.
 
z987k said:
Depends on how you define any I suppose. I have to assume that any is limited somewhat by what you want to do.
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Thats true. Most of us want to move up from the freight world to better pay and quality of life though.
 
Avalon781ML said:
Won't almost all of us? Isn't this the Catch 22 most regional captains are finding themselves in when considering going to the "Big Boys"?

I used to work with an old timer who flew flew freight at night from MAF to LBB spend the night and come back in the morning.... and then this dude would hop in a C172 and fly the pipeline on his "off" days. The dude was pulling right about 100k between the two but rarely took a day off for himself.
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That sounds like an awful life. Did he have to give his ex-wife 50k of that?
 
KLB said:
Thats true. Most of us want to move up from the freight world to better pay and quality of life though.
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FWIW, and totally off-topic, I jumped ship for worse pay and worse QOL (well, I kinda didn't have a choice). But I got to fly a JEEEEETTTTTTTTTT (and hey, I'm grateful someone employed me, truly). Then I jumped ship from that for more pay and better QOL in a SINGLE ENGINE airplane...and it's awesome. I could list all the things that I don't like about my job but it would be the garden variety nonsense you get with any job. On balance, it's fantastic. Freightdoggies, there is a light at the end of the tunnel...and it's not a jtrain. Seriously, sometimes I wake up during my week off and look around waiting for the Other Shoe To Drop...there's just no way that this can be a permanent state of affairs. But so far, it hasn't.
 
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