West Air questions.

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Well-Known Member
I'm considering trying to relocate from Alaska back to the SF bay area. I noticed that West Air operates caravans out of OAK. By the end of summer, I should have several hundred hours flying 208Bs, and loving it—I could fly the 'van forever. I'm considering going to a regional, but I'm weighing my options.

I've been digging around for about fifteen minutes (I'm lazy ;) trying to find some answers, but I figured I might as well just ask here.
First, are Fedex feeders in CASS, and do they have js agreements? Jumpseat privileges are something I don't think I ever want to be without again. ~.^ That by itself is enough to make me consider giving up Alaska for a regional. (If I decide to leave my current company)

Second, and this is more specific, I wasn't really able to find much info specifically about West Air, though obviously they're a decently large operator. Most of the information I find just lumps all the fedex operators together, and I was wondering if there's anything specific about these guys that makes them good/bad/indifferent?

Any other thoughts?

Sorry to ask boring questions.

-Fox
 
I can't see how a fedex feeder would do anything for your career.

That said does West air have any ATRs? If not, and there's still the 12.5 requirement for cass(I think there is), then no.
 
ppragman said:
Why not go out west and work 2-on-2-off with CASS? You will make a lot more money than at a feeder.
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I haven't heard much about flying out west that makes me think I'd want to do it. I'm not sold on anything yet—not even leaving southeast—but I'm getting a bit lonely, and I miss my cat a lot. And I miss hockey, and they melt the ice rink here in the summer time. There are lots of little things, not all of which can be solved with a 2/2 out west. (And it certainly wouldn't bother me if I never had another job flying 207s professionally.)

Money isn't the biggest factor.

I have entertained the thought of trying to get on with PenAir or Ravn, but the time I've spent in Anchorage hasn't left the greatest impression of that town as a place I'd want to live.

z987k said:
I can't see how a fedex feeder would do anything for your career.
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Well, I mean... what's a career? I'm never going to end up at the majors, because I don't have a degree. I'm considering going to a regional, and if I like that kind of flying the only option is to basically be a regional lifer. I DO like multi-engine airplanes, for many reasons, and I always have. If West Air flew Beech 18s, I'd be all over it. :>

In terms of 'career', I feel like my current job is a bit of a dead-end, in some ways. (I adore where I live, and the flying can be a lot of fun—most of the time—but I've seen people have immense trouble trying to move on from here, except to our near-and-dear competition... and for all I hear about 'Alaska time!!!11', even the float operators in K-town seem to prefer hiring 1000 hour pilots from down south with none over excellent pilots with thousands of hours of it. And all else aside, I can't help but feel that flying up here is decidedly a numbers game.)

Anyway, I'm mostly exploring at the moment, not deciding. I am not in a position to "name my job", by any stretch of the imagination—it might even be that my current job is the only thing I'm eligible for. But I'm looking, and I note that there aren't many options that get me back in the bay area. (And none that leave me able to afford to live, but that's a different matter ;)

That said does West air have any ATRs? If not, and there's still the 12.5 requirement for cass(I think there is), then no.
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We're in CASS, and we don't have anything bigger than a Caravan...

-Fox
 
ppragman said:
It's not too bad, plus you could hold Kotz or Barrow fairly soon.

Also, he could go to Grant and get a Dilly or King base.

It's not that bad out west .
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You've got to realize that you were born up here and more or less raised by a pack of wolves so your expectations of lifestyle are a little different than most. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that 2 weeks at a time flying a ratted out 207/208 vfr and living in a pilot house sounds like a bit of hell.
 
Acrofox said:
I haven't heard much about flying out west that makes me think I'd want to do it. I'm not sold on anything yet—not even leaving southeast—but I'm getting a bit lonely, and I miss my cat a lot. And I miss hockey, and they melt the ice rink here in the summer time. There are lots of little things, not all of which can be solved with a 2/2 out west. (And it certainly wouldn't bother me if I never had another job flying 207s professionally.)

Money isn't the biggest factor.

I have entertained the thought of trying to get on with PenAir or Ravn, but the time I've spent in Anchorage hasn't left the greatest impression of that town as a place I'd want to live.



Well, I mean... what's a career? I'm never going to end up at the majors, because I don't have a degree. I'm considering going to a regional, and if I like that kind of flying the only option is to basically be a regional lifer. I DO like multi-engine airplanes, for many reasons, and I always have. If West Air flew Beech 18s, I'd be all over it. :>

In terms of 'career', I feel like my current job is a bit of a dead-end, in some ways. (I adore where I live, and the flying can be a lot of fun—most of the time—but I've seen people have immense trouble trying to move on from here, except to our near-and-dear competition... and for all I hear about 'Alaska time!!!11', even the float operators in K-town seem to prefer hiring 1000 hour pilots from down south with none over excellent pilots with thousands of hours of it. And all else aside, I can't help but feel that flying up here is decidedly a numbers game.)

Anyway, I'm mostly exploring at the moment, not deciding. I am not in a position to "name my job", by any stretch of the imagination—it might even be that my current job is the only thing I'm eligible for. But I'm looking, and I note that there aren't many options that get me back in the bay area. (And none that leave me able to afford to live, but that's a different matter ;)



We're in CASS, and we don't have anything bigger than a Caravan...

-Fox
Click to expand...
If you want to do airline flying I have a feeling you'd have no problem at some point getting on with a cargo carrier or LCC without a degree. If you had multi time, I'd say come over to my shop. I could probably do this for life. Mostly because of how incredibly high my QOL is.
 
Roger Roger said:
You've got to realize that you were born up here and more or less raised by a pack of wolves so your expectations of lifestyle are a little different than most. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that 2 weeks at a time flying a ratted out 207/208 vfr and living in a pilot house sounds like a bit of hell.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm... This is probably the case. Even so, as far as flying jobs go, I'd say the 2-weeks-off is probably a pretty good trade. Especially if you don't care if you fly anything other than a caravan. Plus, it's not so bad, you can go hunting and fishing when you're not flying your ass off. Also, the flying is amazingly dynamic, you can have t-shirt weather at the start of your shift and a blizzard at the end of your shift, additionally the runways can be especially challenging - particularly in the spring and fall. If I got laid off here the first thing I'd do is try to go to fly for Bering Air in Kotz (they just started doing two-on-two-off) or Hageland wherever they'd put me. Yeah, two weeks away is tough, but it's a fun and interesting kind of flying, then when you get back, you have two weeks to do whatever you want! It certainly isn't for everybody, but it is pretty awesome if you want to travel the world for free and are single (as I am pretty sure OP is). If you have a family, your milage may very - in fact, in that case I'd say go fly medevac - but it's got everything the adventurous pilot type needs.

Pack of wolves is probably a correct analogy in my upbringing, us home-grown Alaskan types tend to be a wild bunch.
 
z987k said:
If you want to do airline flying I have a feeling you'd have no problem at some point getting on with a cargo carrier or LCC without a degree. If you had multi time, I'd say come over to my shop. I could probably do this for life. Mostly because of how incredibly high my QOL is.
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Even after a year and a half flying in Alaska, I'm still fairly low-time in general (Days of quickturns to Hoonah don't exactly add much quantifiable to my resume ;), and my multi isn't exactly likely to increase from the 56.6 hours I've managed to eke out.

I love Southeast to death, but I can't do this forever. I'm definitely open to all suggestions...

-Fox
 
z987k said:
And 400 hours of normal 208 time will be even more worthless.
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I don't really have an "end game". I was thinking of doing that because it sounded fun. It would give me time to write, polish my instrument skills, and give me time to possibly play some hockey, spend time with my cat, maybe fly some acro or do some instruction...?

As I said, it's just an option I'm looking at.

-Fox
 
Acrofox said:
I'm considering trying to relocate from Alaska back to the SF bay area. I noticed that West Air operates caravans out of OAK. By the end of summer, I should have several hundred hours flying 208Bs, and loving it—I could fly the 'van forever. I'm considering going to a regional, but I'm weighing my options.

I've been digging around for about fifteen minutes (I'm lazy ;) trying to find some answers, but I figured I might as well just ask here.
First, are Fedex feeders in CASS, and do they have js agreements? Jumpseat privileges are something I don't think I ever want to be without again. ~.^ That by itself is enough to make me consider giving up Alaska for a regional. (If I decide to leave my current company)

Second, and this is more specific, I wasn't really able to find much info specifically about West Air, though obviously they're a decently large operator. Most of the information I find just lumps all the fedex operators together, and I was wondering if there's anything specific about these guys that makes them good/bad/indifferent?

Any other thoughts?

Sorry to ask boring questions.

-Fox
Click to expand...

Empire and my own company, Mountain Air Cargo, are the only FedEx Feeders that are in CASS that I'm aware of. We have jumpseat agreements with quite a few airlines, but then again, these are the only two feeders that operate ATRs for FedEx. The Caravan only companies like Baron Aviation and West Air are not in CASS.

Personally, I love flying the 208, and this is the easiest pilot job I have had so far.
 
Go to a regional, when you have a cush schedule do online classes and finish your degree. There are a few colleges which will give you up to like 45 hours of credit for your pilot certificates (if you have ATP + CFI.)
 
SpiraMirabilis said:
Go to a regional, when you have a cush schedule do online classes and finish your degree. There are a few colleges which will give you up to like 45 hours of credit for your pilot certificates (if you have ATP + CFI.)
Click to expand...

To be perfectly frank, I'm not interested in paying in to the degree racket. I did some classes, and they weren't remotely worth the thousands of dollars each that they cost, minus dramatically overpriced textbooks... if the classes were free, I might be able to put up with it, but especially now that I'm working as a pilot, I can't afford that nonsense.

People have been trying to sell me on the degree thing for a long time, but I'm not buying.

I accept the consequences of that.

-Fox
 
At least get a thousand hours of multi or so. That way you can do about anything that is "fun" and "unique".
 
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