I'd shy away from Air America. It's time for their 1099 contract employee crap to stop.
As someone who enjoyed my time at Air America for the most part,
I would also encourage anyone looking for a job to avoid Air America. The risks of being a 1099 contractor, especially in such a relatively dangerous job, greatly outweigh any benefits. As a 1099 contractor, you are considered legally self-employed and you will not received any sort or worker's comp if you are injured on the job (not far fetched, given the accident rate in the General Aviation world; and as has been mentioned, this actually happened to an AA pilot back in June). Also, if you get in an incident or accident and there is damage to the aircraft, Air America's insurance company will likely sue you to cover the damages. The imaging pilot contracts are written so that you are responsible for any damage to the aircraft that occurs while you are assigned to it- even if caused by a third party. Air America recommends that their pilots purchase renter's insurance, but this really wouldn't do any good as most Renter's Insurance policies do not cover commercial operations, and the company should and probably does know better than to claim that it does.
Besides the issues of liability and lack of Worker's Comp, there is also the issue of taxes. Since you are considered self-employed as an independent contractor, you are required the pay twice as much in Social Security and Medicare taxes as if you were a W2 employee (since traditionally, the employer and employee each pay half). That's another 7% or so of your income down the drain right there. Also, at least one former AA pilot has had the IRS come after them claiming they still owed taxes, thanks to the 1099 arrangement. The fact is the 1099 Independent Contractor arrangement is actually illegal (for it to be legal, the pilot would probably have to be the one to own/provide the aircraft, and probably the cameras as well). Because it is illegal, you could easily be slapped with back taxes by the IRS. Also, the fact that you are self-employed increases your chances of being audited, especially if you claim any business expense deductions. It also means your Per Diem is taxable, even though Per Diem for W-2 employees generally isn't. Air America is evading taxes on their pilot's backs with the 1099 scam, and as far as I'm concerned their owner and business director belong in jail for tax fraud.
It's a shame, really. Like I said, I enjoyed my time there, and I think it could be great company to work for if it weren't for the 1099 scam.
There was a lot of micromanagement at Air America towards the end of my time there and I had mostly dodged it, but the manager responsible for most of it is no longer with them. I'm not sure what the extent of it is today with Jake running things, but I could certainly see some valid criticism of the 1099 with how it was being run for a lot of the new guys when I had left. I think that was extremely demoralizing dealing with it. I can certainly understand the bosses wanting to check in. Right before I left supposedly some young kid that was being prepped for an Aztec job decided to hop in his 172 and fly to visit his GF, only to have to fly back to return the crew car keys and then fly back again to see his GF. He didn't last long after that, but honestly I'm surprised at how few problems we had getting work done as a whole.
The pilot flying home to see his girlfriend did happen. The 8-Mile Scandal- it was the talk of the company for weeks afterward! The pilot had one of the nicest 172SPs at the time, and was demoted to Log as punishment.
I don't think the scary thing is that the accident happened, as if you run enough machines long enough something like that will happen, but the crappy situation the poor guy is in with having monstrous medical bills as a contractor with possibly no workers comp.
It is true that accidents do tend happen sooner or later, but It wouldn't surprise me at all if Air America's maintenance was a factor. The company tended to be very penny-wise and pound-foolish with maintenance, although they were worse about this with the Aztecs than the 172s. At the same time, as much of a jerk move it is to say this when the pilot was injured, it could be that the pilot was partly to blame. There were plenty of times I was shocked by what maintenance issues other Air America pilots would fly with or what weather they would fly in, but they did it anyway since they wanted to build hours.
Of course he'll see a dime if there was something wrong with the plane. Quite a few dimes, possibly several million dimes if he lawyers up. Who's to say the insurance isn't covering anything either? There are so little details of the case out there that maybe Air America was quite wrong or maybe the pilot was at fault. None of us know for sure, aside from maybe Pntbllr233 and I don't believe you've been actively staying in touch with the families of the pilots to know exactly how they've been treated or the NTSB to find out how the investigation is going.
I can't remember all of the crashes the vendors have had over the years. I know a DWAS pilot CFIT'd years ago and got killed and I believe at least every vendor that's been around for more than one or two seasons has had some sort of incident if not accident
. I don't think the DWAS employee that the NTSB ruled committed CFIT had any extra protection for doing so handed out to him or his family because he was an employee, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
http://ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20061109X01635&ntsbno=SEA07FA012&akey=1
That said it sucks that anyone has had any sort of misfortune among survey pilots and I'm lucky as hell that I've never had any in-flight emergencies.
That's your third anti-Air America post in this thread do you have any other beefs you'd like to share about them with potential pilots here?
It's not that pilots who are W-2 employees are afforded extra protection in the even of an accident, it's that they are eligible for Worker's Comp, a form of insurance all W-2 employees have as employers are (in most jurisdictions) legally required to provide it. Because Air America's pilots are independent contractors, they are not covered. This means the pilot of N21767 is not eligible for a benefit the vast majority of employees in the nation receive, and will probably be on the hook for thousands if not millions in medical bills that a W-2 employee would not.
Also, because he was a 1099 independent contractor, it will probably be difficult to sue even if there was something wrong with the plane. The imaging pilot contracts state that pilots are liable for any damage, and Air America could easily argue that, as PIC, he should have known the plane was un-airworthy and not flown if it were unsafe. Then there's the fact that Air America likely has deeper pockets that any of their pilots do. I think it's unlikely a pilot could successfully sue the company. They could sue arguing Air America should provide Worker's Comp but I don't think that would work either since Air America would just point out that the pilot also agreed to the 1099 arrangement.
I used to recommend Air America to pilots looking for jobs, but I regret it now. I strongly advise any prospective Picto pilots to stay away from Air America and look into the other vendors instead.
