30 King Air Pilots Needed, Immediately

I'll leave my standard OCONUS spiel here:

I've spent a lot of time in that part of the world, both as a soldier and as a contract aviator.

Be cautious about your intentions to go running off to Southwest Asia to work. In no way am I telling you not to or dissuading you from working for these folks. However, for your own sake and sanity, and that of your family's, please read:

Things you need to think about
  • You will be gone from home approximately 7-8 months out of the year, assuming you stretch a few rotations into "workover" pay, meaning you stay beyond your 60 day rotation for some extra dough.
  • You do *not* get paid while you're home. Yes, you'll leave your rotation will some nice numbers in your bank account... however, you still need to budget while you're home because you will not be getting paid for two months.
  • DOD contracting is arguably the most volatile job security you'll ever run into. Your company can be the best performing, ultimate bad-asses of the sky, and the DOD can pull contracts overnight. Trust me.....................................
  • Internet access is very limited. It's available, yes... but it's satellite based, expensive, unreliable, and slower than all hell. Do not expect to be able to do any more than email and Facebook. The fastest internet is around 2-5am, where you can usually squeeze in a FaceTime, Skype call, or a horribly pixelated Netflix show. If you just cannot live without "adult content", download a ton of it and bring it on your laptop.
  • There is ABSOLUTELY NO ALCOHOL PERMITTED. None, zero, zilch, nadda. If you are a fan of fizzy adult beverages, sorry. You'll be lucky if you find a non-alcoholic beer somewhere if that even satisfies your cravings. You must understand this. Do NOT be like some people I knew and worked with who were fired and sent home because they tried to sneak in alcohol or have it mailed to them. If you absolutely can't live without alcohol, the liquor and beer flows like a river in Dubai, where you'll spend your layovers going in and out of Afghanistan. I mean it... look it up.... the amount of bars and clubs in DXB are staggering.

Things you need to be careful of
  • You *will* be living, eating, sleeping, working, and flying in a hostile part of the world. Mortar and rocket attacks are frequent... sometimes you may go weeks without hearing the incoming sirens, sometimes you'll hear it multiple times a day. I am not trying to scare anyone out of wanting to work in Afghanistan, but you need to know the truth. As silly as it sounds, you'll get used to it eventually... one piece of advice is limit your time outdoors. In the summertime, where attacks are the most frequent, that will be easy.. because it's hotter than the surface of the sun in Afghanistan in Summer. Speaking of which:
  • There were quite a few days in the southern part of the country where we "temp'd" out the operational limitations of the aircraft (45C+) and had to delay until nightfall to be able to fly back where the temps would finally dip into the low 40Cs.
  • If you are like me, and hate drinking plain old bottled water, you need to make it your best friend. Hydration is everything in one of the hottest and driest places on Earth. Freezing water bottles and snuggling them under your thighs while flying makes a world of difference.
  • You need to be a patient person. Sure, most people always say "I have all the patience in the world". Those are usually people that have never flown in foreign, military controlled airspace. If the idea of sitting at a hold-short line in Kabul for 1.5+ hours for no reason at all sounds like a nightmare, prepare for that to become reality. Overall, ATC in Afghanistan is very good, efficient, and professional... assuming you're dealing with center frequencies and the bigger airport towers (Bagram, for example). These facilities are staffed by contract FAA controllers who are rockstars on traffic handling and flow. Kabul is still the one and only major commercial airport in Afghanistan and serves international carriers daily. However........... ATC there is staffed by Afghani ATC students and NATO supervisors. Prepare yourself for delays, confusion, repeated queries, occasional unsafe instructions, nasty phone calls, and nasty-gram emails about how many times a day you've violated the Afghanistan FARs, etc. You *NEED* to understand that you are flying in the 5th world with a mix of FAA, EASA, and ICAO controllers who all want to be "right" all the time.

Things you will love
  • The money... I'm not going to lie... the money is great. If you can stomach the monotony and the "uniqueness" of flying in Afghanistan, you will be handsomely rewarded. Look above at the pay rates and do the math... a good work year is approximately 200 days. My first rotation resulted in me paying all of my credit card bills and all of my non-student-loan debt.
  • You'll be Platinum Medallion status on Delta in about a year. Delta flies to and from DXB to Atlanta and other places daily. The trip is long, but you rack up miles absurdly fast. Remember, you'll be doing those long-haul transatlantic flights every 60 days. After my first year working over there, I had enough miles to upgrade my ticket every trip, and spent the next year and a half of trips to and from work up front with the lie-flat pods ;)
  • The flying... no, not the actual routes and missions you'll be doing, but the challenges and the hours you'll get. My work rotations were 42 on/42 off, and I flew about 160 hours per rotation. Depending on what Viking's mission is (I already have a feeling I know what it is), expect to log around 600-800 hours per year. Sure it doesn't sound like much, but remember, you're only working half the year or so. You will most likely fly all day, every day, your entire rotation.
  • The scenery... Afghanistan is still one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. The canyons, mountain ranges and river valleys are jaw-droppingly beautiful. Remember, AFG sits on the foothills of the Himalayas. On a clear, good vis day in fall/winter, you can easily see K-2 poking up over the horizon.
  • On that same note, most of western AFG is like the surface of Mars. You will most likely never fly somewhere as desolate.

Things you will hate
  • The weather - Already mentioned it above. Prepare for very strong winds for the majority of the year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_of_120_days
  • The heat - It gets to 40-50C all summer long. Fortunately, the living quarters are decent, and you'll be sitting under a freezing A/C when you're "home".
  • The cold - Afghanistan has real winters... heavy snow, icy, wet winters. That being said, the Air Force is spot-on with de-icing at most airfields.
  • The food - Eat what you can stand to eat. Food is never fresh, it's ladened with preservatives and additives to keep from spoiling. You will spend a majority of your rotation on the toilet. Sorry, that's just the way it is.
  • The boredom - Your worst enemy. When you're not flying, you've GOT to find something to do. If you're a gym rat, you'll be very happy. There are 2394857928374 gyms on base, and you can use any of them as a civilian. If you're a chubby nerd like I am, buy or bring a PS3 or something with you. It saved my life and my sanity... even then, the monotony is difficult. If you're not flying, you're at chow... if you're not at chow, you're sleeping... rinse and repeat.
That's pretty much the gist of it all. Thanks for reading.. I'll be happy to entertain questions on the thread. Do not ask about where I flew, who I worked for, what I did, who the customer was, etc. There is a TON of hush-hush stuff that goes on in that part of the world, and I will not share information about the contract. Anything else about flying or QoL related, ask away!
 
Last edited:
jboynm said:
I'll leave my standard OCONUS spiel here:

I've spent a lot of time in that part of the world, both as a soldier and as a contract aviator.

Be cautious about your intentions to go running off to Southwest Asia to work. In no way am I telling you not to or dissuading you from working for these folks. However, for your own sake and sanity, and that of your family's, please read:

Things you need to think about
  • You will be gone from home approximately 7-8 months out of the year, assuming you stretch a few rotations into "workover" pay, meaning you stay beyond your 60 day rotation for some extra dough.
  • You do *not* get paid while you're home. Yes, you'll leave your rotation will some nice numbers in your bank account... however, you still need to budget while you're home because you will not be getting paid for two months.
  • DOD contracting is arguably the most volatile job security you'll ever run into. Your company can be the best performing, ultimate bad-asses of the sky, and the DOD can pull contracts overnight. Trust me.....................................
  • Internet access is very limited. It's available, yes... but it's satellite based, expensive, unreliable, and slower than all hell. Do not expect to be able to do any more than email and Facebook. The fastest internet is around 2-5am, where you can usually squeeze in a FaceTime, Skype call, or a horribly pixelated Netflix show. If you just cannot live without "adult content", download a ton of it and bring it on your laptop.
  • There is ABSOLUTELY NO ALCOHOL PERMITTED. None, zero, zilch, nadda. If you are a fan of fizzy adult beverages, sorry. You'll be lucky if you find a non-alcoholic beer somewhere if that even satisfies your cravings. You must understand this. Do NOT be like some people I knew and worked with who were fired and sent home because they tried to sneak in alcohol or have it mailed to them. If you absolutely can't live without alcohol, the liquor and beer flows like a river in Dubai, where you'll spend your layovers going in and out of Afghanistan. I mean it... look it up.... the amount of bars and clubs in DXB are staggering.

Things you need to be careful of
  • You *will* be living, eating, sleeping, working, and flying in a hostile part of the world. Mortar and rocket attacks are frequent... sometimes you may go weeks without hearing the incoming sirens, sometimes you'll hear it multiple times a day. I am not trying to scare anyone out of wanting to work in Afghanistan, but you need to know the truth. As silly as it sounds, you'll get used to it eventually... one piece of advice is limit your time outdoors. In the summertime, where attacks are the most frequent, that will be easy.. because it's hotter than the surface of the sun in Afghanistan in Summer. Speaking of which:
  • There were quite a few days in the southern part of the country where we "temp'd" out the operational limitations of the aircraft (45C+) and had to delay until nightfall to be able to fly back where the temps would finally dip into the low 40Cs.
  • If you are like me, and hate drinking plain old bottled water, you need to make it your best friend. Hydration is everything in one of the hottest and driest places on Earth. Freezing water bottles and snuggling them under your thighs while flying makes a world of difference.
  • You need to be a patient person. Sure, most people always say "I have all the patience in the world". Those are usually people that have never flown in foreign, military controlled airspace. If the idea of sitting at a hold-short line in Kabul for 1.5+ hours for no reason at all sounds like a nightmare, prepare for that to become reality. Overall, ATC in Afghanistan is very good, efficient, and professional... assuming you're dealing with center frequencies and the bigger airport towers (Bagram, for example). These facilities are staffed by contract FAA controllers who are rockstars on traffic handling and flow. Kabul is still the one and only major commercial airport in Afghanistan and serves international carriers daily. However........... ATC there is staffed by Afghani ATC students and NATO supervisors. Prepare yourself for delays, confusion, repeated queries, occasional unsafe instructions, nasty phone calls, and nasty-gram emails about how many times a day you've violated the Afghanistan FARs, etc. You *NEED* to understand that you are flying in the 5th world with a mix of FAA, EASA, and ICAO controllers who all want to be "right" all the time.

Things you will love
  • The money... I'm not going to lie... the money is great. If you can stomach the monotony and the "uniqueness" of flying in Afghanistan, you will be handsomely rewarded. Look above at the pay rates and do the math... a good work year is approximately 200 days. My first rotation resulted in me paying all of my credit card bills and all of my non-student-loan debt.
  • You'll be Platinum Medallion status on Delta in about a year. Delta flies to and from DXB to Atlanta and other places daily. The trip is long, but you rack up miles absurdly fast. Remember, you'll be doing those long-haul transatlantic flights every 60 days. After my first year working over there, I had enough miles to upgrade my ticket every trip, and spent the next year and a half of trips to and from work up front with the lie-flat pods ;)
  • The flying... no, not the actual routes and missions you'll be doing, but the challenges and the hours you'll get. My work rotations were 42 on/42 off, and I flew about 160 hours per rotation. Depending on what Viking's mission is (I already have a feeling I know what it is), expect to log around 600-800 hours per year. Sure it doesn't sound like much, but remember, you're only working half the year or so. You will most likely fly all day, every day, your entire rotation.
  • The scenery... Afghanistan is still one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. The canyons, mountain ranges and river valleys are jaw-droppingly beautiful. Remember, AFG sits on the foothills of the Himalayas. On a clear, good vis day in fall/winter, you can easily see K-2 poking up over the horizon.
  • On that same note, most of western AFG is like the surface of Mars. You will most likely never fly somewhere as desolate.

Things you will hate
  • The weather - Already mentioned it above. Prepare for very strong winds for the majority of the year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_of_120_days
  • The heat - It gets to 40-50C all summer long. Fortunately, the living quarters are decent, and you'll be sitting under a freezing A/C when you're "home".
  • The cold - Afghanistan has real winters... heavy snow, icy, wet winters. That being said, the Air Force is spot-on with de-icing at most airfields.
  • The food - Eat what you can stand to eat. Food is never fresh, it's ladened with preservatives and additives to keep from spoiling. You will spend a majority of your rotation on the toilet. Sorry, that's just the way it is.
  • The boredom - Your worst enemy. When you're not flying, you've GOT to find something to do. If you're a gym rat, you'll be very happy. There are 2394857928374 gyms on base, and you can use any of them as a civilian. If you're a chubby nerd like I am, buy or bring a PS3 or something with you. It saved my life and my sanity... even then, the monotony is difficult. If you're not flying, you're at chow... if you're not at chow, you're sleeping... rinse and repeat.
That's pretty much the gist of it all. Thanks for reading.. I'll be happy to entertain questions on the thread. Do not ask about where I flew, who I worked for, what I did, who the customer was, etc. There is a TON of hush-hush stuff that goes on in that part of the world, and I will not share information about the contract. Anything else about flying or QoL related, ask away!
Click to expand...

Great Post. @Derg - meets the quals for a Perspectives article, doesn't it?
 
ozziecat35 said:
Wow, that's not just "fill a gap in staffing" numbers.
Click to expand...
Actually, that's pretty standard pay for all the companies flying here, and all of the companies are hurting for pilots. For example the company I'm with, not this one, is supposed to be staffed at 2 dozen pilots right now. We have 14.

If people have reasonably competitive numbers to what is being required by the company I recommend applying.

Oh, and go back and reread @jboynm post. It's pretty spot on
 
moxiepilot said:
Actually, that's pretty standard pay for all the companies flying here, and all of the companies are hurting for pilots. For example the company I'm with, not this one, is supposed to be staffed at 2 dozen pilots right now. We have 14.

If people have reasonably competitive numbers to what is being required by the company I recommend applying.

Oh, and go back and reread @jboynm post. It's pretty spot on
Click to expand...

Can you suggest other companies to apply to? I already sent a resume to The Viking Group.
 
Dropped my resume in. Short on total time, but had two previous deployments and the clearance. Maybe they also need Sensor Operators?

@av8tr1 I heard of a group (can't remember the name currently) flying PC-12s, but I personally wouldn't want to put all my faith in one engine to get be back to base...
 
I enjoyed my time flying this mission in USAF King Airs immensely (excepting a couple USAF-specific issues, of course).

If you don't want to stomach the low pay at the regionals for a couple years, these outfits are a good option. There can be good adventure to be had, too.
 
jboynm said:
I'll leave my standard OCONUS spiel here:

  • Overall, ATC in Afghanistan is very good, efficient, and professional... assuming you're dealing with center frequencies and the bigger airport towers (Bagram, for example). These facilities are staffed by contract FAA controllers who are rockstars on traffic handling and flow.
Click to expand...

All spot on, except for that it isn't FAA contract. Maybe a few sprinkled in here and there were retired FAA, but most were fresh outta the Air Force, few from the Navy. Bagram, Kandahar,and Kabul Center are all, and have been under MidWest ATC contract. I was an Approach controller at Bagram a little over a year for them, back in 09-10.

Www.atctower.com
 
How does one sort out the Security Clearance issue? No military service but I have all the King Air experience they could ever want.
 
Adam McAfee said:
How does one sort out the Security Clearance issue? No military service but I have all the King Air experience they could ever want.
Click to expand...


Apply to them. If they want to hire you, they'll pay out the cash to get your clearance. It'll take a month or so to get, background checks, mountains of paperwork etc...
 
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