Ameriflight

Met Jim Martell, Andrew Lotter, and Dave DeRose at the meeting today.

Been here a while now, and only know one of them.

Any word on what is happening? Is Wiggins going to operate on it's own certificate and operate independently, or is everyone coming over to Ameriflight?
 
Been here a while now, and only know one of them.

Any word on what is happening? Is Wiggins going to operate on it's own certificate and operate independently, or is everyone coming over to Ameriflight?
If the votes go through, They think that the sale will be final by the end of the year. From what was said at the meeting, it will eventually be one certificate. Nothing is going to change for at least a year.
 
^What was your impression of the AMF management staff vs. Wiggins?
I would think to get an accurate impression of the staff, one would have to work for them a year or so. Anyone can put sweet frosting on a sawdust cake to make it look good.
 
He didn't come in to our indoc class. He was busy that week. I have not met him yet. To be fair, I have only been with the company about a year now.
 
During a conversation I had quite a while ago, someone called him a "snake...."

Thinking back on this description, I don't necessarily agree. Out of all the things he said in my ground school class, I don't feel that I've been lied to, nor has anything been covered up. If he can't answer a question, he states that he can't comment on it.

That being said, it seems like the company is trying to move in a different direction than that of their past, so I'm hoping that the Wiggins "merger" brings better things for the future as well.
 
All I know is Lander is working hard for the group and has been on the line to cover staffing. Haven't meet the new owner, but I know he's a pilot. And he will ride on a 99 any day or any time.
 
@Swedican - I agree with most of what you said. I like AMF, I really do. I was excited to come to work here, and I like the people that I work with and think for what they are, the airplanes are well taken care of. I have never been encouraged to break a FAR, and even when an airport was barely legal as an alternate, dispatch went out of their way to find a better one and email me the charts for that better alternate so I could print them out (without me even needing to ask).

That being said, I was hired and told that I would go to a specific run in a specific base. It is the reason that I took the job. After indoc and when I was part way through ground school, I was told that there was another run that they needed help covering, and I would be TDY'ing somewhere else for awhile. No problem, I m a team player. I went to that base, and once there, told that I was being permanently assigned there. What makes it worse is that the original run that they hired me for was still vacant. A person in the class after me was assigned to it, even though I had a bid request form in and they knew that I wanted it. I do consider that to be deceitful.

I am a good employee. I have never called in sick, am always early, follow the SOPs, and am friendly with everyone that I work with. I have requested exactly ONE day off in my time here - a random Tuesday in September - for a family function. I was, of course, denied and came in to work anyways. On the other hand, I have been called in at the last minute when I had been given a day off, and always come in to work as quickly as I can. I guess I should rock the boat more, as that seems to be what gets results at AMF. I have not spoken with our CP since indoc, except by email. I assume he has been at our base, but it must be when the pilots are not there.

This is the biggest reason that I will be leaving AMF as soon as I possibly can. It really isn't about the base assignment, but the lack of courtesy that I was given.
 
This is the biggest reason that I will be leaving AMF as soon as I possibly can. It really isn't about the base assignment, but the lack of courtesy that I was given.

Trust me, nobody knows how bad life can be now that Ken is no longer base manager at HWD. The crap he would pull, or make the ACP pull on his behalf was mind-blowing. On top of that his management style was that of a communist dictator. He consistently tried to take small benefits from the pilot group there, while never allowing any benefits to be added. While all the other bases had layovers in hotels, or apartments with cleaning people that would come in, OAK/HWD had the nastiest apartments, and crews were forced to clean them.

I hung out with a current AMF guy this weekend and was consistently and constantly dumbfounded at his level of delusion, confusion, and general "lack of scope" on the industry as a whole. He is a friend but I am having really tough time trying to find the strength to understand the "thank you sir may I have another" mentality that he and some pilots have at AMF. He purchased wifi for one of the apartments out of his own pocket and saw nothing wrong with the fact that a company sticks you somewhere for 10 hours with no cable or internet. He tried to defend the argument by telling me that hotel wifi sucks and that I always have crappy wifi in the hotels I stay at. Uhhhhh WHAT!? I am not thinking he and everyone else should start a wifi revolution at AMF, but at least admit that it is ridiculous that you are a professional pilot that has to pay to have internet access in your company required layover.

The pilots that feel the treatment issues are the ones who will find the motivation to leave, using AMF for what it was designed for (getting turbine pic time and GTFO) and move on to greener pastures. It is the ones that defend being treated like nobody else in the industry that will stay way too long, then get to a better job (maybe) and make it worse for everyone else when they start setting bad precedents.

Long rant to backup your statement about leaving ASAP because of the treatment you received lol.
 
All I know is Lander is working hard for the group and has been on the line to cover staffing. Haven't meet the new owner, but I know he's a pilot. And he will ride on a 99 any day or any time.


I flew him in a metro before I left. He's a really nice guy...very friendly. He has his private pilot's certificate. He would likely ride on a 99 more than the king air.
 
I have nothing but great things to say about the people at AMF. The people at AMF have been awesome to me. From the top down. I had some things come up, personally, that needed to be dealt with, and everyone in Management supported me leaving, and coming back when I am ready. While you want every company to do business like that, they don't and I'm glad that AMF has dealt with me more than fairly.

Granted, I have been there since August, so my scope is very limited. I know that there are people in upper management who genuinely want to build AMF into something better than what it was under the old regime.

The training department.... Well, that's a mess that needs a very large broom, and some folks with real experience to fix. My experience in the training department is that it is unnecessarily complicated, and lacks focus and consistency. Very simply.

When the question is...."Once I get to (my base), will I be taught Single Pilot, or Dual Crew Operations, by my Check Airman?" and the response,
"It depends on what they feel like doing."
"What if he feels like the flows aren't important, or necessary?"

Yeah. That was a real conversation that I really had.
 
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@Swedican - I agree with most of what you said. I like AMF, I really do. I was excited to come to work here, and I like the people that I work with and think for what they are, the airplanes are well taken care of. I have never been encouraged to break a FAR, and even when an airport was barely legal as an alternate, dispatch went out of their way to find a better one and email me the charts for that better alternate so I could print them out (without me even needing to ask).

That being said, I was hired and told that I would go to a specific run in a specific base. It is the reason that I took the job. After indoc and when I was part way through ground school, I was told that there was another run that they needed help covering, and I would be TDY'ing somewhere else for awhile. No problem, I m a team player. I went to that base, and once there, told that I was being permanently assigned there. What makes it worse is that the original run that they hired me for was still vacant. A person in the class after me was assigned to it, even though I had a bid request form in and they knew that I wanted it. I do consider that to be deceitful.

I am a good employee. I have never called in sick, am always early, follow the SOPs, and am friendly with everyone that I work with. I have requested exactly ONE day off in my time here - a random Tuesday in September - for a family function. I was, of course, denied and came in to work anyways. On the other hand, I have been called in at the last minute when I had been given a day off, and always come in to work as quickly as I can. I guess I should rock the boat more, as that seems to be what gets results at AMF. I have not spoken with our CP since indoc, except by email. I assume he has been at our base, but it must be when the pilots are not there.

This is the biggest reason that I will be leaving AMF as soon as I possibly can. It really isn't about the base assignment, but the lack of courtesy that I was given.


Jeez, that really sucks some straight donkey Kong - definitely don't blame you. What base are you at?

I certainly did have my own issues with recruiting, I was told that I was #3 for a specific base in indoc: low and behold #2 didn't pass Sims, so naturally I thought I was slated for the base. Negative, I got TDY after training (which, like you, I was more than willing to help with).

They told me no slots were open at my preferred base, because someone was upgrading into it (so I figured okay, no sweat). Well, low and behold, 1 month later, "#2" was back in training the following month for.... You guessed it, the base I wanted.

Overall, I was pissed at the time, but looking back, I certainly feel that I came out on top. I know that I've been pretty lucky with my timing here, and I'm glad things ended up the way they did. I really wish I could say that for everyone here, but stories of the mass rapeage still seem to happen.
 
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Jeez, that really sucks some straight donkey Kong - definitely don't blame you. What base are you at?

I certainly did have my own issues with recruiting, I was told that I was #3 for a specific base in indoc: low and behold #2 didn't pass Sims, so naturally I thought I was slated for the base. Negative, I got TDY after training (which, like you, I was more than willing to help with).

They told me no slots were open at my preferred base, because someone was upgrading into it (so I figured okay, no sweat). Well, low and behold, 1 month later, "#2" was back in training the following month for.... You guessed it, the base I wanted.

Overall, I was pissed at the time, but looking back, I certainly feel that I came out on top. I know that I've been pretty lucky with my timing here, and I'm glad things ended up the way they did. I really wish I could say that for everyone here, but stories of the mass rapeage still seem to happen.


So...when you say that you haven't been lied to, you mean in addition to all of that? ;):)

It really isn't recruiting. She hired for an open space. It was other parts of the company that kept you from going to that base. I don't blame the recruiters at all. They are doing everything that they can to fill the runs that no one wants.
 
Lol, meh, I saw it more as they'd already had a plan for me instead.

I didn't see it so much as a recruiting issue either, although I do have qualms with the amount of runs/bases they give away to recruiting vs putting them up for bid on the portal to the pilot group. Like I said though, I'm very happy with how things are turned out for me, and I've have no other problems thus far.
 
They are certainly doing whatever they can to get people in the door. I would love to see the seniority list to see how many are staying. Are they ever going to publish that on the portal again?
 
They must have taken it down so they can edit all the Wiggins guys in front of you :p

Seriously though, they don't publish a seniority list at all for you guys anymore?
 
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