Anything new on Ameriflight?

Rosstafari

Likes tacos
Was looking for some information on AMF, but the best I could find was this two year old thread. Pretty good information, just wondering if anybody had anything to add. Any input on how QOL has been, schedules, bases, mx, management, anything else?
 
I sat and chatted with a young Ameriflight pilot a couple months ago. He was about to be upgraded to the Embraer out West and we had a great conversation. In comparison to Freight Runners, he said AMF had fairly better pay but less of a QoL; he made it clear that the FRE pilots were “much happier”. But to be honest he was perfectly content with his past and current experiences with AMF. Definitely a young go-getter that clearly isn’t afraid of IMC (it’s • here all the time).
My outsider view of discontent pilots (or any type of employee) is that they need to move on if the job is no longer viable.
It could be worse; many low-end Canadian firms require pilots to acquire cash bonds in lieu of a contract. The pilots who take the bait get such a brow beating on the avcanada forum.
I digress. I’m only a lurker and not a Pro pilot ... yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
No idea what AMF is like these days. I would imagine the schedules haven't change too much. Your QOL can vary widely depending on your base. Usually the further away from the cargo hub the better the QOL. Since it takes longer for the jet to to and form the hub your day ends up being much shorter when you are further away and you don't have as many 0300 and 0400 show times. If I recall the Seattle base had show times of 0630 and would be home for dinner.
 
I sat and chatted with a young Ameriflight pilot a couple months ago. He was about to be upgraded to the Embraer out West and we had a great conversation. In comparison to Freight Runners, he said AMF had fairly better pay but less of a QoL; he made it clear that the FRE pilots were “much happier”. But to be honest he was perfectly content with his past and current experiences with AMF. Definitely a young go-getter that clearly isn’t afraid of IMC (it’s • here all the time).
My outsider view of discontent pilots (or any type of employee) is that they need to move on if the job is no longer viable.
It could be worse; many low-end Canadian firms require pilots to acquire cash bonds in lieu of a contract. The pilots who take the bait get such a brow beating on the avcanada forum.
I digress. I’m only a lurker and not a Pro pilot ... yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Where do you work? You're not really a lurker, in fact you tend to share your opinions pretty freely. Not a leg to stand on until you've been a discontent pilot trying to weigh your options. They sell you roses, and when you find out that's not the case you have to decide whether leaving early is the right option. Because every interview for the rest of your career will include the question: "Why did you leave so early?"

For some stuck at AMF, they were hired when nobody else would call. JP has been there 20 years and he never quits complaining. But he made close to 200k, flying a Metro/Brasilia and that's hard to give up. Especially when you give up your schedule too, and then have to commute or move.
 
I was a Captain qualified in two different aircraft at Ameriflight for almost two years. Out of the four 135 companies I have worked at in my career, sadly Ameriflight is the worst company I have ever worked at. Upper management is very dishonest in many different ways. I should have quit from the start. My initial application was to be home based Captain. Then I was told I had to pick a base! I wanted to go to Burbank, but they told me Burbank was closed. Then the bid sheet comes out the next day and Burbank was open!!! Another pilot was given Phoenix. He bought a house in Phoenix than the company moved him to Salt Lake without notice! Eventually that pilot got so fed up he quit.

Pay was a constant problem. I had to fight for my moving expense bonus because HR was saying that two weeks of hotel, and car rental all comes out of my bonus. Eventually they paid the bonus. It took them two weeks to do that, and for two weeks dispatch had me on the schedule and was calling asking why I wasn't showing up for work! Meanwhile, I had never been given travel to my base lol. The company actually also skipped me on two paychecks in a row! They only paid me on a debit card when I threatened to quit. Per diem pay was also incorrect and never paid on time.

Maintenance was also a huge problem. Mechanics at Ameriflight are paid very little so there is a lack of experienced mechanics for the old planes. Mechanics will fight with you over squawks and frequently write "Could not duplicate." Some of the senior pilots have to give maintenance ideas on how to fix the planes. As soon as the mechanics start to figure out how to work on these 1970 and 1980s planes, they leave for better paying jobs.

Training was a horrible experience. The chief pilot is just rude. If you go up to him and say hello, you might get a hello back, usually he just walks away. This happened to me once. I asked the other pilots if I did something wrong. They laughed and said that is just how he is lol. The current director of training doesn't even have a flying background and he has no idea what is going on. If you get lucky and get a nice training captain you will be fine. However, get a bad training captain and he will send secret notes to the director of training and program manager about how bad you are doing. Then all the secret notes will be looked at (notes you never saw, so you couldn't defend yourself against them) and you will be fired. Amazing that the company does this. I saw so many decent pilots kicked out of the company or told to leave, yet Ameriflight is contracting out their routes because they don't have pilots! Ameriflight also has several outstanding bills that they owe FBOs. One place I flew to refused to fuel our planes anymore, until Ameriflight paid the fuel bill!

Three bases also closed in the 18 months I was there. The company is still recovering from the last CEO embezzling funds. The new CEO is a nice guy and seems like he is trying, but I don't think he can be successful unless he gets rid of the horrible upper management pilots and revamps the training department. I think perhaps the biggest problem is that the upper management pilots don't live in Dallas where the company is headquartered. They aren't even at work half the time. Their idea of work is doing a company conference call and then doing surprise line audits on route pilots to bully them and tell them everything they are doing wrong. Meanwhile nothing gets done, morale is low, paperwork and pay is a constant disaster. With management's attitude, if you work for this company, you really have to know how to protect yourself. It is single pilot IFR without workable autopilot, without altitude alerters, in old worn down aircraft and some of the aircraft even have no GPS (a frequent annoyance to atc when they clear you for a GPS approach or route). UPS will also try to push you, cuss you out, and blame you for everything. If you make even the smallest mistake, expect remedial training and a write up from Ameriflight management.
Lastly, the schedule is horrendous. Agreed this is the UPS customer's schedule and not all of Ameriflights fault, but since Ameriflight never has enough pilots to cover, the little vacation that you have accrued will be rejected. (is this even legal? Can they prohibit you indefinitely from taking vacation?) I don't know if it is legal, but even if you have vacation days built up, they will deny it. Anyway, you will show at the airport at 5:20AM and get back home at about 8PM to do it all the next morning. If they had more pilots, this schedule would be acceptable, but do it five to six days a week and you won't have a life. Even worse, at many places, Saturday morning you have to fly the plane somewhere for the weekend, than drive 3 hours home. Of course, you then start the work week on Monday with a 3 hour drive. So it is 60 plus work week with six hours of driving between flights. You can call fatigue, but of course that is an incident report and a black mark on your record.

I really regret the 18 months I sacrificed at this company. I met some decent people there and gained some good experience, but I wish I would have worked somewhere where I was appreciated and protected instead of being lied to and exploited. Being paid on time and being able to use vacation time I had would have been nice too!
 
How's the deal working out where UPS sends interns to Amflight and then, after a period of time on the line, they get a guaranteed interview at UPS? I have to say I haven't seen any new hires who's background was "Ameriflight". It usually says "Atlas, some regional, some corporate, some ex-military". But not "Amflight"....
 
I was a Captain qualified in two different aircraft at Ameriflight for almost two years. Out of the four 135 companies I have worked at in my career, sadly Ameriflight is the worst company I have ever worked at. Upper management is very dishonest in many different ways. I should have quit from the start. My initial application was to be home based Captain. Then I was told I had to pick a base! I wanted to go to Burbank, but they told me Burbank was closed. Then the bid sheet comes out the next day and Burbank was open!!! Another pilot was given Phoenix. He bought a house in Phoenix than the company moved him to Salt Lake without notice! Eventually that pilot got so fed up he quit.

Pay was a constant problem. I had to fight for my moving expense bonus because HR was saying that two weeks of hotel, and car rental all comes out of my bonus. Eventually they paid the bonus. It took them two weeks to do that, and for two weeks dispatch had me on the schedule and was calling asking why I wasn't showing up for work! Meanwhile, I had never been given travel to my base lol. The company actually also skipped me on two paychecks in a row! They only paid me on a debit card when I threatened to quit. Per diem pay was also incorrect and never paid on time.

Maintenance was also a huge problem. Mechanics at Ameriflight are paid very little so there is a lack of experienced mechanics for the old planes. Mechanics will fight with you over squawks and frequently write "Could not duplicate." Some of the senior pilots have to give maintenance ideas on how to fix the planes. As soon as the mechanics start to figure out how to work on these 1970 and 1980s planes, they leave for better paying jobs.

Training was a horrible experience. The chief pilot is just rude. If you go up to him and say hello, you might get a hello back, usually he just walks away. This happened to me once. I asked the other pilots if I did something wrong. They laughed and said that is just how he is lol. The current director of training doesn't even have a flying background and he has no idea what is going on. If you get lucky and get a nice training captain you will be fine. However, get a bad training captain and he will send secret notes to the director of training and program manager about how bad you are doing. Then all the secret notes will be looked at (notes you never saw, so you couldn't defend yourself against them) and you will be fired. Amazing that the company does this. I saw so many decent pilots kicked out of the company or told to leave, yet Ameriflight is contracting out their routes because they don't have pilots! Ameriflight also has several outstanding bills that they owe FBOs. One place I flew to refused to fuel our planes anymore, until Ameriflight paid the fuel bill!

Three bases also closed in the 18 months I was there. The company is still recovering from the last CEO embezzling funds. The new CEO is a nice guy and seems like he is trying, but I don't think he can be successful unless he gets rid of the horrible upper management pilots and revamps the training department. I think perhaps the biggest problem is that the upper management pilots don't live in Dallas where the company is headquartered. They aren't even at work half the time. Their idea of work is doing a company conference call and then doing surprise line audits on route pilots to bully them and tell them everything they are doing wrong. Meanwhile nothing gets done, morale is low, paperwork and pay is a constant disaster. With management's attitude, if you work for this company, you really have to know how to protect yourself. It is single pilot IFR without workable autopilot, without altitude alerters, in old worn down aircraft and some of the aircraft even have no GPS (a frequent annoyance to atc when they clear you for a GPS approach or route). UPS will also try to push you, cuss you out, and blame you for everything. If you make even the smallest mistake, expect remedial training and a write up from Ameriflight management.
Lastly, the schedule is horrendous. Agreed this is the UPS customer's schedule and not all of Ameriflights fault, but since Ameriflight never has enough pilots to cover, the little vacation that you have accrued will be rejected. (is this even legal? Can they prohibit you indefinitely from taking vacation?) I don't know if it is legal, but even if you have vacation days built up, they will deny it. Anyway, you will show at the airport at 5:20AM and get back home at about 8PM to do it all the next morning. If they had more pilots, this schedule would be acceptable, but do it five to six days a week and you won't have a life. Even worse, at many places, Saturday morning you have to fly the plane somewhere for the weekend, than drive 3 hours home. Of course, you then start the work week on Monday with a 3 hour drive. So it is 60 plus work week with six hours of driving between flights. You can call fatigue, but of course that is an incident report and a black mark on your record.

I really regret the 18 months I sacrificed at this company. I met some decent people there and gained some good experience, but I wish I would have worked somewhere where I was appreciated and protected instead of being lied to and exploited. Being paid on time and being able to use vacation time I had would have been nice too!
Sounds like nothing has changed in 10 years.
 
They’re hiring apparently.
Stumbled on this on IG (or it’s a sign from the Gods)
E34AB710-EF58-4A12-8AF1-7AA31A1B0CAE.png

In you guys’ opinions/knowledge, are these post-COVID hiring minima? Or nah? They’re gonna be a lot higher that those when we are in the eye of the recession?
 
Last edited:
I called the Ameriflight HR department in June to ask about pilot hiring. At that time, they told me that they were not currently hiring for pilot positions. The same is shown on Ameriflight | Airline Pilot Careers. Does anyone have any updates on their current hiring status? I keep hearing that cargo is booming, but the hiring may have stagnated due to lower attrition rates towards Part 121 carriers.
 
Back
Top