EMS Pilot - Southeast New Mexico (Roswell, Carlsbad)

SpiraMirabilis

Possible Subversive
Hello.

I work at Air Methods, and we have a lot of vacancies in our New Mexico fixed wing bases, specifically Roswell and Carlsbad.

Aircraft is a PC-12/45. We have a union and a CBA based pay rate on seniority so the base salary starts between $85,900 and $96,251, however all fixed-wing bases have additional "hard-to-fill" stipends. For Roswell that is $60,000 and Carlsbad that is $80,000 so the actual starting salary is between $145,990 and $176,251 depending on what they start you at and which base you select. There is also a 15K sign on bonus.

We have off-duty housing for pilots that commute.

Another option is being hired as a pool pilot which would be then assigned to a base at the company's discretion (it will be based on staffing and needs, but probably Carlsbad or Roswell). This position is home based. However, in that case you would only get the base salary and not the stipend but all travel time is paid at overtime rates (1.5X) and in this case the company would pay for airline tickets, rental cars, per diem and hotels while you are on shift. Most pool pilots say they get about 40K a year on travel pay.

Generally, if you live within driving distance, like somewhere in NM or West Texas, then it is a better deal to take the base position for the stipend, but if you plan on airlining every week then it might make more sense to be a pool pilot.

The current schedule for both bases is 7 days on 7 days off, 12 hour shifts. However, we are planning to move to a 8 hour shift (using 3 pilots a day instead of 2) if we can ever staff the bases with 6 pilots. Our Pensacola FL base already does this and they found it is overall worth the extra expense due to taking the flights that otherwise would be declined due to duty time issues.

The potential to do a 14 on 14 off is there, but only if the other pilots at the base agree. I know the pilot in Roswell doesn't care and is willing as he is the only one who actually lives in town.

Minimums are 2500TT and 200 turbine. This might be negotiable down to 2,000, but sometimes our HR department is kind of stupid so I don't know. These are CAMTS required minimums, but I've often been told that our accreditation is based on "substantial compliance" not "total compliance" lol.

We fly a fair amount, but still nowhere near how much a part 121 pilot does. I think on a busy month I might fly 35-40 hours total.

 
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