Flight Express

J

johnsclem

Well-Known Member
Can someone give me a rundown on Flight Express (aircraft, bases, company quality)? Are they hiring right at 135 mins? Thanks
 
The company is SOLID. If it weren't for lack of equipment, I'd stay here long term without question. Time off, sickness, even women/family problems, our D.O. is a very stand up guy and will bend over backwards to help you out. The pay is completely dependent on your line. As it stands now, my line out of STP would clear 40k net pay for the year. This company, along with Airnet, Encore and Suburban Air or the only freight companies that pay well.

They would hire you at 135 mins most likely. We have a problem with turnover at the moment. We just had a guy in OMA that only put in 2 and a half months. They want 6 months minimum. It's more of a gentleman's agreement, though you will have to return the 1000 dollar hiring bonus if you leave before 6 months and will not be allowed back if you wanted to.

The general consensus is that you don't come here expecting to fly the Baron. We have ZERO Baron runs. Some of the lines have a Baron as a backup at the moment.(mine in particular, does) If you get one of those figure that 3/4 of your time will be in the 210. I've been here for 5 months and received 200 hours of multi. This isn't a time builder as much as it is to grow your experience.

For bases, at the moment from what I recall off the top of my head it's ORL, OPF, TPA, FXE, FLL, RIC, TEB, BUF, CLT, BUR, OMA, STP, MKC, HOU, BNA, BHM, BFM, and BIL. I'm the only one in STP and if/when I leave(and this might be soon) it seems no one in the company really wants to brave the winters up here(Sallys!:D) , so it will be open.

If you're willing to do 6 months minimum, I'd definitely say do it. No one will appreciate all the single engine flight time and few will appreciate the experience, but it's a great way to spend 6 months if you need the total flight time increase.

I will leave you with this, the training is intense! They may appear to be a bottom feeder as per the equipment, but our initial pass rate is less than 25%. We've haven't hired an airline pilot in a very very long time and very few guys with former freight experience in bigger planes pass either. What they're looking for is someone that has a DEEP knowledge of weather theory and most things from the AIM. A CFI would probably ace ground school but then fail out of flight "training". I put training in "" because it's not really training as much as it's merely a proficiency check. They want to see that you can fly as a /U or /A from the word go. If you apply, the response email will be even more frank than this.
 
UAL747400 said:
I will leave you with this, the training is intense! They may appear to be a bottom feeder as per the equipment, but our initial pass rate is less than 25%. We've haven't hired an airline pilot in a very very long time and very few guys with former freight experience in bigger planes pass either. What they're looking for is someone that has a DEEP knowledge of weather theory and most things from the AIM. A CFI would probably ace ground school but then fail out of flight "training". I put training in "" because it's not really training as much as it's merely a proficiency check. They want to see that you can fly as a /U or /A from the word go. If you apply, the response email will be even more frank than this.
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There was an airline pilot in my class. Of course, that's been 2 years ago. :)

UAL is pretty much right on.
 
msmspilot said:
There was an airline pilot in my class. Of course, that's been 2 years ago. :)

UAL is pretty much right on.
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There were 3 in my class and one Caribbean freight guy, the 3 airline guys and freight guy failed the pre-test, were allowed to stay and got sub 60s on the subsequent tests and left(I don't know if that was by choice or not). The one airline guy just had issues getting his medical renewed last minute. He was doing alright towards the end.

People complain about Ameriflight's training, but honestly, just comparing internet gripes, this seems even more difficult.
 
UAL747400 said:
There were 3 in my class and one Caribbean freight guy, the 3 airline guys and freight guy failed the pre-test, were allowed to stay and got sub 60s on the subsequent tests and left(I don't know if that was by choice or not). The one airline guy just had issues getting his medical renewed last minute. He was doing alright towards the end.

People complain about Ameriflight's training, but honestly, just comparing internet gripes, this seems even more difficult.
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How can it be hard to just simply fly IFR... unless there's a lot of un-needed stuff thrown in.
 
z987k said:
How can it be hard to just simply fly IFR... unless there's a lot of un-needed stuff thrown in.
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Despite the reputation, there's really no excuse to fail the ground school. The test questions, as far as it's possible, are out of the FAA test bank for IFR/Comm. A lot of the materials are available online, and have been for years. As I recall, they e-mailed me study materials (or maybe the link to them?) about 2 weeks before my class date. Practice the flows, and know the regulations, and you're fine.

As far as the flying, a lot of people are dependent on a moving map, and going back to a pair of VORs is a challenge. And when's the last time you flew an NDB approach to minimums? ;)
 
msmspilot said:
Despite the reputation, there's really no excuse to fail the ground school. The test questions, as far as it's possible, are out of the FAA test bank for IFR/Comm. A lot of the materials are available online, and have been for years. As I recall, they e-mailed me study materials (or maybe the link to them?) about 2 weeks before my class date. Practice the flows, and know the regulations, and you're fine.

As far as the flying, a lot of people are dependent on a moving map, and going back to a pair of VORs is a challenge. And when's the last time you flew an NDB approach to minimums? ;)
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2 months ago. Into a canyon.
 
z987k said:
How can it be hard to just simply fly IFR... unless there's a lot of un-needed stuff thrown in.
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It's the ground school that most fail out of. Like I said, they are very intense on weather theory. Like half of the pre-test and the final is JUST on weather theory. Not hard refresh up on by any means, but I'm guessing most don't take that part seriously and fuss over the regs too much.

Which probably all stems from dispatch. They want an accurate time on when you CAN go on the bad weather days so that they can either tell you to wait or cancel your flight. Cancel??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :bounce:
 
z987k said:
2 months ago. Into a canyon.
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You'll freaking ace FLX flight training then. :D

UAL747400 said:
It's the ground school that most fail out of. Like I said, they are very intense on weather theory. Like half of the pre-test and the final is JUST on weather theory. Not hard refresh up on by any means, but I'm guessing most don't take that part seriously and fuss over the regs too much.

Which probably all stems from dispatch. They want an accurate time on when you CAN go on the bad weather days so that they can either tell you to wait or cancel your flight. Cancel??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :bounce:
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I had one cancel for thunderstorms one time. Solid line, told them three hours before I could even leave (which was within 30 minutes of being right), and they decided to drive. I've had a day or two canceled for ice. But yeah, it's extremely rare.
 
z987k said:
2 months ago. Into a canyon.
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For us freight boys, this is the norm. Flight express is by far an entry level job into this side of aviation and given the current training environments, I'm venturing the majority of up coming pilots don't even know what /U and /A is. This is probably their first exposure to absolute minimum equipment, or it's been a long time in the case of the airline guys. Hell, at UND, you can't do a true NDB approach using a traditional ADF anymore. You can use an RMI on the G1000 and Avidine, but that's just insanely easy.
 
msmspilot said:
You'll freaking ace FLX flight training then. :D



I had one cancel for thunderstorms one time. Solid line, told them three hours before I could even leave (which was within 30 minutes of being right), and they decided to drive. I've had a day or two canceled for ice. But yeah, it's extremely rare.
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z987k is at Ameriflight. He flies a turbo-prop now. He's well on his way to turning from a freight dog into a nice soft jet kitty! :D
 
Is Flight Express still hiring? I am working towards 135 mins. and should meet them within a couple of months. Thanks
 
Don't know. I know we have one guy laid off in Nashville, but can't really move and we're losing our run in California, but gaining one in Billings. I'm actually interviewing for a position tomorrow and if I take it, I'll be done in St. Paul on the 1st if Midwest winters are something you fancy. However, all the baron flying is up here, Omaha, Billings, and Charlotte and I do know there are people that are baron trained that are itching to move to one of these 4 bases to get some multi time. So who knows where any new hire is going these days, if there are any.

For what it's worth, the thing I've heard through the rumor mill is that FLX possibly won't be doing regular flights(bank work) by the end of the year. It'll be all medical specials. We'll still have bases, yes. You'd be on standby for a set duty period and fly, or not fly. So weekly/monthly flight time will be substantially less I imagine.
 
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