propilot3574 said:
I know this has been talked about before but I still have more questions and need a little help. I run my own business and I have about 330TT 50ME. I am building about 100hrs a year just personal flying. I am a one leg hop to DEN so Lakes looks pretty good from that stand point. Just wondering the following:
1. How long do you have to usaully stay on reserve before the line and how do you get paid, only for hours flown I'm sure. And how long is your call out time?
2. How many hours of PIC turbine can you expect first year if any.
3. How many days off can you expect in a week.
4. Can a guy with 400-450TT and 75ME even get a look.
I would really appreciate any comments from current or past employees that could help me out.
Bit late since i've been away on a trip but better late than never. Anyways here goes.
1. Reserve depends on when you get hired. I was hired towards the tail end of things last year and I sat reserve for 5 months. Which is considered long for us. The current newhires sat reserve for one month or so before being able to hold a high speed line (continuous duty overnight).
Reserve pay can be nice if you can pick up trips. You're paid 75 hours, the guarantee, each month plus any per diem. The way our reserve works is that you are guaranteed 3.75 hours of pay each day. However, if you fly more than 3.75, the extra hours above 3.75 go towards your monthy guarantee. Meaning if you fly 6 hours a day while on reserve you get an extra 2.25 hours on top of your guarantee. I flew 60 hours one month and got paid for over 100. Call out is one hour.
2. Not much with your times if any. Upgrade can come in under a year though. One of my classmates from indoc upgraded in 9 months.
3. Days off? Guaranteed 10. Butl if you're on reserve it's 6 days of reserve followed by 2 or 3 days off, then 6 on then 4 off, etc.. Regular line varies. Telluride stuff goes 100-110 hours a month, home every other night and 15 days off. Typical lines vary from 10-14 days off a month with about 80-90 hours of flying and trips of 4 to 5 days on. This includes getting the shaft and working back to back trips with a day or two off in between. Though you will get your inviables with around 4-5 days off in a row later on in the month. High speeds are nice if you want to stay home. Show up to work at around 8 pm and back in the morning at 8 am with the rest of the day off till your next show. Usually you're "scheduled" only 10-12 days off a month but it works out to more than that since it counts the morning that you check out and the evening that you check on duty as a day each. Plus you get weekends off. Realistically, depending upon how many FO's we've got, expect around 10-11 days after being jr manned. If we have enough FO's, that's not a big problem. I've got a 90 hr block line with 99 hours of credit and 14 days off next month. And from the looks of things I should be able keep my all of my days off with all of the new FO's we've got. *knock on wood*
4. If you can get someone to walk your resume in and give you a personal recommendation you can definately get a look. I know of several who were hired on with times around there and there have been others who have been hired with around 300 tt. Lakes put's a big emphasis on recommendations so that's the golden key.
Hope that helps.
