Martinaire Hiring

[Akutan]

Thanks @JeppUpdater. Not planning on making it a career here. I was just thinking about building time. I met the guy who used to have the Lansing run back when they were using the Metro. He's a JC member actually.
Right now my goal is to fly floatplanes, especially a DHC-2 someplace beautiful like Alaska, Caribbean, or South Pacific. I meet VFR 135 minimums easily, but short on IFR 135 minimums right now.

Why not look at Alaska Seaplanes? You can get time, make money, and start building relationships with people that already do your dream job.

 

[Low&Slow]

I'm totally interested in Alaska Seaplanes, I even have their website bookmarked but, I'm not ready to leave Michigan yet. There are a few things I need to take care of first that will benefit myself and my future employer(s).
Things like CFI, CFII, MEI, tailwheel endorsement, ASES, A&P, and possibly AMES if it works out. The MIARNG is paying for my flight training, so I'd kinda like to take advantage of that while I can.
I also need to sell my house, and there needs to be an open slot in the AK ARNG for my rank and MOS too. I don't get out until 2021, but I'd like to go up to AK before that, if I can. I think there is an aviation maintenance unit in Juneau, but not sure.

 

[Roger Roger]

I'm totally interested in Alaska Seaplanes, I even have their website bookmarked but, I'm not ready to leave Michigan yet. There are a few things I need to take care of first that will benefit myself and my future employer(s).
Things like CFI, CFII, MEI, tailwheel endorsement, ASES, A&P, and possibly AMES if it works out. The MIARNG is paying for my flight training, so I'd kinda like to take advantage of that while I can.
I also need to sell my house, and there needs to be an open slot in the AK ARNG for my rank and MOS too. I don't get out until 2021, but I'd like to go up to AK before that, if I can. I think there is an aviation maintenance unit in Juneau, but not sure.

I'm not real familiar with the military side, there is a SAR UH60 based here but I don't even actually know if its Army or USAF.

 

[Low&Slow]

I went to airframe school with a girl who lives in Girdwood. She became a Warrant Officer and a Blackhawk pilot last year.
I could ask her what ARNG AVN maintenance Units are up there and see if she could help me find a slot up there too, but I don't want to bug her too early in the process and cause her a bunch of running around for nothing.
I feel like I should get the basic necessary qualifications to be a professional bush and float plane pilot and licensed mechanic first though. I don't want to go up to AK and be stuck in a sled forever because I don't have any other diverse skills, abilities, or licenses to offer when an opportunity arises.

 

[Akutan]

I went to airframe school with a girl who lives in Girdwood. She became a Warrant Officer and a Blackhawk pilot last year.
I could ask her what ARNG AVN maintenance Units are up there and see if she could help me find a slot up there too, but I don't want to bug her too early in the process and cause her a bunch of running around for nothing.
I feel like I should get the basic necessary qualifications to be a professional bush and float plane pilot and licensed mechanic first though. I don't want to go up to AK and be stuck in a sled forever because I don't have any other diverse skills, abilities, or licenses to offer when an opportunity arises.

Sounds like you've got a lot of governmental irons in the fire, so I can't really speak to that. All I can say is actions speak louder than words, plans, and licenses, especially where there is real opportunity. When I was stuck in the Coast Guard in the 90's and there were no opportunities for training or advancement, I left the service and went up to Alaska to fly. There aren't too many glass ceilings in bush flying, you don't need college, or any particular background or even much flight time to get started and go far. I'd just go for it, but I don't know what your military commitments are. While based in Cold Bay other guys kept calling it the "7000 hour base" since I guess the old school way thought you needed that much time to fly out there, and even then (20 yrs ago) I had way less time than that. I just went to a ground school outside where my classmate got on last year with Bering Air with 250 hrs, spent a year right seat in the Casa and 1900, got a type rating and 1000 hours of bush time and made more money SIC than Bering used to pay us to be PIC. You can really make progress on your dreams by just going and doing them.

 

[Low&Slow]

Thanks @Akutan, I appreciate your feedback. I've considered just dropping everything and going for it. I've been wanting to go up there for a long, long time, but always find an excuse to not go just yet.
It's good to have a "Devils advocate" sometimes.

 

[Akutan]

If you only have a short time until you lock in a defined benefit pension, then I'd get that first, just sayin', a bird in the hand.

 

[Low&Slow]

I'll hit 20 years when my current enlistment contract ends in Feb 2021, then I'll be eligible for retirement. I'll likely get out at that point, unless I get another promotion after 2018. If that happens, then I'll have to think about it.
But that's a whole other subject. I've already (unintentionally) derailed the original reason for this thread by @floridabeachbum (sorry).

 

[floridabeachbum]

Standby pilots are sent from Dallas on one or two week rotations.

Normal routes live in the outstations (Tyler, Guymon, Key West, etc). A very few routes are based in hub cities. A hotel will be provided on the other end of the route (such as Dallas, OKC, or Miami). Hotels are generally pretty meh with a few shining exceptions and truly trashy places.

You cover open routes due to vacations, sicknesses, training, etc. LAN standby doesn't get on the road as much as Dallas standby because they're needed to cover stuff up there. Dallas will spend months on the road at a time with a weekend at home at a time, sometimes arriving home Saturday afternoon and leaving Sunday afternoon. Unless you wanna make a career of it I would look elsewhere.

Maintenance is generally very good in Dallas, crappy in Lansing, and varies from outstation to outstation. I wouldn't trust the current CP as far as I could throw him and would not advise it to anyone - it's not much flight time, and the time is generally useless (single engine turbine is still single engine). If you wanna do 135 freight as a time builder go to ACC/Alpine/Freight Runners/etc. get your time and move along. If you wanna fly Caravans go to a FedEx feeder that will pay you more and treat you better to fly better equipment.

100% True. Things have changed here, attrition is now at warp speed. Folks are leaving as fast as they can, the company has changed and not for the better. Standby pilots don't get weekends at home anymore as guys are being sent direct to their next assignment. Expect to be pressured to violate duty times or outright lied to when it comes to new hire base assignments. UPS pee ons will lie to try to get you fired (your dealing with he lowest common denominator in intelligence) and expect to be treated worse than the contractor pilots that work here, hey they even pay them more and get them the better assignments. Glad I got out when I did.

I agree with Jepp updater go somewhere else. If you come here, know what your getting yourself into.

 

[floridabeachbum]

Question for the masses: If a company like this doesn't have a route filled, do they just not fly?

Do they send out someone from management? I'm curious how these types of operations keep a standard service with what's probably a huge amount of turn-over.

As jepp updater said also will use contract pilots and other companies