Starting Freight Pay

At Ram Air Freight, first year pay is $85 per day. Second year pay is $100 per day and that is as high as it goes. Sometimes you might get some extra flying and get paid a day and a half for it. It really sucks for the senior pilots like myself who recently had their pay reduced from $145 a day to $100 per day.
 
Well I know a guy whos flies a caravan for moutain air cargo and he only flies like 500 hours a year. He doesnt make a ton of money i think he said somewhere in the 40s. But for me that would be great. My girl is a nurse and shes working becoming a respitatory theripist so if i'm making 40k and shes making i dunno say 40-50k we would be in a good situation. Plus I'm worknig on getting my A&P and my passion is aerobatics so I would have plenty of time to pursue that.
 
Jbroz04 said:
Well I know a guy whos flies a caravan for moutain air cargo and he only flies like 500 hours a year. He doesnt make a ton of money i think he said somewhere in the 40s. But for me that would be great. My girl is a nurse and shes working becoming a respitatory theripist so if i'm making 40k and shes making i dunno say 40-50k we would be in a good situation. Plus I'm worknig on getting my A&P and my passion is aerobatics so I would have plenty of time to pursue that.
Click to expand...

He's only flying 500 hours a year but how much does he work. I don't know for sure, but doesn't MAC fly routes where you leave morning/evening, fly somewhere about 30-45min away, sit for 10 hours then fly back in the evening/morning? If that's the case, then he's not getting much flight time, but he's still gone a lot. Which wouldn't give you plenty of time to pursue your passions. Good luck with the aerobatics, that would be something I would love to get into!:rawk:
 
not sure about the go and sit thing with him but i have heard that about other routes... wouldnt be too bad if where you were going had internet access.. i seen a few barons guy i think from flight express come into fulton and they have to sit for like 4 hours but theres a big screen tv and leather couches and they either watch tv or sleep... i guees that would start to suck after awhile but pay is decent at least for flying a prop
 
Jbroz04 said:
not sure about the go and sit thing with him but i have heard that about other routes... wouldnt be too bad if where you were going had internet access.. i seen a few barons guy i think from flight express come into fulton and they have to sit for like 4 hours but theres a big screen tv and leather couches and they either watch tv or sleep... i guees that would start to suck after awhile but pay is decent at least for flying a prop
Click to expand...
Yeah, I wouldn't be very excited about flying a Fedex or UPS feeder route just because of all the waiting. But I do know in some circumstances, it's not too bad. For example... I know of a freight op in Wisconsin, you show up at 7:30pm fly out at 8:30, get to your destination by 9:15pm, sleep at a company crash house, get up at 6am, depart by 7am, arrive at 7:45, home by 8:30am, and since you slept all night, you pretty much have the whole day to yourself.

Not quite as nice, but not bad, a UPS route in Texas with a different company. Show up at 9am, depart by 9:30. Arrive by 10am, and go sit at a company apartment that is fully furnished with cable and internet. 5pm head back to airport, depart by 5:30, arrive 6pm, home by 7:30pm.

I'm a bit hesitant to fly these kind of routes, because of all the waiting involved, but in some cases, they don't seem too bad.
 
dcramer16 said:
Yeah, I wouldn't be very excited about flying a Fedex or UPS feeder route just because of all the waiting. But I do know in some circumstances, it's not too bad. For example... I know of a freight op in Wisconsin, you show up at 7:30pm fly out at 8:30, get to your destination by 9:15pm, sleep at a company crash house, get up at 6am, depart by 7am, arrive at 7:45, home by 8:30am, and since you slept all night, you pretty much have the whole day to yourself.

Not quite as nice, but not bad, a UPS route in Texas with a different company. Show up at 9am, depart by 9:30. Arrive by 10am, and go sit at a company apartment that is fully furnished with cable and internet. 5pm head back to airport, depart by 5:30, arrive 6pm, home by 7:30pm.

I'm a bit hesitant to fly these kind of routes, because of all the waiting involved, but in some cases, they don't seem too bad.
Click to expand...


That's UPS and Fedex routes for you. You spend a lot of time somewhere you don't want to be. The best thing you can do, imo, is go outstation where you start on Monday night and end on Saturday morning. Generally the system is set up where there are outstation pilot's and pilot's based out of a hub. The outstation guys fly away from home in the morning, sleep in a crashpad of some form, and fly back home in the morning. The other pilot's live in the hub and spend the day away from home every day (more of a Monday thru Friday type of job). Outstation is what I do. If you're married it will be tough because 5 nights a week you will spend away from home. The perks are: you'll get the majority of your sleep away from home and have all day to get things done in your hometown. Every situation is different. Personally, I live at an outstation and have a girlfriend that I spend the night with at my 'home' base (where my company is based... not me). It works out well. I get a lot of free time and 'me' time during the day but spend the night with her. If you have young kids and a wife it would save a ton on daycare (provided you both worked and both lived in the outstation), however, it would probably take a toll on a relationship over a long period. The pilot's who have the Monday through Friday routes sleep every night at home, but, are gone between the hours of 6:00a.m. and 9:00p.m. give or take an hour. UPS and FedEx routes are not set up around a normal family life for the most part, and honestly are probably not the best for a family. People do make it work, but it's seldom ideal (mine is pretty good personally, but I know of a lot of people that would struggle).
 
Well given how many people dont seem to be fond of these routes... how come from what my buddy told me people seem to stick around at fedex feeders like mountain air cargo for such a long time? he said alot of the atr guys have been there years and years
 
Jbroz04 said:
Well given how many people dont seem to be fond of these routes... how come from what my buddy told me people seem to stick around at fedex feeders like mountain air cargo for such a long time? he said alot of the atr guys have been there years and years
Click to expand...

Fairly stable flying and some guys like doing the same exact thing every day. The key to feeder flying is being productive on your layover. I know some guys get 2nd jobs at their layover, some have friends or family, some trade stocks, and some pet the one eyed snake. Regardless if you dread your layover you are going to hate feeder flying.
 
mikecweb said:
Fairly stable flying and some guys like doing the same exact thing every day. The key to feeder flying is being productive on your layover. I know some guys get 2nd jobs at their layover, some have friends or family, some trade stocks, and some pet the one eyed snake. Regardless if you dread your layover you are going to hate feeder flying.
Click to expand...

I'll agree with this. Unfortunately UPS and FedEx have been eliminating a fair number of feeder routes the last year which has brought the stability down a quite a bit (not necessarily their fault just an indicator of a bad economy). My day at home... i work 2-3 days a week at a fastfood job. I use the money from that fast food job to pay for car parts on the car I've been restoring during the day. I try to keep busy every day.

Feeder flying gets really boring though. If you fly the same route daily you will get bored.
 
mikecweb said:
At least at my company you have either a day room at a hotel or a crew apartment. One thing that is nicer about this place vs. the 'net.
Click to expand...


Ok... So maybe next time you're in town I don't want you to come visit... Unless you hit the hotel room first.
 
mikecweb said:
At least at my company you have either a day room at a hotel or a crew apartment. One thing that is nicer about this place vs. the 'net.
Click to expand...

Unless u were flying and having an hour or two on the layovers. Are I saying u don't miss crashing at TEB for a few hours?;)
 
I wanted to start a new thread but figure I'd ask here... I also dream about flying the Caravan out of TEB or EWR at least for a few years, then upgrading to the ATR or something multi turbine. How many hours per month do the feeder guys fly and could you skip the regionals and go to a fractional/ 121 Airline?
 
jspeed87 said:
I wanted to start a new thread but figure I'd ask here... I also dream about flying the Caravan out of TEB or EWR at least for a few years, then upgrading to the ATR or something multi turbine. How many hours per month do the feeder guys fly and could you skip the regionals and go to a fractional/ 121 Airline?
Click to expand...

The hours flown depend greatly on the company and the run you're given. It widely varies. I have had months where I've flown 90 to 100hrs and I've had months where I've less than 10hrs. The good thing (and bad thing) is that I'm paid the same reguardless.

Skipping the regionals is usually what most 135 pilots do. That's probably the best reason to become a 135 pilot is to skip the regionals. They also do get hired at fractional and major airlines when they are hiring.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top