dcramer16
Well-Known Member
Summer is here, and there are a lot of pilots out there looking for work. I wanted to share my experiences in hopes that I might prevent someone else from making the same mistake.
For reference to my bold accusations I site two different websites where others have had the same experiences.
http://www.freewebs.com/stop-aerialmessages/
http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchr...archtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=aerial+messages
Sometimes when you have low time the search for a job is exhausting, and you may feel like jumping at the first oportunity out there. I know I did. Be careful. One job opportunity for low time pilots is banner towing. I am not at all against this line of work but there is one company in particular that you need to be wary of, Aerial Messages in Daytona Beach Florida. Rather than re-type everything I will copy and paste the same information I posted on www.ripoffreport.com.
You can view this page at: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/249/RipOff0249283.htm
I worked for Tim Pacini and Aerial Messages in Daytona Beach Florida. I went there in February because Tim told me I would be flying 'at least' 100 hours a month. I spent a lot of money on a UHaul moving my family all the way from the west coast to Florida. In the last 3 months I have flown 10 hours. I got the ten hours because I paid $2500 for banner tow training to get my endorsement. This is a scam, there is no such thing as a banner tow endorsement. All the company has to do is train you and put you on their company waiver.
Tim owns a generator sales and repair business. He asked me when he hired me if I wouldn't mind working a few hours in his shop helping the mechanics repair, build and install generators to 'supplement' my income. I told him sure, I don't mind hard work. Since February that is all I have been doing. Oh, and his Dad brought in his boat the other day and Tim had me sand the interior, it took me a week to work on. He also had me in a yard the other day digging holes and planting trees. If I'm really lucky, I get to mow his lawn. No flying at all, just working for $6/hour changing oil filters, getting greasy, doing b!tch work at the shop. Everytime I would talk to him, he would always say, 'Yep, have a lot of banners to be flown coming up.' I heard this for 3 months. He also ripped me off on my paychecks and still owes me $275, which I will never see.
He was basically using me for cheap labor in his generator/sweat shop. Before you go here, check out anyother place you can. Working drive through in McDonalds is better than working here. Luckily I got a great job flying pipeline that pays great, and I don't get yanked around, and get 30+ hours a week. Go anywhere before you go here. I don't care if it's bagging groceries! You will be sorry.
We had a guy come from Kansas to do the training and was planning on moving down in May. He called me the other day and said he could tell from when he was down there that something wasn't right, and wanted to check with me before he moved down to make sure I was flying. Luckily he called me because I lost his number, and I saved him from this dead end job. He will be looking for something else, and he could see this job was a rip off from only being down there a few days.
GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!
END RIPOFFREPORT
I am posting this information because there are a lot of new graduates of flight schools that are looking for summer work right now. I don't want to see the same thing happen to them and am desperately trying to get the word out. I am also going to copy and paste an e-mail correspondance between me and Tim in hopes that this might give a little more information as well. I sent him a link to ripoffreport.com and this was his reply:
It is a shame you feel that way, we flew our asses off last
weekend, and hired Jessy to take your place. He did a great job and is going to log a ton of hours. I told you to wait until memorial day. I thought I was doing you a favor letting you work in the shop, I pretty much made up work for you to do.
I do not care, I sold the planes and the business and buying a house in the bahamas.
stay tan,
Tim
This was my reply:
Pardon my delay in responding to your very entertaining e-mail. Due to the nature of our conversation I did not think it necessary at that present moment to waste time in finding the words that would best express my feelings.
You thought you were doing me a favor by letting me be your grease monkey b!tch in your sweat shop garage making darn near minimum wage! I could have made more at McDonalds and worked half as hard. YOU HIRED ME AS A PILOT. Before I decided to move all the way across country I asked you several times in our conversations wether I would actually be flying 100+ hours a month. Your answer was yes. You said nothing about Memorial Day weekend until after spring break.
All I heard was "Oh, wait till Bike Week" How many banners flew then? One, two? It wasn't many.
Then it was "Oh, wait till Spring Break" How many banners Tim? One?
Then I heard "Yep, it's about to get busy in the next week or so" Then 3 weeks would go by with nothing. Then, and only then did I hear "Oh, wait till after Memorial Day Weekend"
(I had designed a brochure to hand out to businesses to try and get some work in)
You liked the brochures I designed and without even telling me Carla (Tims wife) already had some made up, and told me if I would pay to get them printed you would pay me back. I spent $300, and when the time came for getting paid back and you and Carla played "Good Cop, Bad Cop" and I didn't get paid.
You told me you would pay me to hand them out on top of commission. I spent all day handing them out door to door for two weeks. At $6/hr, 8 hour days I should have gotten paid at least $400 for that. When payday rolled around Carla played dumb and said she heard that I was only getting the commission on it. Then Dan with the Go-Cart business made you a deal where he paid $750 in cash and gave freebies for the rest. I didn't see my $75 commision.
Shall I even get into the phoney FAA endorsement for the banner tow endoresement you charge everyone $2500 for? I checked with the FSDO and they even told me it was a fraud, and all you had to do is give us training and put us on your waiver. Training that should be free as we are employees. I got that answer right from the FAA's mouth so don't think you can decieve me by saying otherwise. I have been doing pipeline patrol and flown 180 hours in the last 5 weeks. About 120 of that was training. Thank God I don't have to pay for training for every job I work at. This last one would have cost me a bundle, but thankfully I finally got in with some good decent people.
So far we're up to $3275 I got screwed on. Who did who a favor? I did you a favor just by not taking your sorry butt to court. But after reading all the newspaper stories about how you have lost this very same fight so many times, and skipped out on your bill, I could see no sense in paying attorney fees just to have you skip out on what you owe me. I know I would have won, just like so many others before me, and if I would have thought for a second you would actually pay up it would probably be a lawyer that was sending you an e-mail instead of me. So don't tell everyone 911 is what hurt you. It didn't hurt anyone else to the degree you're talking about. Instead, why not tell the truth and tell everyone you are a fraudulant ripoff and your legal fees are what is eating up all your money.
I thank God that Kurt got ahold of me before moving down there. Even in the couple days he was there, he could see something wasn't right. Does the name Todd ***** (censored) ring a bell? I haven't found him yet, but I will and I'm sure he and the other pilots that took you to court and won would be interested to hear you sold your business and bought a house in the Bahamas.
So back to the point, if you thought you were doing me a favor you're either intentionally lying, which would be natural to you by now, or you are so far in denial that only psychiatric therapy would help you now.
END EMAIL
Sorry, I know this is a lengthy post. I just want to get the word out there about this company. I know school just got out and there are a lot of new pilots looking to start their career. I know there are many out there that are like I was, and will jump at the first thing they can get. I know it seems like something will never come along, but this company is below nothing. It is not a pilot job, it is a scam for money. I wish you all the best of luck in finding a job that you are happy with. Be patient, research companys you plan on working for, and something will come along. Keep the faith brother! LOL
Daniel Cramer
(406)925-1452
For reference to my bold accusations I site two different websites where others have had the same experiences.
http://www.freewebs.com/stop-aerialmessages/
http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchr...archtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=aerial+messages
Sometimes when you have low time the search for a job is exhausting, and you may feel like jumping at the first oportunity out there. I know I did. Be careful. One job opportunity for low time pilots is banner towing. I am not at all against this line of work but there is one company in particular that you need to be wary of, Aerial Messages in Daytona Beach Florida. Rather than re-type everything I will copy and paste the same information I posted on www.ripoffreport.com.
You can view this page at: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/249/RipOff0249283.htm
I worked for Tim Pacini and Aerial Messages in Daytona Beach Florida. I went there in February because Tim told me I would be flying 'at least' 100 hours a month. I spent a lot of money on a UHaul moving my family all the way from the west coast to Florida. In the last 3 months I have flown 10 hours. I got the ten hours because I paid $2500 for banner tow training to get my endorsement. This is a scam, there is no such thing as a banner tow endorsement. All the company has to do is train you and put you on their company waiver.
Tim owns a generator sales and repair business. He asked me when he hired me if I wouldn't mind working a few hours in his shop helping the mechanics repair, build and install generators to 'supplement' my income. I told him sure, I don't mind hard work. Since February that is all I have been doing. Oh, and his Dad brought in his boat the other day and Tim had me sand the interior, it took me a week to work on. He also had me in a yard the other day digging holes and planting trees. If I'm really lucky, I get to mow his lawn. No flying at all, just working for $6/hour changing oil filters, getting greasy, doing b!tch work at the shop. Everytime I would talk to him, he would always say, 'Yep, have a lot of banners to be flown coming up.' I heard this for 3 months. He also ripped me off on my paychecks and still owes me $275, which I will never see.
He was basically using me for cheap labor in his generator/sweat shop. Before you go here, check out anyother place you can. Working drive through in McDonalds is better than working here. Luckily I got a great job flying pipeline that pays great, and I don't get yanked around, and get 30+ hours a week. Go anywhere before you go here. I don't care if it's bagging groceries! You will be sorry.
We had a guy come from Kansas to do the training and was planning on moving down in May. He called me the other day and said he could tell from when he was down there that something wasn't right, and wanted to check with me before he moved down to make sure I was flying. Luckily he called me because I lost his number, and I saved him from this dead end job. He will be looking for something else, and he could see this job was a rip off from only being down there a few days.
GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!
END RIPOFFREPORT
I am posting this information because there are a lot of new graduates of flight schools that are looking for summer work right now. I don't want to see the same thing happen to them and am desperately trying to get the word out. I am also going to copy and paste an e-mail correspondance between me and Tim in hopes that this might give a little more information as well. I sent him a link to ripoffreport.com and this was his reply:
It is a shame you feel that way, we flew our asses off last
weekend, and hired Jessy to take your place. He did a great job and is going to log a ton of hours. I told you to wait until memorial day. I thought I was doing you a favor letting you work in the shop, I pretty much made up work for you to do.
I do not care, I sold the planes and the business and buying a house in the bahamas.
stay tan,
Tim
This was my reply:
Pardon my delay in responding to your very entertaining e-mail. Due to the nature of our conversation I did not think it necessary at that present moment to waste time in finding the words that would best express my feelings.
You thought you were doing me a favor by letting me be your grease monkey b!tch in your sweat shop garage making darn near minimum wage! I could have made more at McDonalds and worked half as hard. YOU HIRED ME AS A PILOT. Before I decided to move all the way across country I asked you several times in our conversations wether I would actually be flying 100+ hours a month. Your answer was yes. You said nothing about Memorial Day weekend until after spring break.
All I heard was "Oh, wait till Bike Week" How many banners flew then? One, two? It wasn't many.
Then it was "Oh, wait till Spring Break" How many banners Tim? One?
Then I heard "Yep, it's about to get busy in the next week or so" Then 3 weeks would go by with nothing. Then, and only then did I hear "Oh, wait till after Memorial Day Weekend"
(I had designed a brochure to hand out to businesses to try and get some work in)
You liked the brochures I designed and without even telling me Carla (Tims wife) already had some made up, and told me if I would pay to get them printed you would pay me back. I spent $300, and when the time came for getting paid back and you and Carla played "Good Cop, Bad Cop" and I didn't get paid.
You told me you would pay me to hand them out on top of commission. I spent all day handing them out door to door for two weeks. At $6/hr, 8 hour days I should have gotten paid at least $400 for that. When payday rolled around Carla played dumb and said she heard that I was only getting the commission on it. Then Dan with the Go-Cart business made you a deal where he paid $750 in cash and gave freebies for the rest. I didn't see my $75 commision.
Shall I even get into the phoney FAA endorsement for the banner tow endoresement you charge everyone $2500 for? I checked with the FSDO and they even told me it was a fraud, and all you had to do is give us training and put us on your waiver. Training that should be free as we are employees. I got that answer right from the FAA's mouth so don't think you can decieve me by saying otherwise. I have been doing pipeline patrol and flown 180 hours in the last 5 weeks. About 120 of that was training. Thank God I don't have to pay for training for every job I work at. This last one would have cost me a bundle, but thankfully I finally got in with some good decent people.
So far we're up to $3275 I got screwed on. Who did who a favor? I did you a favor just by not taking your sorry butt to court. But after reading all the newspaper stories about how you have lost this very same fight so many times, and skipped out on your bill, I could see no sense in paying attorney fees just to have you skip out on what you owe me. I know I would have won, just like so many others before me, and if I would have thought for a second you would actually pay up it would probably be a lawyer that was sending you an e-mail instead of me. So don't tell everyone 911 is what hurt you. It didn't hurt anyone else to the degree you're talking about. Instead, why not tell the truth and tell everyone you are a fraudulant ripoff and your legal fees are what is eating up all your money.
I thank God that Kurt got ahold of me before moving down there. Even in the couple days he was there, he could see something wasn't right. Does the name Todd ***** (censored) ring a bell? I haven't found him yet, but I will and I'm sure he and the other pilots that took you to court and won would be interested to hear you sold your business and bought a house in the Bahamas.
So back to the point, if you thought you were doing me a favor you're either intentionally lying, which would be natural to you by now, or you are so far in denial that only psychiatric therapy would help you now.
END EMAIL
Sorry, I know this is a lengthy post. I just want to get the word out there about this company. I know school just got out and there are a lot of new pilots looking to start their career. I know there are many out there that are like I was, and will jump at the first thing they can get. I know it seems like something will never come along, but this company is below nothing. It is not a pilot job, it is a scam for money. I wish you all the best of luck in finding a job that you are happy with. Be patient, research companys you plan on working for, and something will come along. Keep the faith brother! LOL
Daniel Cramer
(406)925-1452
.
