Airline blinded Wannabe with an open mind...

[JamesTigris]

Good evening all,

Apologies if this has already been asked many (many) times before...

I'd like to know more about freight flying and don't know where to turn. As a prospecting pilot we are drilled with nothing but airlines as the way to earn a living from flying.

What are the opportunities in flying freight, how would one pursue such a career and what are the pros/cons over airline flying?

Any thoughts will be mused on with gratitude...

-JT

[Boxshifter]

FrightAIRLINES are AIRLINES, the difference is that our load is only expressed in terms of mass or weight and not as headcount.

There are differences, however flying should be more or less the same.

[JennyB]

"Airline blinded Wannabe with an open mind..."

Seems a bit drastic to me

[Hedfanwr]

I've pm'd you. Call me when you can

[PAPI-74]

Cargo is normally a night job.
7pm - 5 ish am.

Caution:

Poor sleep patterns:eek:
Slashed social life:(
Long term fatigue due to the above:yuk:

[Say again s l o w l y]

Yeah, but it's fun though!

[JamesTigris]

Well presumably competition is just as tough for the jobs so I guess it must be fun!

The reason I made the mistake of referring to SLF as 'Airlines' is that I very rarely hear of colleagues targeting freight carriers for jobs. Is it that they generally don't employ low hours pilots?

I've worked nights many a time and I'm not convinced its the worst way to live! Are the entry requirements, recruitment procedures and competition just the same for the passenger carrying jobs?

EDIT
JennyB, just got your joke:}. Its not as painful as it sounds...

[portsharbourflyer]

Hours flown on night freight operations are quite low typically 250-300 a year. DHL have taken low hour pilots in the past, but due to the low hours flown this tends to create a bit of a bottle neck in the system, so anyone joining a night freight operator with low hours will find it will take them years to build the required hours for a command. Therefore alot of night freight companies may require 1000 hours so that your time to gaining a full ATPL hence be able to take a command will be shorter.

Max duty hours and minimal flying probably describes working in most night freight operators. Alot of time downroute in hotels and waiting in crew rooms, however there can be some time for touring the local towns. Maybe the best job if you are single, quite possible the worst job in the world if you have a family.

If you want to fast track your career you are far better going to Ryanair.

[cessnagirl]

I'm also keen on flying cargo. I've worked in flight ops for years on H24. Nights aren't that bad. Its good to be open minded when it comes to anything with wings.

[zerozero]

In this globalized economy we'd all do well to keep an open mind and stay flexible about our job prospects.

My background is civilian flight instruction and then bush flying in Alaska.

I've been flying international freight for 4.5 years now and will probably lose my job soon.

I'm probably headed back to the bush.

When I started this career 20 years ago, I never thought I'd fly in Alaska and I never thought I'd fly international cargo.

If there's one lesson I can pass on it's this: No matter where you'd like to be, you're gonna be where you HAVE to be.

For what it's worth.

:8

Good luck.

[hardcase]

i have been a freight dog for 3years now and i am still enjoying it, especially the 2weeks on 2 weeks off we have at the moment. I wouldnt say its the worse job to have if you have a family, i see my children more a month than friends in pax airlines.

We generally fly 400-450 hours a year at ACL and depending on what routes you operate on your duty hours can be quite high.

:ok:

[trot]

cargo flying is refered to as mostly night flying.
but guess what you do when flying pax internationaly, e.g across the pond. same effing difference:\. always on the backside of your bodyclock.
i would fly either, as long the whole package fits my personal life.
cheers

[sengasengana]

Greets,

and then there's cargo airlines, who fly outsized and general cargo with big equipment. This is often round the clock operation and doesn't especially "target" nighttime for operations. A few of these in Europe as well.

Myself doing 550 hours block per year from a base in Central Europe and back of the clock flying takes maybe slightly over half of it. Freight planes get good utilisation normally, ours about 16 hours a day, so you fly when the "bus comes".

Entry requirements are as per normal, there's hidden gems in freight and that's why people don't advertise much for obvious reasons.

Hope this helps.

SS