Naturelink Interviews

[Bozo Nightmare]

I recently had an interview with Naturelink for the 145. Did not go to badly. looking positive. can anyone give me some real insight to working for these guys.

thanks

bn

[oompilot]

Dodge City

For sure. If you join your name won’t only be Nightmare your life would have become one.
Heard a few stories from a mate who was stuck there in hell but unable to go anywhere due to an excessively high Shuttle type bond…… no actually those are probably cheaper.
Almost everything they told you in the interview is a lie. You won’t get anything they promised you. Going onto the 145 as a pilot you will slot in just above the 120 guys which means your second lowest in the company….that’s to anybody who works there, you’re a nobody. There’s nobody below you in the company, except 120 guys and perhaps ……….well nobody. You better be ready to take some abuse from little Dutchy chicks working there who do far more important things than you, like make tea and photocopy paper.
Other interesting facts.
Pilots not allowed into the ops room. Special permission required.
No Jepps allowed out of the top secret ops room only copies made by your superior the photocopy Chicky.
Ops manual approved by CAA to work 6 days on 1 off. Continuously and you will.

Far better places to guy bud. My advise run run run run run run, look back if you see anything even starting with an N, run faster. Change your name, have surgery, what ever, just make sure they never find you again.

[buck2rogers69]

What 145's??? have they arrived, some crew got trained last year already, still no aeroplanes i thought, they flying E120's!!! otherwise not a bad company i suppose, they will leave you though for longer than 6 weeks in the field!!

[Bozo Nightmare]

Thanks Guys

I heard things like 3 weeks in and 2 out. apparently the first 145 arriving in the next few weeks

bn

[Malagant]

Ha ha..145`s, they been coming since 2006..Capts sitting at home after sim training getting paid and not flying..supposedly a contract in Saudi..Briers and De Klerk BSssing everyone as usual..don`t even go threre..you will be better off at Link, at least the got planes..Stickerlink..boys boys..haven`t you learnt..believe me I know plenty guys that worked there, one saying, and I quote " Leaving Stickerlink was the best career move I ever made"..ha ha..

[Icarus208]

I also heard that the E145 that was suppose to arrive last year January of some sorts is also now Nicknamed...."The Phantom Jet". And their shuttle training bond you sign is either for 2 years or 3 years depends on the experience you start off with...example ATP or Comm or with subjects or no subjects. That puts you into some bracket...
Then with this bond they say that you get everthing on the fleet...(in other words, the E120....not a E145 cause you will never get there) So in short they are waiving the biggest carrot in your face when you do go and work for them...
For R240000 to R360000 over 3 years...not worth it.

[razorback]

If you like getting shafted - you are in the right place

[Gerund]

If you want to get a feel for how Naturelink view their pilots, go to their website and have a look at 'Meet the Team'.

Ever since their website first appeared, through jolly cartoons and many changes, the Chief Pilot has been conspicuous by his absence from the 'Team'. It might seem strange that, in an aviation company, the Chief Pilot is not part of the 'Team' but, if you knew Naturelink well, maybe not so strange. It's a paper position and is indicative of how they view their pilots in general.

Heed the warnings above.

[cavortingcheetah]

That raises an interesting point which might be worthy of further discussion.
The Naturelink website lists as the team, dreadful word really, reminds one of a Tiddlywinks Tournament, those who are on the side of management. Sometimes it might even be said that some of those on the side of management are those who sometimes operate enthusiastically under other members of management. Such spectaculations lie outside the scope of this forum of course.
Chief Pilots would not usually operate on the side of management. Their position and role is more usually to operate as a liason between management and the riff raff who fly the aeroplanes, but whose duties generally are more suited to taking care of and supervising the pilots' performance and all the paperwork that goes with such a thankless task.
However, an Operations Director or a Fleet Manager might liase more directly between management and the aforementioned rabble, using the Chief Pilot as a go between or sounding board. The roles do get blurred of course but in actuality one would not really want a Chief Pilot on the management team for he would then have to represent the interests of the Executive as against those of the pilots.
Reference to the Safair website will precisely serve to illustrate the above points, seemingly not a Chief Pilot in sight. A company with perhaps rather more experience and aeronautical longevity than Naturelink, although it is interesting enough to note that more than one of Naturelink's management gang of eight used, apparently, to work for Safair. QED, Naturelink/Safair?
The question as to whether Naturelink is a pleasant operator for which to work is quite another story of course. It may well be that the website, while being rather jolly hockey sticks, belies an entirely nasty attitude on the part of management. It is an altogether unhappy circumstance of the aviation industry that, according to some, all the good chaps fly aircraft while management is staffed entirely by pyschotic misfits.

[Groot_Pens]

Promotions

A superbike is a requirement for promotion!

[cavortingcheetah]

An entertaining and lightly amusing conjecture which no doubt goes in some small way to explain why, in the barrios of Brasilia, the Embraer is known colloquially as the Electra Glide.

[foxtrot_pilot]

Accepted a job at Naturelink recently. Oom Pilot, I would gladly take abuse from a superior copier chick there, even if she doesnt let me into the Ops room.

But then again, is is really such an issue into which room you are allowed into? Seems a bit sad that you feel inferior to Office personnel. Just a thought.

[cavortingcheetah]

It is not the norm in European airlines anyway,well, at least in my experieince, to allow flight crew or non essential personnel into the operations room of an airline.
It's not that the operations staff have a terrifically taxing job, it's just that those who are usually to be found in such little rooms are not tremendously good at lateral thinking. Nor, for that matter, are they of sufficient cranial development as to be able to handle the sort of essential requests with which pilots often aspire to titillate their cerebral abilities.
It is an unhappy circumstance of aviation that those in ops are not usually emotionally best able to handle requests for 'next Tuesday off please, to see my phlebotomist' when the precious fleet flagship is under machine gun attack in Zululand.
Besides which, entry into the ops room simply draws the attention of those who might otherwise persecute one to the fact that an opportunity has just presented itself to do so. It is far better to keep the old head below the parapet, carry two mobile telephones and have an answering machine which announces that you are otherwise engaged, blissfully one might hope, in pursuits of a Ugandan nature.
As for the very prospect of entrusting life and limb to a Jeppesen which might, I say, just might, have been correctly updated by one of these high school cast offs, well, one should perhaps stick to one's own copy. More expensive? Perhaps. No of course it is, but it's infinitely safer and it's always there, in your flight bag when you need it. There's a vast amount of educational wealth inside a Jeppesen other than just the let down plates. It is an essential requisite for any pilot to carry his own. It should repose in a place of pride in one's flight bag, alongside one's own oral germ and foreign ear wax free headset and the compulsory packet of personalized embossed condoms. Preferably, for those entitled to such pulsating peccadilloes, with a crest on the top.

[oompilot]

Foxtrot pilot I believe you misread my post. I never said as a 145 pilot you would feel inferior but that you are inferior.

As for your ' happy to take abuse from other female staff ', keep your fetish to your self!

[razorback]

Preferably, for those entitled to such pulsating peccadilloes, with a crest on the top.

also possibly known as razorbacks, maybe???

As for the rest of this thread, then go there if you must. But be prepared for surprises. Not all surprises are bad, but not all are good either.

[rabidpangolin]

Naturelink

Great bunch of guys/girls...lots of promise...and absolutely no direction. They also make one feel special in a way that no other company can: Management refers to you and your hardworking colleagues as " P*#s Pilots". They lie to you about how much you are going to get paid, bond you for two years on the 120 and then ,through their grace, allow you to fly a P750 (for less than what they promised of course) I tried to stay positive while I was there but am ecstatic not to be anymore. As for the 145...JDK promises a lot of stuff...delivers none.
Great people that work there, but steer well clear IMHO.

Mind the tail!

[Goffel]

I spent 18 months flying for these guys in Gabon and in EQ.

Never had to ask for my money, always paid, either before I left on tour or was put into my bank long before end of month.

Sure, I was asked to fly over my 6 weeks, many many times, and asked to go back early due to guys doing one tour in EQ and never wanting to go back.......but I was always asked..never forced..(sure, I got extra money, but still was my choice).

Accomadation was always good...if we had a bitch about the accomadation, they tried their utmost to fix things.

A/C were reasonably well maintained..never dangerous.....remember we were in the arse end of the Africa.

We did have two base managers skimming the taxi money from Naturelink, but EVENTUAULLY they were delt with.

I only left them because of a job offer to fly a bigger machine.

Yes, I did have some gripes, like being ripped off on my Bandit conversion by the company, but what the hell, I got good flying time and experience flying in EQ....(Did get my own back on Jannie for that though...he left his camera on the table in the house....OH YES Jannie, that was my dirty arse that was in the photo )

But at the end of the day,would I go back and fly for them...YES.

As for not being allowed in the op's room, did not give a sheeet as I never had to go to the office...was always met at Jhb inter by someone with my money and anything else that was needed on tour on my way thru from CT.

Working for any company is one's own individual choice...if you dont like things, resign and go somewhere else.

Goffel

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Now for REAL revenge, you should have had his toothbrush peeking out from between your piles in the photograph...

[dash431]

GOFFEL,

Dont suppose your initials are C.B? I Flew for Naturelink in E.G. on the bandits, but dont recall you... Maybe before my time.

431

[Contract Dog]

fishing expedition? goff, dont rise!

Dog