Hour Building B757
Join Date: Jan 1997
Location: UK
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A bit touchy 
It's life of max duty hours, minimum flying hours, kicking around crew rooms in the dead of night and trying to sleep in a noisy daytime hotel room. Year after year.
So here's the obvious questions to be considered at 350 hours per year:
How long to get an ATPL unfrozen for, let's say a 500 hour guy joining?
How long to get the minimum command hours?
How long to get the 4000 hours I've got on the 757 - surely the minimum to think you'll get a fast track command elsewhere?
If permanent nights aren't for you how do you compete with the 800 hour a year guys looking to move on to VS/BA Etc from the low costs?
Meanwhile what's happened to your peers who qualified at the same time as you? Try repeating the calculations at an amiable and genteel 750 hours per years.
Simply doesn't add up as a commercial proposition compared to other paths into the industry. That's all - it's the tyranny of the numbers and the bottom line for those with loans to pay off and a desire to put their money into a home or toys.
Mobility of labour, death of decent pensions and modern management methods means our career is now a race to the left seat by any means possible. There's no other way to clear the loans neither of us faced 30+ years ago and move on to assure our future through any variant of savings and assets.
My first jet job paid a basic annual salary 2.3 times greater than the total cost of my licence, IR and accommodation. Those looking for a job now are facing a different and probably deeply inverted ratio.
There's nothing personal there - just facts.
Rob
It's life of max duty hours, minimum flying hours, kicking around crew rooms in the dead of night and trying to sleep in a noisy daytime hotel room. Year after year.
So here's the obvious questions to be considered at 350 hours per year:
How long to get an ATPL unfrozen for, let's say a 500 hour guy joining?
How long to get the minimum command hours?
How long to get the 4000 hours I've got on the 757 - surely the minimum to think you'll get a fast track command elsewhere?
If permanent nights aren't for you how do you compete with the 800 hour a year guys looking to move on to VS/BA Etc from the low costs?
Meanwhile what's happened to your peers who qualified at the same time as you? Try repeating the calculations at an amiable and genteel 750 hours per years.
Simply doesn't add up as a commercial proposition compared to other paths into the industry. That's all - it's the tyranny of the numbers and the bottom line for those with loans to pay off and a desire to put their money into a home or toys.
Mobility of labour, death of decent pensions and modern management methods means our career is now a race to the left seat by any means possible. There's no other way to clear the loans neither of us faced 30+ years ago and move on to assure our future through any variant of savings and assets.
My first jet job paid a basic annual salary 2.3 times greater than the total cost of my licence, IR and accommodation. Those looking for a job now are facing a different and probably deeply inverted ratio.
There's nothing personal there - just facts.
Rob
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: North West
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PPT
I see from your last post that you have no real knowledge of the Freight Industry.
Hotels are First Class and allocate quiet rooms to freightdogs, as this is part of the contract.
Crew rooms whilst in the past have been below par, are now well up to standard with rest facilities built in so that during ground time crews can get some sleep in comfortable beds if required.
The latest purpose built crew facilities in Leipzig have superior facilities for all crews.
Canteen facilities where meals are cooked to order or the menu of the day can be taken immediately.
Duty hours ? well the hours are restricted for night operations and the average duty is now 9 hours with the odd duty reaching the maximum of 10 hours 15 minutes.
Weekends free in places such as Madrid, Sofia, Athens, Casablanca. Well maybe a couple of hours Standby at the hotel to cover a through flight in Madrid.
Time to command has been as little as 1 year for those with over 3000 hours. (3000 required for command).
Yes it can be a long time to command for new hires with low hours, but in EAT commands are given on experience with the company and can come after 5-6 years (for low hours pilots) which equates well with the charter industry where at the moment there are few commands if any available, currently layoff's are the rule.
Hours are NOT the yardstick to go by, I have said before experience matters but Sitting in the cruise reading a newspaper on long sectors does not equal experience.
Yes I have been there got the T shirt, probably long before many poster here were out of school or the blue uniform.
I see from your last post that you have no real knowledge of the Freight Industry.
Hotels are First Class and allocate quiet rooms to freightdogs, as this is part of the contract.
Crew rooms whilst in the past have been below par, are now well up to standard with rest facilities built in so that during ground time crews can get some sleep in comfortable beds if required.
The latest purpose built crew facilities in Leipzig have superior facilities for all crews.
Canteen facilities where meals are cooked to order or the menu of the day can be taken immediately.
Duty hours ? well the hours are restricted for night operations and the average duty is now 9 hours with the odd duty reaching the maximum of 10 hours 15 minutes.
Weekends free in places such as Madrid, Sofia, Athens, Casablanca. Well maybe a couple of hours Standby at the hotel to cover a through flight in Madrid.
Time to command has been as little as 1 year for those with over 3000 hours. (3000 required for command).
Yes it can be a long time to command for new hires with low hours, but in EAT commands are given on experience with the company and can come after 5-6 years (for low hours pilots) which equates well with the charter industry where at the moment there are few commands if any available, currently layoff's are the rule.
Hours are NOT the yardstick to go by, I have said before experience matters but Sitting in the cruise reading a newspaper on long sectors does not equal experience.
Yes I have been there got the T shirt, probably long before many poster here were out of school or the blue uniform.
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Close to space
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Here is a plan for you guys that pay for type ratings and cant find work or even a place to work for free. Send me your cv. If I can place you, give the operator your wads of cash that you have in such abundance. All I ask is that you pay me 50 pounds per hour that you fly for them as my reward for finding a pit for you to throw money into.
