10 Things You Should Know

Are you considering a job with Flight Express? Congratulations! The pay and benefits are much better than what you can get as a flight instructor, banner tower, jump pilot, crop duster, traffic spotter or in any other common entry-level flying job. More importantly, however, you will also gain a tremendous amount of valuable, high-quality, real-world experience in the challenging single-pilot cross-country IFR environment. This will make your skills super-sharp and help you get a job with the airlines later.

Please click HERE to see my photo essay called "A Day in the Life of a Freight Dog." This will give you an extremely realistic look at what you will be doing. That way you will know exactly what lies ahead, you will know what to expect (both in training and on the line) and there will be absolutely no surprises.

Before you go any further, please be aware of the following 10 facts. If, after you read them carefully, you are still interested, contact our pilot recruiter, whose e-mail address appears at the bottom of this page.

  1. You will almost certainly be required to relocate at some point, either temporarily or permanently. We have numerous bases all over the eastern and southern United States. (The exact number goes up and down over time as new runs are created, old runs are eliminated or existing runs are modified. We are an on-demand operator, so this is a dynamic, ongoing process, with schedule changes occurring weekly, daily and even hourly due to weather, equipment or customer needs.) Runs and bases are made available to all company pilots through a seniority-based bidding system. When you start with the company, you will be at the bottom of the seniority list. This means that you will have to go wherever we ask you to go. This could be Nashville, Kansas City, Miami, Cincinnati, St. Louis or many other places. You must be ready to go to any one of these locations as soon as your initial training is completed. Temporary duty assignments (TDYs) happen to everybody, often with short notice. You must be at least somewhat geographically flexible if you're going to pursue a career as a professional pilot.

  2. You will always be fully and fairly compensated for any work you do for this company. You will never be paid less than our standard daily minimum of $90, no matter how few hours you are on duty! In other words, even if you are only on duty for 1 hour you will still be paid $90! When you are flying the line, you will be paid $12 per duty hour -- not per flight hour -- so that if you are on duty for 14 hours you will receive $168. Based on this, your initial gross annual income may range from about $23,400 up to about $43,680 depending upon the run you fly. (It is worth noting that this is substantially more than most first-year first officers make flying for a regional or commuter airline!)

    Moreover, you will be paid $90 per day to undergo initial ground and flight training. If you fail to complete the training program for any reason, however, you will receive no compensation for any of the time you were here. (This policy is to discourage people from wasting their time and ours if they are not serious about working here and reasonably confident in their level of aviation knowledge and skill.) We will also pay you a $1,000 training bonus when you pass your initial Part 135 IFR-PIC checkride.

  3. You will start in a Cessna 210 Centurion. Transition into the Beechcraft 55/58 Baron, like transition into any other run, is based on seniority. It may take six months or it may take two years. It depends primarily on how flexible you are with your income and your domicile. You will be able to get into a Baron much sooner if you are willing to bid for any Baron run, regardless of where it is based and regardless of how much it pays.

  4. You must sign a training agreement. By signing this document, you agree to return the training bonus if you leave the company for any reason prior to your sixth-month anniversary. (This measure is designed to discourage people from beginning the training program if they do not intend to remain with the company for less than six months.)

  5. You are responsible for your own housing once your training is completed. While you are in training, we will provide you with a hotel. (We typically put two pilot candidates in each room.) If you wish to have a private room, you will have to pay for that yourself.

  6. Aside from flying ability, the most important characteristic we look for in an employee is the capacity to follow directions and function efficiently. Courier pilots must be able to load and unload their airplanes quickly, fill out their paperwork properly and communicate with Dispatch effectively. A pilot who is uncooperative, difficult, unreliable, disorganized or unable to do what he or she is told will not be hired or retained no matter how gifted that pilot may be in terms of aviation knowledge and skill.

  7. There are no SIC positions at Flight Express. In other words, "everyone is a captain." Every pilot must have a level of knowledge, skill and experience that would enable that pilot to cope -- ALONE -- safely and legally with any situation that is likely to occur while flying the line. Such situations include icing encounters, thunderstorms, approaches down to minimums at night in turbulent conditions, complex ATC clearances with last-minute changes, or various instrument and equipment failures. The training department will not allow pilots who do not meet the minimum acceptable standards of sections 135.293, 135.297 and 135.299 to fly the line. If you are not already current and proficient on instruments in a complex, high-performance airplane, common sense dictates that you need to get current and proficient on instruments in a complex, high-performance airplane before you go out and apply for a job flying on instruments in a complex, high-performance airplane! A doctor would certainly not go out and apply for a job with a hospital or a medical clinic if he was not already a competent physician. Likewise, a pilot should not seek aviation employment unless he possesses at least the minimal level of basic and general knowledge and skill to perform those functions and exercise the privileges of his certificates and ratings.

  8. All pilot candidates must meet the minimum aeronautical experience requirements of section 135.243(c). This includes at least 1200 total hours, 500 cross-country hours (meaning airport to airport, not necessarily 50 miles), 100 hours at night and 75 hours instrument, of which at least 50 must be in actual flight (as opposed to actual conditions). Obviously you must also have a single-engine ATP or commercial pilot certificate with an instrument rating. We cannot hire you unless you meet these federal requirements! You must also have a current and valid FAA second-class or first-class medical certificate. (I will ask to see it in the first day of ground school.)

  9. You should bring certain items with you when you report for training. Refer to the list below.

    The following four things are very highly recommended, but not required:

    You are REQUIRED bring the following six items with you when you report for training, and I will make photocopies of each of them for your training file on the first day of class:

  10. To help you prepare, practically the entire ground training curriculum is available on this Web site. Go to the "document archive" page and print out the eleven documents marked with red diamonds. Put them in a binder, a series of folders or some other convenient means of storage and bring them with you to class. We will be referring to them extensively during ground school. (A smart pilot would study them in considerable depth and detail beforehand!)

Pilot Recruiter Gary Hillyer: recruiter613@juno.com

Good luck and thank you for your time! I look forward to meeting you.

Sincerely,

Austin Collins (Chief Pilot / Manager of Training)

Click HERE to return to the Flight Express Pilot Information Page.