ashcroft

Looks like I'm in the same boat as you. Applied about a month ago while on paternity leave and got the phone interview yesterday. Since I'm in the middle of a trip she told me to study up and take the test next week. Next round of interviews the middle of Feb. 7500TT, 5000 PIC total with 3200 of that RJ PIC. No internal rec's.

clipperskipper

I was a little apprehensive on the app with questions such as do you have heavy jet experience, 9+ hour legs, etc? Anything can be learned right?

ashcroft

Question for you guys who do fly for atlas. What are your trips like? I'm not asking about the "you owe 17 days a month to the company extendable to 21" or something generic like that. I'm asking more of what's a typical trip like. I know that it's a job where things change at the drop of a hat and you might not end up doing what you orginally were scheduled to do.

Thanks

T333

Changes all the time. The only thing that was the same for me on my trip was the first day and the day I was scheduled to get home.

commerical to HSV day before trip starts, HSV-LUX layover - JNB-NBO layover- DH DXB layover - TPE - DH HKG layover - ICN - ANC layover - DH ICN - DH - HKG layover - INC - ANC layover - ORD layover - commercial home. about 58 hours flying maybe 62 or so credit.

The thing that surprised me the most about Atlas was that we often fly 2 legs during a duty period. I thought most would be a 9 - 12 hour flight followed by a layover,; not 3 hours, sit for 2, then fly for 9. Not a big deal, just wasn't expecting it.

PS don't ask me what my original pattern looked like cause I don't remember. I do know it had more hours and was changed 3 times before I even started it (mostly taking some flying away as the schedule changes)

Hope this helps,

-T

ashcroft

T333,

Thanks yeah that was the type of info that I was looking for. How does it work with Atlas if say you're orginally scheduled for say 80 hours of flying and after all the changes you only end up doing 70. Are you paid for what you were supposed to do or what you end up doing.

Also what's a typical layover like for you guys. Do they keep them pretty short or do you end up sitting for a few days?

Whaledriver

What will happen is, once awarded a trip, a trip built on what they think the customer wants to do a month from now, it will start with flights turning red. Then they will just disappear. Scheduling will then just adjust your rest wherever. Then you have to hope they find something for you to do on 100 hour layovers that develop with the canceled flying.

The variance is huge between the bases. IAH, out and backs to LAD. MIA, down to SA and back, hopefully. Once in awhile they'll get caught up in a VCP-DKR-FRA flight, then all bets are off.

The classic almost always starts on the East Coast, then around the world, one way or the other.

Ok, here's a month:

LIMO JFK to DOV, DH on one of our planes DOV to HHN, then LIMO to FRA. CR for 16 hours.
Ops changes, LIMO back to HHN, CR 28 hours
FLY (finally) HHN-KBL, 2 hrs GT, KBL-DXB, CR 22 hrs
DH on Emerates to NBO, CR 34 hrs
NBO-MST 2 hr GT, MST-LUX, LIMO to HHN CR 24 hrs
HHN-HHN (plane broke) CR 25 hrs
HHN-UAB, 2.5 hrs GT, UAB-MAD, CR 25 hrs
DH on LuxAir to LUX, CR 36 hrs
LUX-JNB, 2 hrs GT, JNB-NBO, CR 21 hrs
DH on KLM to AMS, then Delta to EWR


16 days, 44 hours of flying, 43 hours of DH


Here's another one:

DH on American LGA-ORD-TOL, CR 12 hrs
DH on one of our planes, TOL-FRA, LIMO to LUX, CR23 hrs
LUX-JNB, 3 hrs GT, JNB-NBO, CR 12 hrs
NBO-AMS, DH KLM to FRA, CR 38 hrs
FRA-DXB, CR 28 hrs
DXB-FRA, CR 18 hrs
FRA-DXB, CR 25 hrs
DXB-ZAZ, 2 hrs GT, ZAZ-DXB, CR 15 hrs
DXB-PVG, CR 21 hrs
PVG-ANC, CR 45 hrs
ANC-ORD, Delta to JFK


16 days, 80 hours of flying, 18 hours of DH

This trip was NOTHING like I was awarded. At one time it had changed to over 140 hours off in DXB, then filled in, nicely.

Hope this helps.

Whaledriver

We DO NOT have trip protection. We only have leg protection. You get the greater of scheduled or what you do, per flight. If you get awarded 80 hours, you will not get paid that unless you fly it.

I have sat for up to 5 days in one place, then months I flew my butt off like the example above. I have heard of guys chasing a plane around the world DHing and never flying.

ashcroft

Yeah that helps alot. The only other question I have for you guys is about deadheading. How do they pay your for your deadheads? The company I work for now pays it at 75% of block time. What does Atlas pay?

Whaledriver

1/3, yeps it sucks, but it is what it is. I hear the new contract ain't much better.

744driver

DH is paid after your 13th month on property.

And then it is paid at 1/3...1 hour toward guaranty for every 3 hours of a scheduled flight, pax flight, limo, etc.

However, a lot of this is a moot point as the new CBA is put in place. It is rumored to have a 4.85 hours per day rig. For that kind of a rig, it might not matter about trip guaranty unless you have an awarded trip worth a lot of pay credit.

Same goes for the DH credit...it may not matter that the DH credit (in the new CBA) is rumored to be 1:2.85 (don't ask how they came up with that number), as the daily rig of 4.85 hours covers most of our deadheads anyway...unless you do a very long DH from one part of the world to another, which does happen several times a year.