bblack88

Hey, just wondering if anyone had heard of Ad Airlines? Just what people thought of them, if anyone had worked with them?? Get much flying while there?? Thanks!

aviatorsneah

just interviewed with them. looking for full time pilot (cfi) to fly banners and then they train you for commercial-balloon.

sounds interesting, although you must sign a 2 year contract, and i'm not sure i want to sign my life away for 2 years to fly banners and give balloon rides.

also, i've done some research and the owner of the company has gotten into plenty of hot water in the past with the balloon company: poor customer reviews, ripoff, scam, stricken from the BBB, etc. so, it may be kind of sketchy.

as you can see i just joined the forums here, because i was looking for more info on the company myself.

PiperPilot03

I was looking into them as well. What airport are they primarily out of? 2 years is a long contract. Did they mention what pay would be?

aviatorsneah

i think banners are flown out of clow, balloons out of lake geneva and joliet. pay is a base salary of 20K with $20/hr flight time for banners and $250/hr balloon. lots of office work involved when you aren't flying. they want a full timer (assistant director of flight ops). all training is paid for.

sounds like a decent summer gig if it wasn't for the 2 year contract. they said they do banners year round, even in other states. he said to expect anywhere between 500-1000 hours per year flying banners.

PiperPilot03

500-1000 hours is a large spread in pay.

Do you know what type of airplane(s) they have? Also where their office is? I'm guessing its in Winnetka but I'm not too sure. It seems like a lot of driving around if they require you to be doing a lot of office work.

aviatorsneah

office is in winnetka. which is a PITA for me or anyone else that'll have to commute. took me 30 minutes to get there and 1hr 45min to get back in rush hour. so you better hope that you can fly a lot rather than drive out there to push pencils and talk on phones (getting customers). they train you in a 182 and then you will be towing the rags in the 182 and a couple 150hp 150s. keep in mind you'll also be doing balloon flying.

also, they want a CFI because eventually they will be getting an ultralight trike to give rides in. I guess you can't charge people for rides in these things so they have to make it "dual". there was talk of sending you down to Mexico for a couple weeks at a time to give 'rides' and tow rags along the beach.

it's an interesting package....could be a lot of fun with some good travel every now and then. but only if you want to be doing it for 2 years and log a lot of single-engine airplane or useless balloon time. like you said. that's a looong time.

PiperPilot03

Well it does sound like an interesting job with a good amount of variety between the planes, balloons, and ultralights. Just the two year is the killer. Plus, when I first started flying, I tried to fit in the 150 but I'm pretty tall and it would have made cross wind landings interesting since my knees got in the way. Aviatorsneah, are you leaning one way or another? Where are you working now?

aviatorsneah

jobless as a pilot right now. about a month away from the CFI so that's why this one looked tempting to build some hours and work on the CFI in my spare time. but like you said, the contract kills it. i don't think i'll take it even if they call me back. the only hope is maybe i could negotiate a part time position flying banners when they need me. but they are still interviewing. maybe they'll find someone more desperate than me.

FlyJSH

Let me get this straight, 20k plus 500 to 1000 hours times 20/hour? 30-40k to tow banners??? Plus the balloon pay??!?!?

I agree, it isn't sexy, but it sounds like a pretty darn good deal. Live on no more than 25k (more than many regionals pay to start), save the rest, and have a bankroll to supplement the pay when you do get that first 121 job.

Sure, I'd try to negotiate a shorter contract, but even if he won't budge, the difference in the job market between one year from now and two probably isn't that much.

How much is the contract buy out? I can't imagine it would be very big: training to tow banners doesn't take too long. Is it prorated? What is the buy out at 12 months? 18 months? If you DO save your money and a great job comes along, you will have the cash to buy out, give two weeks notice, and leave on good terms.

PiperPilot03

Well I have been instructing for nearly three years now and I have only 1400 dual given. So aviatorsneah, if you are just starting out, this might be a good job for you. In two years, you would be fairly competitive with others for jobs. The only problem would be the lack of multi with this job.