Today I began official
training with Ameriflight. My roommate,
Bob Henry and I arrived at Ameriflight headquarters around 0800 to begin the
first portion of training. We received
several handouts and a syllabus for our training. Today was mostly an administrative day, complete with
orientation, previous employment verification, filling out tax forms, and all
the standard stuff when you begin a new job.
There was also a bit of training on air traffic control and professional
communication, which didn’t offer any real new material but was a good review.
The instructor is a senior
training captain and is pretty good at his job. He injected the right amount of humor into his presentations to
keep them interesting and I never had the urge to nod off. Frequent breaks helped out a great deal.
The day ended with getting
pictures taken for our ID cards and mandatory drug tests. Really, there’s nothing quite as pathetic as
25 pilots sitting around a health clinic waiting to fill a cup. I might as well get use to it since I’ll be
taking drug tests my entire career.
Ameriflight has about 200
aircraft which range from a Piper Lance up to a Learjet 35A. I’ll be starting in the Cessna 402, which
only exists at the Portland domicile.
It is a 6000-lb gross weight twin piston airplane with 300 HP per
engine. I understand from talking to
other pilots it is quite stable and easy to fly.
The pilots here are from a
range of backgrounds. I am probably one
of the youngest pilots there, with the oldest being in their mid-forties.
The next two and a half days
will be simulator lab sessions. These
are conducted to figure out our “trainability” and to see where we are at with
our IFR skills. The best part is we
don’t have to wear ties on these days.
Then they let us go mid-day Saturday and we don’t report back until
Monday. I have no idea what I am going
to do for the weekend without a car or anyone here to see. Maybe I’ll catch up on some of that
consulting work so we can eat next month.
Ameriflight has been very
clear that we are not employees, but “flight crew candidates”. I guess that is so they don’t have to pay us
during training. Our employment
officially begins after we pass our Part 135 PIC checkrides, which I anticipate
to be in about two to three weeks from now.
Then we start drawing “pay” on the flight matrix, not coincidentally the
same day we fly our first revenue flight.
Tonight’s “homework” was to
complete our employment verification paperwork and some reading in the company
manuals. Didn’t take long, so I got to
watch Oklahoma win the Orange Bowl.
Overall, I am impressed with
Ameriflight so far. They are
well-organized and seem committed to good training.