It's 6 p.m., so I'd better take a snooze. Guess I'll keep time in BCS and not in local or universal coordinated time. BCS is "Body Clock Standard." When you fly freighters, you get used to sleeping in shifts. Showed up at Airborne's Wilmington, Ohio, facility at 11:30 p.m. A little chance to work out in the mini-gym from 1 to 2:30 a.m. and slammed down a salad from 2:30 to 3 a.m. I'm not big on big meals on a trip.
Wednesday Morning. At 3 a.m. I went to the crew area, checked my mailbox, signed in, and reviewed paperwork for the flight. Caught the crew van to the airplane to get there for the 3:27 a.m. report time. Completed preflight duties. Set up the cockpit, programmed the GPS to San Diego, figured takeoff data. Don't know exactly what we are flying. Never ask. There's just a lot of it. Loaded to near gross tonight.
Takeoff right on the money - 4:27 a.m. Level off at Flight Level (FL) 310 (31,000 feet). Great night so far. Clear above, haze below, and some thunderstorm fireworks off both wings about 100 miles away.
Abeam Springfield, Missouri, I have my first cup of coffee at 5:45 a.m. We're thinking the flight will take about 3:57. Can't believe we have only a three-knot headwind going westbound, but the San Diego forecast calls for 700 overcast and BR. Hmmph! "Baby Rain." Don't know why they just didn't call it mist and be done with it.
What's this? As we're cruising by Liberal, Kansas, I see a mega-line of t-storms. Climb to FL 350 for some smooth. Looks like we're clearing it all to the south. Easy money!
It is ugly on the approach to San Diego - right down at minimums - worse than forecast. We shoot the ILS to Runway 9, tie it all down, and off to the hotel.
Check-in at 0900 BCS. It's only 6 a.m. out here. Catch some CNN then try to sleep.
Wednesday Noon. Someone is pounding on something. Stick in the ear plugs and doze back off. At least the room is dark and cool. It's about mid-afternoon when I finally get out of bed. Trek on down to the hotel fitness center.
Okay. I'm getting confused on time, so let's convert to local time. Freight pilots always got to ask, "What time is it anyway." Better yet, "What day is it and where am I?"
After the workout I treat myself to gourmet Italian seafood dinner. I'm solo tonight. Normally, crews do the buddy thing, but on a short trip, nobody knows who's sleeping when or what time wake-up is.
Ate too much. Busted my rule about not eating heavy. Have to stop at a Subway anyway to pick up a sandwich for the flight back to Wilmington. Seems like right about Liberal, I have to chomp on something.
The San Diego clock says 5:30 p.m. Time to catch the airport shuttle. Do the flight prep as is the custom. Weather looks good all the way for a change. Planning for wheels up at 6:50 p.m. on the San Diego clock.
Thursday Morning. It's 0145 BCS in Wilmington. Turned in the paperwork from the San Diego flight, checked the mailbox again, and prepared for the next flight to Newark. No layover tonight. Went to the DC-8 at 0230 BCS (local time in Ohio).
The airplane was loaded late. Finally get off at 3:45 a.m. This is a short flight tonight. One and a half hours later, we pull into Newark at 5:19 a.m..
In the last 24 hours, I've logged 9.5 flight hours. The regulation types might wonder about duty time and flight time. This was an exemption trip. Too complicated to explain, but we are legal - honest.
Nothing exceptional on this run. The crew doesn't even talk much. Tweak instruments, chat with ATC, pilot chit-chat - drone on.
Pulled into the hotel 15 minutes before the restaurant opens at 6 a.m. I pace the lobby for 15 minutes, sit down, eat an omelet, and climb into the sack at 7 a.m.
Thursday Afternoon. Had a pretty good "day's sleep." Wake up and start making phone calls until 4:30 p.m. One of the joys of flying on the road is trying to manage your affairs and run the house from a motel. If I'm not spending $200 a month in phone bills, then I must be on vacation.
The hotel has a pretty decent restaurant. Met my crew and another Airborne Express bunch. On the road, it is the social thing to get together over a meal. Airborne Express pilots are a good group, and almost all of them really want to be doing the freight thing. Many have passed up the chance to fly with the "Big 7." The tough part is adapting to a sleep schedule. Luckily, I have no trouble in that department.
Thursday Night. Back to the room at 7 p.m.. A few phone calls. Nap time before airport time.
Call crew scheduling at 8:30 p.m. to see what's up. My Friday trip is canceled! I love to fly, but I'm going to get paid for sitting on the ground anyway. Nice to get a surprise day off with pay once and awhile.
The flight home is more routine stuff. It doesn't change a whole lot. Check in, review, plan, program, take off, fly, land, sign-out back at Wilmington about 12:30 a.m.
Friday. Unexpected day off. Putz around the house. A couple of naps.
Saturday. Got about seven hours of sleep last night. Feel pretty good. More pre-flight routine for a 4:30 a.m. takeoff for Denver. Nothing new; nothing different. Great night. Little talk. Subway sandwich mid-way. Pull into Denver at 5:30 a.m. for a three-day layover. My dad, who flies 737's for US Airways, lives in Denver, so this will be a chance to see him and continue our ongoing argument about who has the better job - a flying bus driver or a cargo hauler!
Thirty-year-old Reese Wolff could be an airline career poster child. He earned his position as one of the more than 700 pilots at Airborne Express, the nation's third largest all-cargo airline, the old-fashioned way. No military background - totally civilian.
He started instructing in June 1990 and shared an apartment with three flying soul-mates for 18 months. Somehow, without waiting tables or tending bar, he was able to survive on an average monthly income of $900.
As testimony to the importance of networking and maintaining bonds, his very first CFI, Don, had been flying freight for a small operator in western Colorado. When Don decided to move up the ranks in January 1992, he called his former student and paved the way for Reese to take his job flying piston Piper Navajo Chieftains over the Rockies.
Fate, for the most part, directed Reese's career path to freightdom. At a time when he could have bolted for a commuter, his company lost its freight contract just six months after he signed on.
A new company picked up the contract - and a pilot who was intimately familiar with the nightly runs.
Instead of being out of a job - Reese would be flying turboprop Beech 99's in place of the old piston equipment. By this time, he had logged just under 2,500 hours, with 800 hours of multiengine experience.
In 1994, Reese was 26 and with more than 3,500 hours of flight time, including 1,000 hours in kerosene burners. An acquaintance working at Airborne Express walked Reese's resume into human resources. Before long, he's flying an Airborne YS-11 "teeth rattler" turboprop from Wilmington, Ohio, to ports of call like Roanoke, Knoxville, Bristol, Toronto, and Columbia at a starting salary of about $24,000 annually.
Exactly one year later, on February 6, 1995, Reese started flying as a DC-9 first officer. The bigger equipment means a bigger paycheck - about $50,000-plus. He's 27.
Two years later, Reese moves up to the DC-8.
Why the 8? Reese says, "I love the DC-8. It's fun to fly. The Airborne Express airplanes have been updated with EFIS and the engines have hush kits. They have been spiffed up tremendously. Plus, the salary for flying the 8 is much more rewarding. I could also expect to advance to the captain's seat quicker on the DC-8 than the DC-9."
In the preceding paragraphs, you sense the challenges and the lifestyle of plying the skies at Oh dark thirty. You get just a glimpse into the eight-year journey from fresh CFI to a well-paid professional freighter pilot. But, you might ask, "Flying boxes for a living? Where is the joy in that? Isn't it better flying a new Boeing 777 loaded with people and being able to strut among the grateful on-lookers at O'Hare?
"I'm very happy where I am," Reese says. "Freight airlines have changed. In the past, it seemed that the guys and ladies who could not get on with a passenger airline took a freight job as a last resort. Since I got hired, I have discovered that more and more pilots are looking to the freight airlines as a career goal."
He notes that airline travel is cyclical. "We are in good economic times now, and people can afford to travel. But when the economy sours as it does periodically, both discretionary and business travel goes down. But, freight needs to move in good times and bad. Right now, the world is hooked on immediate delivery, and Airborne Express is right up there with the "Big Three" in the overnight package business. We deliver more than a million units daily with an average total weight of three million pounds."
Reese also likes the working conditions. "Frankly, I think the hours are better. In a typical schedule, I work one week and I'm off one week. I can't remember when my dad had a full week off unless he was on vacation time. The pay is as good, too, if not better than even the major airlines. I once calculated that, over my career, it would have cost me about $60,000 to hire on with a passenger company. The pay scale jumps in quantum leaps here after the first couple of years, and the chance to upgrade is quicker."
Airborne is a close-knit company with a little more than 20,000 employees and fewer than 1,000 pilots, Reese says. "There is still a spirit that is hard to describe when you work within a relatively small group. We're not standing still, either. Airborne Express is committed to buying at least 12 Boeing 767s by the year 2000.
As far as flying on the back side of the clock is concerned, Reese says the time off more than compensates for it. "Besides, we always get the best tee times or avoid lift lines at the ski areas!"
The adulation of the public at the terminal? "Naw! Don't miss it," Reese says. "You ask any pilot, whether freighter or peoplemover - flying is a job. The psychological income of an adoring public is not a factor to me. I decided a long time ago that no matter what name is painted on the airplane or what's in the back, I'll fly the same way in the same professional manner. But, the reason we really get into the airline game is the flying. We fly when there is less congestion. We get to know the controllers. We fly at the prettiest times of day when the sun is coming up or going down. I've said it before. It is fun!"
So, if the foregoing leads you to think that flying for Airborne Express or a company like it is for you, here is what you need to get an application through the door. Flight time: 2,500 total; 1,000 multiengine; 500 turboprop or jet. Certificates: airline transport pilot with flight engineer or FE written. A four-year college degree is preferred.
According to AIR Inc., however, a pilot needs more than the hiring minimums to be competitive. In a survey of 76 pilots interviewed by Airborne Express over a year's time, the competitive statistics tallied this way. Average hours: 6,277 civilian; 3,988 military. Average pilot in command hours: 3,877 civilian; 2,498 military. Average jet hours: 1,739 civilian; 2,099 military. Average multiengine hours: 4,215 civilian; 2,912 military. Average turboprop hours: 3,406 civilian; 1,770 military. Certificates: 97% civilian had ATP; 100% military had ATP. Education: 64% civilian had four or more years of college; 100% military had four or more years of college
Pilots should readily appreciate that preparing for a flying position with a company such as Airborne Express is every bit as demanding and painstaking as for United, Delta, American or Northwest. Reese echoed this fact, saying, "We operate the airplane just like the people airlines. Career-wise you don't really prepare yourself differently. You prepare yourself for an airline career - not a freight or passenger career. Those who evaluate you in an interview or in a simulator or in an airplane are looking for the same personal and professional qualities at a freight company like ours as with the biggest passenger lines."
One final bit of wisdom from Reese. "Whatever you do, always keep flying. If an airline is where you want to be, keep flying something. Flight time is so very valuable, and to get into the competitive mode before old age sets in, you have to get airborne as much as possible."
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