I'm a long-haul cargo pilot myself. I fly MD-11 freighters worldwide. Writing this from my hotel in Amsterdam on day 13 of my 19-day long trip.

There are 3 kinds of freighter operations in the US: the big-boys, ACMI, and small-jet night freight.

Everyone knows the big boys, UPS & FedEx. They have lots of jets, the pay is outstanding, and mostly short 3-4 trips with lots of night flying. UPS flies more international than FedEx.

Night freight tends to be check hauling and FedEx feeders to/from little airports.

I fly for an ACMI carrier. We contract out to other airlines to supplement their freight capacity. Currently I'm working a contract for South African airways, but I won't be seeing anyone from SA and certainly not the inside of an SA jet. There's several ACMI carriers, including Atlas, World, Evergreen, Kalitta, and Gemini, to name just a few. We all do pretty much the same things. 18 days on the road per month in one long trip, almost all international. The pay is way below Fed-ups, but most of love the lifestyle, and , yes, the fact that "boxes don't b..."

For Acerola, if you want to know more about getting into this business, check out www.flightinfo.com or www.airlinepilotcentral.com. Good luck.