Acerola

If someone was interested in that as a career what would be some good starting points? Zero experience from the ground up.

pragakhan

I was wondering what it was like inside those planes, I see the Dreamhauler appears to have a cabin with about 6 or 8 windows on the side, was trying to see what that was all about but couldn't find anything except it showing it's cargo area.

trooper

There are a few photos (IIRC) on airliners.net/jetphotos.com of the small UD cabin on 747 freighters & crew rest areas on other a/c types.....

LOTS of photos of cavernous cargo areas!

pushback

Do you mean the Dreamlifter? That's a specialty aircraft. I believe there are only four of them. In general, however, many pilots like hauling freight. Freight doesn't ask you to turn up them temperature. You can have a little fun with the aircraft like making steeper than 30 degree banks. And rarely does a large package from Des Moines try to fly into a large building. Stuff like that.

supermasterphil

There is a saying withing the LH Cargo pilots: "Fracht motzt nicht, Fracht kotzt nicht". (which rhymes)

Translated: "Cargo doesn't complain, cargo doesn't throw up"

I know that LH Cargo for example looks for pilots desperately. There were several articles in different magazines talking about it.

tusphotog

I sat next to a UPS 757/767 pilot on a recent flight. He was a riot to talk to. Very funny and had a very, very dry sense of humor. I asked him if he was a fan of Wilson volleyballs and his comment was an emphatic "yes!" He did mention that their catering was "exceptional" and that they don't have to worry about the FAs complaining, the passengers complaining or anyone else complaining--even the mechanics.

Anyway, if you really are going the pilot route, I've heard from a couple airline pilots that cargo is the future, because "boxes always will always have to fly."

Just get used to flying at night and sleeping all day.

Kikuchiyo

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.

SixAlpha

As others have said, get used to flying nights. Once you've got enough experience under your belt, your first flying jobs would probably be with a UPS/FedEx feeder carrier like Wiggins or Mountain Air, or some other night freight operator... there are dozens, many of them are small local operators. A buddy of mine got his start flying DC-3's for a local guy before getting hired on at TransStates.

UPS/FedEx are tough to get on with... you'll probably need airline or military experience first, and even then I'd recommend making a few friends who work for those companies. Internal recommendations are really helpful. Not so sure about DHL because much of their flying is contracted.

Good luck!

UNITED959

I believe there's also a lot of waiting for the runway since passenger jets get priority, correct?

erik123

A friend of mine tells me that flying for the mid-tier firm - it involves many round the world trips, cheap hotels, and lots of alcohol. Some of the regular hotels cargo pilots stay are total frat parties.

Kikuchiyo

I've never had to wait for the runway to give a passenger jet priority. I don't know if certain airports might provide that service during peak times to their primary customers, but it's never been an issue with me, even out of some of the busiest international airports. Fact is we tend to operate during off peak times anyway. The times we get stuck in the peak hours are when we're running behind schedule. Otherwise, we're in the departure line just like everyone else. Only difference is that we've already shed our ties, cause no one's going to see us.

DanTravels

I think I read in another forum on here, as well as on other sites, that NW cargo used to do a lot of work for DHL, but in the last year or so, DHL has been shifting lift... not sure whether they've grown their own fleet and taken some in-house, or just contracted it elsewhere.

wiredboy10003

Patrick Smith at Salon.com talks about this. Look through the archive; I think he references it several times.

http://dir.salon.com/topics/ask_the_pilot/

LarryJ

No. ATC is first come-first served. Only exceptions (non-emergency) are for operational efficiency which would be based on aircraft performance, not what the airplane is carrying.

UNITED959

Interesting. I just always happen to notice how those Atlas Air 747s sit and sit and sit on the tarmac near the end the runway at ORD while the long line of Uniteds and Americans roll down the runway. I figured it had something to do with what's onboard, but maybe not.