If you’re trying to avoid the CFI route at all costs, you must’ve heard of Southern Airways Express. The company is trending once again, so in today’s edition, we packed all the information you need before applying.

They’re somewhat always hiring, you can check out their current openings here. Scroll down for details from the community.

POSTED REQUIREMENTS, what we know

• Current FAA pilot license: Commercial with Instrument, Single and Multi-engine land

• 250 hours minimum; 100 Cross Country, 25 of which are night; 50 hours turbine OR 75 hours instrument; currently hiring at 500 hours minimum, might hire at lower time in January

• Current FAA Second Class Medical Certificate (certificate must be current prior to training) 

• Radio Operators Certificate (tutorial on how to get one)

• Valid US Passport (needed for CASS) 

• Must be at least 18 years of age to apply

• Must be available and flexible to work variable shifts including weekends and holidays

• Must be authorized to work in the U.S per the Immigration Act of 1986

• Must pass 10-year background check and pre-employment drug screen per airline and/or company regulations

FACEBOOK’S COMMENTS SECTION OPINION

positive feedback…

• I worked for Southern Airways and it was a great experience and time there. I recommend it, yes you don’t get paid as much and not the best treatment but you need the experience and flight time and you will get it there! I would always recommend people to go there considering they hire at such low flight time.

• I spent two years at Southern, they weren’t happy all along, especially when I went to the NE in the winter. I hated it. But it’s undeniable what SAE has done for my career. Because I left with 1500 hours of turbine, I spent 90 hours at a regional before getting hired by Southwest and I love life here. My discovery flight was in February 2020. Now I fly for an amazing major airline, and that just wouldn’t be possible without SAE and how fast I built my time.

• I worked for Southern for 2 years. Started as an FO, and yes the pay was tough till I upgraded but didn’t want to instruct. Looking back I can’t say enough about the experience being a new professional low time pilot moving passengers. We had a flow agreement with the regionals and spent 2 years flying a CRJ. Now I fly a heavy jet in cargo, could have gone to a legacy carrier but was looking for a different QOL.

• Former Southern guy here, now at Breeze Airways. There is definitely pros and cons. You meet great people, improve your decision making skills, handflying skills, deal with weather, improve your communication skills in the busiest airports of the US.

negative feedback…

• I worked there and left for a job flying cargo in a 767. We've had guys leave for Netjets, Flexjet, Atlas, ATI, part 91 jet jobs, and a host a regional jobs. With that being said, please don't take a job with them. You'll seriously regret it, and probably end up getting sued.

• Pay is about 1/2 of federal minimum wage as SIC and PICs are still on food stamps, management is watching your every move for any tiny slip up that they can fire you for and sue you for breach of contract, they weaponize prd and constantly threaten to (illegally) falsify your records, you're constantly pressured to fly in icing conditions in non-certified aircraft, the contract forces you to stay with them until 1800TT and then go to skywest, and if skywest doesn't offer you a job you get sued for $30,000, the wording of the PDP is pretty hit or miss so some airlines don't recognize your SIC time...

• Don't go there. Just don't.

Seems like an even mix of good and bad, right?

But hold on because there’s a lot more, with the most honest and detailed rundown on the company coming up next.

It’s a long read, feel free to skip to the end for the “too-long-didn’t-read” and the sources. 

FROM A CURRENT SAE PILOT, summed up

OVERVIEW: SAE is a Part 135 operation funded by Essential Air Service (EAS) routes ran by the government. We do short hops from small towns connecting them to large airports. It's a popular job for low-time pilots, I know many who got hired at 250. The strategy here is to get in, get your time and get out without anyone knowing you were even there — I cannot emphasize this enough. If the people upstairs know your name as a pilot on the line, that's a bad thing, and I'm told this is generally true of any airline.

LOGGING TIME: There's this thing called the Pilot Development Program, where you have to get each flight signed by a qualified PIC for it to count towards your time. Our Ops Spec was changed some time ago, FOs are now required crew. Traditionally companies using PDP have to have the SIC logbook signed by a qualified PIC for each flight. The thing is that while the Caravan is technically a single-pilot aircraft, our company is required to have a PIC and SIC. Therefore the specifics of getting your PIC to sign your logbook every time don't apply at SAE. Since we have to have both, the PDP doesn't apply.

the good…

I'd like to start with the positives, since at the end of the day I do believe this is a company worth working for.

SAE offers some serious value in time with logging turbine hours and 135 airline experience, flying in different airports/weather conditions in a low-risk aircraft that will look good on a resume. Turbine time is no joke, especially in the event that jet companies get choosy between you and the guy with 2000 hours of piston time. And the Caravan babies you, really. It can be a great entry into the industry because the mistakes you will make (hopefully) won't be mistakes that could cost you your license, or lives.

You will be asked to sign a contract where future employment opportunities are offered by SkyWest with a $17.5k bonus split in three stages: released to the line at SAE, captain at SAE, and completion of SkyWest ground school. You will have to commit to flying with SAE as an FO, upgrade to captain, and fly 600 hours as PIC before you leave the company for SkyWest. Your choices are to either do this, or not go to SkyWest and agree to do 1200 hours PIC with SAE.

There's a lot of good times to be had here in general, with good people and some awesome views from the Caravan. It's hard work, but it's engaging and challenging in its own way.

the bad…

There's plenty of it.

(TLDR) If you're told something is guaranteed, they're lying to you. There's an overall negative and quite unhelpful culture at SAE. The list could go on really but those are the main things.

When you interview, you're going to be told you can easily expect 90 hours a month — this is a lie. Some of us went as far to get a letter from our boss confirming that, showed that to our landlords/creditor and got the apartment/car — only to have the hours slashed in half or even to a quarter out of nowhere. Really no one can tell you how many hours you will get per month. You might get 70 one month, 100 another month. I knew FOs scheduled for 80 hours but had so many flights cancelled that they ended up only logging 25 hours.

FO pay is absolutely abysmal, but if you're financially responsible you will stay afloat, probably. Captain pay is massively better. 

The pay structure goes like this: under 600 hours, $12/hour in training, $15 when released to the line. At 600 hours, $18/hour. At 900 hours, $21/hour. captain is $43/hour, direct entry is something like $55/hour, with bonuses if you sign a longer contract. If a captain hits 85 hours in a month, all hours after that are paid at time and a half. If a captain flies 115 hours in a month, they'll get a bonus check of $2000. When I was an FO some months I got 100 hours, other months I hovered around 60-70 hours for a while. As a captain I'm almost guaranteed to get 105+ hours, even if I'm scheduled for less there is so much bonus flying available and they'll pay so much extra that it doesn't matter. All pilots are guaranteed 65 hours a month in pay.

At indoc, you will be told to sign a promissory note (fancy word for a contract) that says if you leave early/get fired, you will be sued. You will be told to sign on the spot or walk out the door. SAE has been suing former pilots, and I for one can understand why many of them left, more on that in a bit. I understood what I signed, many of my colleagues did not.

You may also be told that the majority of the fleet is comprised of G1000 EX Caravans. This is also a lie. Most of our aircraft are from the 90's-early 2000's, most of the FO instruments do not work.

You also may be told that you will have your first choice of base. I've asked many folks in the class before me and classes after, they all said this is still being said. It's not true. They don't care about your choice of where you want to go.

the ugly…

SAE is currently under some form of investigation by the FAA. For what specifically, I don't know. But it most definitely has to do with unsafe practices. I can confirm that mechanics at Southern are passively (or actively) encouraged to cut corners. This was a truly scary thing to discover, because flying an airplane that is not airworthy, to be discovered by the Fed, is a bad place to be in as a pilot. Or worse - perishing because of it.

The company went public on the NYSE a few months ago, and the stock price tanked immediately. It's been hovering a little above a dollar per share. I'm not a stonks guy, but this is a decent indication of where the company is at financially.

The company may send you to Flight Safety for your training after indoc. This is a far superior kind of training than what SAE offers. The training that SAE provides is kind of a joke. Ground school is in-depth. Sim training and flight training is rushed. You're so close to being on the line that they definitely cut corners to get you released to the line, and it shows in the quality of flying I've personally seen from many of our pilots. I sometimes wonder how some of these people got their license to begin with.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the captains of SAE. The direct-entry captains are awful, every single one of them. As an FO I probably flew with 9 or 10 direct entry captains, and they were some of the worst pilots I've ever flown with by far. There are some captains at this company that really empathize with your struggles as an FO, and will guide you on the best practices of the aircraft and how to handle working for a company like this. Yet, there's not a single direct-entry captain I would trust in any emergency situation.

For many, working for Southern revolves around a culture of harassment and intimidation. It is what I hate most about this company, aside from the abysmal FO pay. It's the underhanded tactics, the threats, the abuse, the phone calls from personal lines so that the conversation won't be recorded on the company line. Most of the top people in power absolutely abuse their power and influence to threaten, or actually attempt to ruin your career if they don't get what they want. Many times, what they want makes no sense at all, or is flat out illegal.

THE BOTTOM LINE: flying for SAE will be entirely what you make of it.

Are you going to be just a spiteful individual, embarrassed to fly the Caravan, frustrated with the company all day long, hating passengers, hating handflying, hating the pay, just hating everything? Or are you going to go a different route? As you can tell I've got a lot of feelings about the company, many of us do, but I honestly wouldn't go back. But if I had to, I would try to enter at 600 hours for the $18/hour. It made a big difference. I was in absolute poverty when I got offered this job, it was a feeling of relief that I kept reminding myself of to keep pushing forward - even if the company still kept me in poverty as an FO, I had a job, I had a foot in the door. Now the door has fully opened, I'm out of the company pretty soon. I've wanted to say something about my experience for a while, but I wanted to make sure I experienced everything; the good, the bad, and the ugly before I really formed an opinion I felt was worth sharing.

MY THOUGHTS, after reading everything

I don’t know.

It sounds bad, but it also sounds like it could be somewhat of a decent experience, maybe even good.

The captain life seems loads better so as advised, maybe get on when close to upgrade time? hmm…

It doesn’t look like a summary given how long it was, and the even longer and very interesting post is available on Reddit. I suggest you read it, first link below. And if you’re set on applying, interview “gouge” and copy of the contract linked below as well.

SOURCES…

🤔 — Want to work for Southern Airways Express? Read this (link)

📑 — A copy of the agreement to be signed upon hire (link)

🗞️ — More on the ongoing lawsuits for contract breach (link)

🔎 — Facebook posts with users who have offered to answer questions in the comments (link)

🎤 — Recent discussion about Southern Airways Express (link)

📋 — Interview gouge, available in the comments (link)

Thank you for reading this far. Because you initially signed up for a new jobs list, I want to make sure this type of content is also valuable to you.

So if it’s not, reply to this email, and I’ll only send you the ad-hoc updates on the list.

If you enjoyed today’s issue though, let me know! You can forward it to your pilot friends too.

Until next time…

Ivan