Varrin's Aviation Story - World Airways
While I was working at Comair, many of my friends (coworkers) went on to
other airlines. We had a significant number who went to Delta and
American, several went to Northwest and USAirways, and a few went to Continental
and United. Then there were the ones that went to 'other' places.
One guy went to work for a little airline called World Airways that flew
big airplanes. One of the things I loved about Comair was the RJ.
If I went someplace else, I knew I wouldn't really enjoy it as much if I
had to fly an older 'analog' airplane. Well, of the 'other' airlines
(World, Atlas, Polar, Airborne, UPS, FedEx, Jet Blue, AirTran and lots of
others), there was a mix of equipment, but certainly plenty of the older
stuff hanging around. World, though, had a fleet of MD-11's, which
is a newer, all glass airplane. Some time after this friend went to work for World, I got an email or two telling about his trips. Though, at the time, I wasn't looking for a job, I was intrigued by the fact that he was doing the kind of flying he was and that he was in the MD-11. When I began to think about other places to work, World quickly floated to the top of my list. For me, going to a major was unlikely, and a crap shoot at best. It turns out now, looking back, it's a darn good thing I didn't go to a major, but that's another story. In the mean time, another friend of mine followed the lead and went to work for World. I talked to him after the interview, but before he left and learned a lot about the interview process.
The MD-11 is a big airplane (fairly comparable
in size to the 777-200). Compared to the Canadair Regional Jet, it
carries 8 times as many people, weighs 12 times as much, carries 20 times
as much fuel, can fly 5 times as many hours on a tank of gas, and has (depending
on the staffing levels) 8-12 times as many flight attendants. The
cockpits, however, have some things in common. They are both 6-tube
side-by-side EFIS/EICAS, have FMS's, are two-pilot airplanes, and are very
automated. The MD-11, however, has an awful lot of DC-10 stuff underneath
the pretty skin and, as a result, is way more complex than the Canadair
Regional Jet. The training was much more difficult than RJ school,
partly because of the complexity of the airplane and partly because of World's
procedures. Also, it was initial training for a type rating.
My RJ First Officer training was basically identical to a Captain course,
but there was no type rating issued. For some reason, making it a
type rating right off the bat adds a little pressure.
Flying the MD-11 isn't really as fun as flying the RJ. From what I understand, it's better to hand fly than some other big airplanes, but it is big none-the-less. It does climb much better, especially up high, and can certainly do things the RJ couldn't do (get out 12 hours later 1/2 way around the world). It's also, believe it or not, a little more automated. Though getting things set up takes longer (partly because of the mountain of paperwork involved), the systems pretty much run themselves and the airplane can even land itself (it has autothrottles, of course). However, if the automation tanks, there's a lot more to manage than with the RJ. I suppose if the engineers could have started from scratch with a clean sheet of paper, they probably could have made it much better, but they couldn't.
The lifestyle at World is definitely different from a regional or a major airline. At Comair, 5 day trips were the longest we ever did. At World, 5 day trips are about the shortest we ever do (I did a 3 day once, but that's very unusual). Typically, instead of doing several short trips each month, we do one or two longer trips. I've been out 3 weeks at a time before which gets to be a long time away from home. However, I wound up going the entire way around the world on that trip, so I saw a lot. Some months I work a lot (August of 2002 I worked 25 days) and some months I'm home the entire month. Usually, I work a couple of weeks out of the month and am home the rest of the time. The starting pay is much better than at Comair, too. First year works out to be around $40,000 and second year is somewhere in the high 60's as an MD-11 First Officer.
At Comair, almost all of the flying was scheduled passenger service (there was a little passenger charter work). It was all domestic plus Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. At World, we have ad-hoc and "scheduled" passenger and freight business that spans the entire globe. Sometimes we work for the military, sometimes for freight companies, sometimes for tour operators, sometimes for other airlines, and sometimes for private charters. It's an interesting mix of business. At the moment we have 7 DC-10's (3 pax and 4 freighters), and 9 MD-11's (6 pax and 3 freighters). In any given month we normally serve at least 4 continents, sometimes 5 or even all 6 (yes, I realize antarctica is a continent, I'm just not counting it for, I hope, obvious reasons). Over the course of my first two years at World, I went to something like 25 different countries (that's more than 1 new one per month).
World is a much smaller company than Comair was. It takes a while to get to know people due to the fact there's no hub where all the crews are all the time, but the community is still small. So far, I've really enjoyed the people I've worked with here. The pay is reasonable, the schedule is okay if you don't mind being gone from home for longer periods of time, and the places we go are sometimes way out of the way. All in all, I'm really enjoying working here and hope the company prospers. Though some people complain (there are those that would complain no matter what the circumstances are), the treatment here is way better than it was at Comair.
Intro - Document history, purpose, and introduction
History - How I got started - the story before
the story
Comair Aviation Academy - Details about my
time as a student and instructor at Comair Aviation Academy
Comair Airlines - Information about flying
for Comair Airlines
World Airways - Information about flying for
World Airways
Conclusion - A wrap up of the whole story
Copyright © 1997 - 2003, Varrin Swearingen