Richard Yeomans

It has been a very interesting week and we have been continuing to work with employers to list every possible job on www.flightcrewfinder.com. The general employment situation looks more positive and there are some real signs of improvement. The short term contract rates of pay for experienced crews are increasing and major airlines like Emirates are starting to recruit again. We are convinced that there will be a strong demand for experienced crew from developing nations and this should free up some positions for the less experienced pilots. How long will it take no one really knows.

We have been working with a German company who has recently been granted it’s accreditation to examine ICAO English for pilots and ATC. They have realised there will be a very significant demand over the next few years and are setting up a testing location. They require over 20 pilots who are capable of passing the ICAO language test to level 5 and above to become part time English examiners. The school will provide all the necessary training and qualifications on a short 2 day course. They want people who can spare 25 days a year and they pay a reasonable daily rate. This job is proving to be very popular and you should apply without delay if you are interested.

Cabin Crew will be pleased to see that an employer is looking for crew for a VIP operation in the Middle East. In the job listing they said that, ‘Experience in private aviation is not as important as the right mentality. Experience in hospitality is an advantage.’

There are a constantly growing list of jobs that appear on the website and we recommend that you check back regularly.

The ‘Send me a Crew Tag’ promotion has come to an end and we would like to thank all the people who changed their Facebook profile picture. We have sent out the tags and people will be receiving their tags in the post shortly.

The Forums are seeing increasing numbers of people using them. We encourage people to ask their questions, post their funny stories and seek people opinions there. It is your virtual crew room and we are very luck to have Flintstone keeping an eye on the place and help guide and stimulate discussions.

So, what will next week bring? That’s the beauty of a website like www.flightcrewfinder.com , we just don’t know. What we do know is that we will try to list every aviation job we can find first at Flight Crew Finder.
 

It has been a great month and we have a lot to celebrate and look forward to. We have some really good jobs coming onto the site and more users getting involved in the community which is great – thank you all for your support.

We were inspired earlier today by one of our facebook fans Gregory Bonsignore

who put our logo as his …profile picture for a while…….we will be sending Gregory a limited edition FCF Crew Tag and we would like to extend the same opportunity to you.

If you would like a limited edition FCF Crew Tag then simply send us your address by filling out this form.

The first 200 entries received who are ALSO fans of our facebook page AND have our logo as their profile picture when we check will receive a crew tag in the post.

Entries are accepted up until midnight GMT on Wed 3rd March. 

We are celebrating today because it’s been a 1 month since our launch. We have been delighted with the response so far, we have been able to list over 40 jobs and help flight crew find work. Employers from around the world have registered with us and they have been searching the Flight Crew database and finding personnel for their operations.

The Forum has proved very popular and has become a very valuable source of information and discussion. Please visit the Forum ask a question or maybe answer a few. The Forum is a great place for people to ask us questions or pass on suggestions.

Our user points system has been actively tracking those of you who have contributed with forum posts, articles, comments etc and this months top contributor is ‘jshepstone’ and he will receive a ‘thank you’ gift in the post in the next few days. We will be giving away Flight Crew Finder gifts every month to our members who make the greatest contribution to our new community; get involved and win a prize!

We need to say a huge ‘thank you’ to Jon Williams and to Flintstone who have been instrumental in keeping the content up to date and relevant when Karen and I have been busy working in different areas. We think that our News section has to be one of the best places to keep up to date for all aviation news, a must for anyone heading for an interview.

We have launched the website in the most challenging job hunting environment for 30 years . We will do everything we possibly can to find every job out there and get it listed for our members. We have only just started……

 I have had a very busy few days on the phone and I am delighted with the response we are getting from aircraft operators and airlines. I think we all know that things have been desperate over the last few months but, the general mood is positive. We are in contact with our growing network of employers and we will bring you the jobs that are out there. It is, as it always has been; there are jobs if you are prepared to travel and have some time on type. We have listings offering great opportunities for B737, Fokker 50, CJ3, CL604, C560XL, A320 pilots and we are still looking for Cabin Crew too!

This week one CEO told me that he is so confident of the levels of bookings he getting already that he is trying to find some freelance pilots. He has listed the jobs and if you or someone you know has a C560XL or CL604 rating, log in and send in an application.

This week is one of the busiest weeks of the year in European General Aviation and some operators have been at full capacity. There has been congestion and delays at many mountainous airports due to the weight of traffic. It is good to hear that people are still happy to spend the money on aviation.

I read today that the Russian Economy is booming again. Moscow has been a very rich source of work for many GA pilots and I hope that the Russian owners will be flying a little more and some of their friends will be buying aircraft.

The airlines are still in a very interesting position. It seems that there will be some bad news before we get much more good. The regional carriers and low cost operators seem to be holding up well and some are planning limited expansion. We are talking to them and trying to get to their jobs on Flight Crew Finder so our subscribers can get head start.

If you have some news to share please submit an article or make a posting on the forums. We are heading towards the end of our first month since going live and if you have any suggestions or comments please let us know by posting on the forum or sending us an email. We love your feedback and it does make a difference.

Have a good week!

 We have been ‘live’ for a week and it has been the best possible start we could have wished for.  We would like to thank everyone who has registered with us and we really hope we can get people the jobs they want.  

We have a growing number of people who have created their profile pages that can be searched by employers.  The ability to search our database is a feature the employers like the most.  Many employers don’t want to post a job for various reason but, want to have a look at who is available to fulfil a crewing requirement.  So the best way to get ahead is to post your details and we will do our best to promote you.

The Forums are starting to build momentum and despite the odd tantrum, they seem to be constructive and helpful.  We are delighted that Flintstone is there moderate and enforce good order!

In the next week we are going to step up our advertising and media activity.  Our major focus is engaging with the employers and aeroplane owners, the more jobs we can list the better for everyone.  We are working with various companies encouraging them to list the jobs as well as just searching our database of flight crew.  

 We really believe that the economy is starting to emerge from the most brutal recession in 80 years.  There are jobs out there if you look hard enough and if you are willing to travel.  If you have time on a Boeing or Airbus and you are current you should be able to get some work.  We want to list the jobs that our subscribes want, the jobs for broad cross section of flight crew and we are going to do everything we can to get them for you.

We completed the final checks today and tweaked a few last little items and now we have opened the doors to our site.  We are looking forward to people coming to our site and building the community, it has been built to help the flying workforce find the jobs they want.  

Please have a look around and see all the cool things you can do.  There are aircraft databases to look at and contribute to, forums, news and articles to read.  

If you subscribe, you can upload your CV and create a profile that is searchable by employers. You can remove personal information to protect your identity, the employers will get in touch with you directly via our email system and your email address will not be seen by the employer.

The employers can make a profile page and list as many jobs as they like.  These jobs will be available and searchable by the flight crew and they can apply direct to the employer.  It is quick, simple and provides an employer standard information that makes initial screening easy.

The work for us at Flight Crew Finder has really started, we will continue to get out and build those contacts with the aircraft operators.  We will be attending as many trade shows and career shows as possible to spread the work and network for our members.

Good luck with the job hunting.

Yesterday I managed to recharge my batteries for an hour by going surfing at lunchtime.  Yes, surfing in the UK in January and it was freezing but, it gave me a chance to order my thoughts and recharge my batteries.  Surfing is good for the soul I reckon.  

Today was a rainy day and I was happy to sit in the office for the most part of the morning.  I travelled up to Farnborough for lunch with Capt Flintsone, our Forum Master.  We had a chat about the forum and how we are going to drive it forward.  I think the forum is really important and it will be the centre for the FCF community.  It is our village pub, our town hall and our therapy centre.  

I took the opportunity to continue to build my network of contacts that I am going to use to get the jobs we all want to see on flightcrewfinder.com first.  Networking is difficult but it can be fun.  I sat in the canteen and saw a few friendly faces and I picked up some really useful information.  I am going to spend more and more time seeing the right people over the next months, that will be more time in the car.  I am building up my network to share with the Flight Crew Finder members….the things I do!

We have some exciting news regarding an affiliation….more new to come over the next few days once our relationship confirmed……

Today has been another day stuck in the office glued to the phone.  I am trying to increase the awareness of the employers and make sure they know we exist.  When they recruit I am confident they will contact us and we can get our members to the jobs first.

I spoke to the airlines and the biggest struggle was to get past the fierce receptionist and get some time chatting to the HR manager.  I am getting a real insight to what the future might hold for the operators and I am continuing to develop the links I have with the recruiters.   I like to think I can be a single point of contact with the HR departments and they will be able to give me a little time and then we will be able to get the jobs onwww.flightcrewfinder.com for our members.

Has the summer recruiting started yet?  I had a long chat with a small airline who usually hires seasonal pilots and they are just going to wait an see what the booking levels are like before they hire any flight crew.  All we can hope for is the thaw in the economic climate and then for everyone wanting to travel.

Whatever happens, we will be looking for the jobs in places others don’t know exist.  We will go the extra mile to make all our members aware of every suitable job out there.

Monday was the first day of proper marketing of the site.  I called every GA aircraft operator who I could think of.  The response was overwhelmingly positive and 99% of the people I spoke to loved the idea.  There were a couple of cynics and I ended up gossiping with Phil Brockwell from Centreline for ages about the state of the industry.  

Best email of the day,  "Dear Richard,  Thank you for your call this morning – well done for taking a positive approach to the challenges aviation is facing at the moment."

So, what have I learnt today?  I now have a very good feeling to what aircraft operators are thinking and what there plans are.  Most operators are being pretty defensive and not planning any wild expansion. There are some operators who are thinking about when to make their move and you can be rest assured that we at Flight Crew Finder will be there waiting to help them find the best possible crews.

The future is so much brighter than just 4 months ago, there is a feeling that we are at the beginning of the end of the recession.  Will it be boom times like 2007 again?  Not for many years to come if ever.

Tomorrow I start to speak to the airlines.  I am thinking they may be a little harder nut to crack than ringing up some old mates.  I will have to deploy all my skills to charm just to get put through to the head of aircrew recruiting.  Wish me luck.