Yes, it is an invitation to anyone that would like to chat more. You may be closer to a corporate job than you think. I was hired with only about 900 hours.

 

:Cry:

 

I'm going to be one of those in the 1500hr category (waiting for a son to grad from h.s. and some other "stuff"). Ah well... a year of two more of instructing won't hurt... love it anyway.

 

I could kick myself for not finishing my ATP before (temporarily) hanging up the spurs.

I will definitely look into the University's or Flight Schools that will be able to get me to 1500hrs or 8hrs a day. So would all you recommend that I pursue an ATP after receiving my CFII? Or would you tell me to wait until I get on with a company? Chris thank you for the invitation to PM you if I have anymore questions as I am sure it will be of value in the future.

I will definitely look into the University's or Flight Schools that will be able to get me to 1500hrs or 8hrs a day. So would all you recommend that I pursue an ATP after receiving my CFII? Or would you tell me to wait until I get on with a company? Chris thank you for the invitation to PM you if I have anymore questions as I am sure it will be of value in the future.

 

I waited and made sure I had the ATP written done so they could type me once I was hired. It is not as expensive to get your ATP as it is all the previous ratings but you might as well save a few thousand dollars and have the company do it for you.

Yep. I waited as well. I got hired into left seat of a BE-350. I did my ATP, and my Single Pilot type ride at Flight Safety all in one checkride. Gotta love a 4 hour oral followed by a 3 hour checkride. :lol: Just keep plugging along mrchris and take good counsel from Cessnaflyer. Went on our milk run to Chicago Ohare tonight. Nothing like coming in from the West, seeing the reflection of the full moon on Lake Michigan as you fly right over the Sears Tower! Left base over the shore, followed by getting sandwhiched by a Korean Air 777 and a Delta 757 on the way in to 28. :rolleyes: The reward for years of hard work and patience is well worth it. Chicago lights at night are sureal.

Ahh man that sounds like a dream I had!! Haha one day fellas one day... Right now I will keep chuggin along in the good old DA-40 and 172 and enjoy waiting for all the 737's to take off before I get a Clarence because of the midday delta rush and enjoy life...

With that though there are payoffs you'll never believe either. By the way dont be in such an Airline Hurry either. Whoddathunk flying a PC12 would be a good gig? Well in that PC12 I was able to spend a week at a time in Telluride CO where the owner has a house right down the road from Ralph Loren and Tom Cruise. I would then find myself with nothing to do for 4 days in Manhattan eating at some of the finest resturants and riding the subways all over, later I was on the beach in St. Johns VI after dropping off the owner at Beef Island BVI. I mean where do you get the chance to fly a PC-12 by yourself down around the Virgin Islands and have the owner of the plane GLAD you took his ship on a sight seeing tour of the Islands? He loved it! LOL. Later still we went down to the Caymans, and no Im not talking Grand Cayman. Im talking Brac. Look it up on Google. I spent a week there on the beach in my own little private cottage. ALL of this paid for by my client. He even sprung for my wife to come down to St. Johns to be with me for the week. Oh and all of the above with a $1000.00 bonus envelope of cash for taking such great care of his airplane and keeping it well stocked. I have a bunch more of those where they come from. So make your choices wisely and if you do decide to go Corporate I have JUST the thing for that too. Later though when you get there.

Mark,

 

Just read your last post while finishing dinner... got me slobbering all over myself.

 

Wrt the corporate flying... I'm sure I read somewhere that if you want to go corporate, stay away from the regionals (121 stuff). Is this accurate with respect to your experience?

 

Thanks.

 

Rob

Hi Rob,

 

Not entirely. In other words it surely is not some sort of black mark on you if you go to the regionals. In my corporate/charter experience though many chief pilots can ferret out if you are coming to build time or coming to work for longevity with no designs on airline work. It would be all about the interview at that point. The only other issue too is that there is growing fear within corporate flight departments of airline guys coming over for a place to hang out until they get recalled from furlough, thereby taking valuable training resources with them just because XYZ Airways calls them back. With the looming pilot shortage I dont think that is going to bee too much of an issue when all the pilots on the street are back flying again.

 

Once that happends I think there will be hiring in all areas. Over at www.climbto350.com we've seen an increase in corporate positions coming up all the time.

There seems to be a lot of FO Jet Jobs coming too. AND for all low time guys there area a BUNCH of entry level charter sp frieght jobs etc coming available. GREAT ways to get very valuable experience.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Mark

I would absolutely love to fly corporate, what a story Mark. So also in regards to corporate flying if say I wanted to do something along those lines. In your experience are there less corporate jobs then there are airline jobs? Because with stories like that you would think that all pilots would want to fly corporate, thus leaving a small demand for corporate pilots.

 

Thanks,

Chris

Hope that helps!

 

It does Mark. Quite a bit.

 

I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to post your experience here (Chris too btw).

 

Thank you,

Rob

Ahh man that sounds like a dream I had!! Haha one day fellas one day... Right now I will keep chuggin along in the good old DA-40 and 172 and enjoy waiting for all the 737's to take off before I get a Clarence because of the midday delta rush and enjoy life...

 

SLC it looks like??

This an old thread, but if anyone is reading you might find my thoughts useful at

 

http://tailspinstales.blogspot.com/2007/03/random-thoughts-on-flight-training.html

Thanks for taking the time to read this and help a fellow pilot

Chris

 

Chris-

 

You remind me of myself about 15 years ago.  I'll keep this brief.

 

I fell for the "regional airline" strategy that JetBlst is trying to sell you.  I fell for the "quick upgrade" and "move on to the Majors" sales pitch by these recruiters and it took 7 years to escape from it.  Notice his signature doesn't say "Mainline"?

 

The easiest thing you can do in the this career is get hired at a regional.  The hardest thing you can do is get hired out of a regional.  Ask yourself Chris, why would a regional airline have a 2 year captain upgrade?  Are their captains so amazing they're all getting hired out into the majors?  Is the company so amazing and great that they're expanding at a stellar rate?

 

No.

 

It's because it's either a lousy place to work or their growth is over and it will be a 5 year upgrade for you.  How can an airline be lousy?  Work rules Chris, work rules.  These haven't entered our consciousness yet, but they will and they'll be more important than you can imagine.  Secondly, just because a guy got awarded captain 2 years after getting hired doesn't it'll be that way for you.  The more established regionals have 5-8 year upgrades on their books right now.

 

Lastly, unless you qualify as a "preferred applicant" (nice way of saying minority these days), you are going to join a line of about 10,000 other extremely qualified applicants fighting for a few hundred spots every year outside of these regionals.

 

Pay, schedule, 401K, and insurance.  That is what matters when life starts happening Chris, and when you need to buy a house, the bank wont care how many hours you have in a CRJ 200.

While I'm certain that the advice given is well meant, note that the original poster hasn't been back since his last post four years ago. Who knows what decisions he's made in the interim, or in fact whether he has even continued in this same career path?

 

Accordingly, I'm going to lock this thread.