Originally Posted by
ATCGUY
Hi all,
27 year ATC'er getting ready to retire. I have 400TT with Instrument rating. I will finish up my Commercial and CFI in the next 6 months.
Is this a valid 2nd career choice as I will have a full pension behind me when I leave ATC?
I am living in PHX so this makes the best sense to start with Ameriflight.
Any other suggestions?
Originally Posted by
Yoda2
Buy a boat, hook up with a hot 26 year old, enjoy retirement... And BTW, "Thanks for the help..."
Yoda's plan isn't too bad, particularly with the pension.
That being said, you still have a few hours to go before you would really fit our profile. You did say you still need to get your commercial and you don't mention if you have your MEL rating yet. You would need both of those to come here. On top of that, you are about 2-300 hours shy to come on as an E120 FO and about 4-500 hour shy of what we look for our other FO positions.
Let me explain. The goal with every pilot we hire is for them to be captain in one of our planes. The only plane we absolutely need an FO to fly every day is our E120s. We like to hire E120 FOs at about 600-800 hours because then they will be in the 120 for about a year before they hit 1200 hours. That is the magic number for Part 135 operations. That is what you need to be an IFR captain on a 135 flight.
For our other aircraft, the main reason we hire FOs is to get pilots in the door and get them up to their 1200 TT as soon as possible with as little expense on our part. We don't want you flying around in the right seat drawing a pay check for a year or more. We would prefer 3-4 months. That is why we look for pilots closer to 1200.
All of that being said, when you get closer to the numbers we are looking for, PHX would probably be a great location for you. We currently have two E120s operating from there and once you get 1200 hours and move to the left seat of a BE99 there are plenty of runs to fly.