Originally Posted by
ViperGuy69
Lots of great advice. Thanks for all the responses. All my buds who have retired say life is better on the outside, but they also say the first year is the worst, but it’s worth it.
One last question: I’ve been offered an opportunity to apply for a job flying King Air’s for a corporate outfit. Great pay and benefits and home a LOT more than airlines. Would flying Part 91/135 for a few years after retirement make me any more/less competitive for an airline job later?
The allure of great pay for a transition job vs taking the harder path and going to a regional is always tough to overcome for folks transitioning.
I generally advise folks to go 121 right off the bat to beef up their resume and to only consider taking a King Air job if they’ve got a resume that makes them otherwise a shoe in for getting a call and are only lacking currency.
Unfortunately in your case it seems that even being flight current and a military fighter guy your resume isn’t getting bites for whatever reason. If there are no undisclosed blemishes it could be that your apps haven’t been in long enough, you’re too far out from your availability date to be of interest yet, or your target airline criteria is very narrow. Either way at this point it looks like you’re going to have to take a job that is viewed as a positive on your application, not just something that is neutral, or not a negative.
Transitioning from the military at your stage of the game you’re going from the top of the food chain to a place where your rank doesn’t matter no one is really going to care any more or less about you or treat you any differently than the mid 20’s 5 year regional FO with 0TPIC sitting next to you in class. Whether you make the transition immediately or wait a few years to do it, the first year is still going to be the worst, but every month you wait to get to a tier one major costs you $25k+ a month in final earnings.