Originally Posted by
Potatoman
Slight change of pace, but I just crossed the magical 1500 hour mark. I'm trying to decide if I want to sell my soul and go to the regionals, or go to a fractional.
I've worked at the same FBO since the beginning of my aviation career. Went from doing line service all the way up to currently flying and managing a couple Cirrus, as well as flying Phenom 100/300's based on the field. There really is no more room for advancement here, unless I want to get my CFI, but I consider that a step back since it would take my time away from the Phenoms. I've fueled 1000's of NetJets aircraft, and their crews always seem to be fairly happy. I also enjoy the customer interaction I get on the smaller aircraft.
1500 TT, 250 MEL, 160 instrument, close to 1k XC, and 200 turbine in the logbook just for reference.
I'm also leaning towards anything that can keep me home based, or keeps moving easy. I have a wedding coming up next year, and after that we are planning on packing up out of the Iowa cold and heading to North Carolina.
Obviously the pay is extremely appealing once you get into the majors, but there lies my issue. ONCE you get to the majors.
I'm planning on spending my next few days firing off applications, so I'm curious as to what y'all would do in my situation.
Thanks in advance!
Variations of this question are asked frequently. The consensus is:
If you’re young, like under 40, the airline career is very likely your best choice in whatever category that matters to you (QOL, pay, schedule flexibility, benefits, etc)
If you can live in base at your regional, you aren’t selling your soul at all. Entry level wages have about tripled in the last 10 years. This isn’t 2012 anymore where you were going from 20K as a CFI down to 18K when you finally got that first airline job.
You said you want to move to NC. There’s this little airport down there called Charlotte. Try to live near it and apply to a regional that’s based there and you’ll be in good shape.
If it ends up sucking, quit with some valuable experience and go fly for Netjets.