It’s understandable. I was looking into 135 jobs early in my career, but after doing lots of research on a lot of these outfits and learning of just how shady that side of the industry is compared to 121, I’d advise almost anyone to just go 121. Sure there are some places that are true gems, but they aren’t common in that realm of aviation. I had a few right seat opportunities in corporate jets and turboprops when I was a low time CFI at the start of my career. Many of the things I witnessed going on I felt uncomfortable with, and I thought that was normal in all of aviation. Nope, it’s just ‘normal’ in 135/91 land. When I went to the airlines i then learned how questionable a lot of practices in corporate/charter aviation are.

135/91 operators don’t ever seem like they wanna improve safety culture, refine their policies/SOP’s, improve their training programs, improve their maintenance practices, improve pay and schedules, treat their pilots better like giving actual hard days off and not the ‘traditional’ ‘look back’ crap, etc. etc. etc. Literally anything you can think of with 135/91 aviation, 121 does it better.

If safety were a ladder, 121 operators always try to climb up the ladder, constantly trying to improve as a company and improve on the things I listed above. They learn from their mistakes. Many 135/91 operators on the other hand, seem ok with not only staying at a particular level on the ladder, but going down the ladder. And they’re ok with it.

Even the crappiest regionals are still way better than the average 135/91 job.