Originally Posted by
Beech Dude
Yup. Id work at Home Depot before doing any 135 work. Young or old, its not worth it; plenty of other places to look for flying gigs. Just my .02
And that is total APC bulls###.
If you are looking to fly past 65 or you are getting furloughed from your airline or any other reason that you suddenly find yourself unemployed right now your options are limited. Painting 135 as all bad is spray painting when you need to be using an artist’s brush. Not saying Nicholas is great, or even decent. My only experience with them was that one of their management pilots was in my class at SWC, and he left us within a year so I am not sure of the truth on their operations.
But having a job flying is key to getting your next and better job flying. Unless you are typed and/or have strong connections you will not be flying mid to large cabin part 91 jets. 135 gets you that type and time. You just need to be able to be strong enough to be able to tell them to GFYS if they try to pull shady mx or scheduling practices. But how often does that really occur? I’ve done 135 before and after my 121 career. I never ran across that type of pressure. Most operators just want you to work your tour and go home with little or no drama from either side. The nature of charter ops in itself is prone to changes day to day. Don’t get that confused with being pushed to be illegal. No one on either side really wants to deal with an FAA violation. And as a LCA who talks with their POI I can tell you that the FAA pays attention to 135 operations.