I am 34 and I work for an almost west coast fire department. I work 24 hour shifts 10 or 11 days a month. 7am-7am. I live about 25 min from LAS. I work a day then off a day 5 times, then I get 6 days off in a row. My shift calendar is posted on the next comment. I know my schedule at least a year in advance and I can trade shifts around pretty easily with the exceptions of major holidays. (Christmas, Thanksgiving, NYE, and 4th of July)

I have a defined benefit pension that I can draw on at age 50 with 20 years credit. I have a little over 7 years in so far. I absolutely need to work another 8 for a total of 15 years and I can buy 5 years credit to make it 20. I make 92k base and 120k with overtime (2 extra shifts a month)

For the past two years I have been pursuing my ratings. I have CMEL and CFI/CFII. I am teaching on my days off from the fire dept and I have about 525tt as of 10/2019. I qualify for the R-ATP through Liberty University at 1000 hours. I have two bachelor's degrees and 60k in student loans that I need to pay off by working both jobs for at least a year or two.

I also have enough vacation saved up to make it about 3-4 months to make it through regional training and IOE. I can also work a bunch of trades prior to going to an airline on the front end so I can be off for longer.

I figure I need to be based in LAX, SFO, PHX, possibly SEA or DEN if I go to a regional. I have a wife and two kids. QOL is definitely most important when it comes to scheduling.

I would obviously leave the fire dept for a job at a legacy, but I don't really see myself leaving for a regional or LCC, even if I make it to the left seat.

My original plan was to try and get a spot at allegiant and make it to the LAS base and merge the schedules and work both jobs. I am looking at all my options for the next step- corporate, cargo, 135, etc

Anyone have any advice?

 

[IMG] upload[/IMG]

I work the green days

 

You won't be able to work for any airline if you have hard work days at another job. There is simply absolutely zero negotiation for schedule as it's all seniority driven.

If you have total schedule control at the fire dept, ie can pick your work days AFTER you get your airlines schedule (late in the month prior) then it might barely work. But as a junior regional pilot you might only get 10-11 days off, so you would be gone every day of the month for one job or the other. Also... if you have a rough night at the fire dept and then have a long day at the airline you'd be impaired as a pilot, and in violation of FAA regs.

You can't call in sick or fatigued on a regular basis because you have another job. They will find out.

You could get some kind of part-time or contract 91/135 pilot work to build time but if you wait 8 years for the majors you'll likely miss the hiring wave, at which point the airline industry will probably be back to it's usual labor surplus.

 

Holy crap you could probably rack up some serious CFI time being 25min from LAS and having the unique work schedule as a professional fireman. You’ll be 47 when you hit 20yrs and will potentially have thousands of hours by then. If I was in your shoes I’d ride it out; are you an engineer or Lt yet? Get a cake foxhole spot and get on cruise control. I regret turning down full time Fire work in the early 2000’s and sticking to a gun job.
But if it’s eating you up like Customs/Police/Fire-EMS ate me up, then get ‘Er done NOW. Get to 1k hours and run to a regional or apply now at Ameriflight and rack up the SIC until you can do PIC mins and then the skies the limit. 18 months goes quick. I sat with a young ATP to Ameriflight kid the other day. Very nice guy who talked with me for a couple hours in the FBO. He said the pay wasn’t bad it’s definitely “not the Ameriflight it used to be”. He’s definitely there as a stepping stone and Ameriflight management knows it.
Times like now won’t be around forever.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I do have a lot of control over the schedule and even 10 days is plenty of time to set up some trades to make the schedules work out. Being gone every day isn't really an option, and occasionally we do have some rough nights at the fire dept, but I have some seniority to bid a decent station that sleeps most nights

Lots of talking with some regional pilots and family today. I think I am going to try and do both until I can upgrade at the regional. I will go through about all of my vacation time. Once I move to the left seat I will have to drop the fire department is what its looking like at this point.

I definitely don't want to miss out on the hiring wave for the legacy carriers so waiting to leave the FD isn't really an option has been the general consensus

 

I like your aversion to risk. You’re taking it overboard though by wanting to have two professional jobs.

Your airline will work you 16 days a month. If you’re willing to work 10 days as a firefighter on top of that, just quit the fire dept and try to volunteer for every OT flight available. You’ll make more as a regional FO on OT pay then you will as a firefighter

 

I have promoted to engineer. Our dept doesn't have LTs but I will probably take the next promotional exam for Captain as I am eligible. My seniority here keeps building so I am hoping to get a nice spot that sleeps most nights

I am getting about 40-60 hours a month as a CFI/CFII. I probably could do 100 a month, but I miss seeing my kids at that point. My rule is I only do the CFI work while they are in school for the day. I have my own plane that should be out of the shop soon and I have time builders lined up that want to fly 8-12 hours a day to build time.

I am only 450 hours away from RATP mins so I think I am just going to stick it out with teaching for now.

The firefighter thing is still an awesome career. I just always wanted to be a pilot and the timing after 9/11 and the recession made it a poor career decision at the time for me. Now I think the timing is right, just trying to make the transition without dropping below 120k a year on the salary side