Next step?
 

Hi everyone
I'm currently trying to decide the best course of action to take to progress in my career. I'm trying to avoid both taking a pay cut and a loss of life quality.
My qualifications include,
ATP
5000tt
1000me
500 pic multi turbine
Only part 91 work
Work 5-10 minutes from home
And make about $90,000 a year.

Any suggestions?

NASA........

Doubtful :D
He is making nearly GS-14 pay (though I think some NASA guys are -15s) and those gov't workers are at least working the standard 40 hr work weeks.

CD - sounds like you have one of those few good deals in your current job.
What is sparking the interest in moving on?
From these boards at least - it would seem that MOST prospects would be a step in the wrong direction.

Good luck!

My ultimate goal is to fly something big. 747, 777, ect.
And I can't teach forever. I know I may eventually have to go to the regionals but if I do I'm trying to figure out which one would be the best for upgrade, pay, and QOL. Also if anyone has any ideas other than the regionals that would be helpful too.
Thanks

AH!
Metal over money :)
Well - you won't get that at NASA either.

Keep plugging away CD.

There's no aviation job available to you with your qualifications that would lead to a neutral move in either the pay or the QOL front. You're in a statistical outlier job with that kind of pay and schedule. All moves will incur a downgrade.

With 500 TPIC I would just wait for the supposed hiring wave to come to your door and you get picked up by a major. Even that would be a degrade on the QOL unless you luck out and your base is palatable to you as a domicile.

Otherwise, keep doing what you're doing. That's an incredibly rare and decent pay for a 'flying jerb'.

P.S. I've flown heavy iron (B-52s). It's overrated dude. Keep doing what you're doing. I'd fly a Cessna 172 til' my head rattled off my shoulders from the vibration, if it paid 90K and had me home every night.

Next step?
 

What he said^^^

90k, no commuting, and you're flying airplanes? Keep on keeping! And if you do look at the Regionals--of those 3 concerns you mention pick one and forget the other two.

Everybody seems to think you have the best job in the world. How stable is it? If it goes away, can you walk into an equivalent job, especially 5 minutes from the casa?

Also how far does 90K go in your 'hood? It wouldn't go far in some locales, like the bay area or NY. Second year pay at some legacies will top $90K.

How long will it take you to get to 1000 TPIC?

How much glass, jet time do you have? What's the heaviest plane you've flown?

These factors will weigh in your major airline prospects. If hiring takes off you might not need regional time, but I can't comfortably tell you that you can do without jet time. Any chance of doing some bizjet contract flying on the side?

From a pay and QOL perspective, the lesser evil might be a bizjet job (full or part time). Either stick with that route, or use the experience to get to the majors. After some number of years if all goes well you can have good QOL, good pay, and fly big airplanes. It's just a question of are you willing to do what you have to in order to get there...

Thanks for the response. It's nice to know I can always come back to where I'm at if needed. I just need to be able to say one day that I either love flying the big planes, or flying big planes was a good experience but not for me. I just need to find the least painful route getting there. :-)

It would have to be QOL. I could save up before going there and hopefully just pay my dues and move on. And also I'm assuming that if I can build 1500 turbine before going that route then upgrading won't really matter. What do you think

Thanks for the reply,

Its somewhat stable, but I would take a paycut if I lost it. If I did go away, that would be a sure sign that its time to move to 121 or 135.

Im in LA so....90 is more like 9 :-), maybe closer to 45.

I will have 1000TPIC by the beginning of next year, and will continue to build at least 1500 over the next few years.

No glass, no jet, BE90.

Im thinking of doing some 135 but it would have to be part time, which is hard to get in LA. The best plan seems to be to keep applying to Boeing/Airbus operators for the next few years, and if nothing comes out of it then try 135. If that doesn't work, then off to the regionals just to get some 121 and move on.

And to answer THE question :-), Im willing to do anything, but that doesn't mean I believe that doing "anything" will be a hard/miserable/regretful/ect.
In the end, Im looking at all the options to get to the top, and it sure sucks that 99% of them aren't attractive. But I know theres that 1% that will make this progression painless as possible. I just hope that the 1% is not winning the Lottery