Corporate Job when Furloughed
 

Had an interesting question:

If a 121 pilot is furloughed, or about to be furloughed, what is most corporate companies attitude towards this? I heard that many will want the individual to sign docs to give up their seniority number because they know once recalled the pilot will bounce. Is this true?

Also, what is the corporate hiring environment like right now? Thanks.

-PPP

Some will, some won’t, just like FDX got burned by guys going back to passenger lines after 2001 furloughs. Hiring is still pretty spotty, dependent on prior corporate experience, tyoe ratings. There are tons of contract corporate pilots, current and qualified, so opportunities might be sparse. Former corporate chief pilot, retired here, but in touch with the industry thru friends, NBAA.

As always, it’s about networking, inside contacts.

This is a very touchy subject over on *************/PPW. Sign up over there and you can see all kinds of great job listings and contract pilot intel.
As corporate pilots are hitting the streets, retired airline captains are trying to swoop into the corporate realm as G550, Global or 7X type captains. It would be like me walking into AA hiring dept and wanting to be a 777 captain right now.

This side of aviation is very different and requires a much different attention to details and work ethic. But I have found this side to be very rewarding.

There are very few openings at the moment and the few that are have been going to typed, current and experienced pilots.
Don’t be surprised to get a very negative reaction from many of the people out there.

As GF said, it’s all about networking. Good luck!!

Its hard to get a call at reputable places since they rely on recs. Maybe even lower end places might think you’re overqualified too. But the first thing they’re going to ask you before anything else is are you sure you want to fly 135? And they’re not just trying to scare you away... other than flying a plane it’s totally different than airline flying. It’s easy for a corporate pilot to jump into the airlines but not so much for airline pilots to jump into 135 and they know that. I think they try to stay away from airline guys for that reason. Personally I still take airline flying just for long term but day to day 135 I think was better. It was so much more relaxed and a bit more exciting because you don’t know where you’re going to end up. And if you fly a long range biz jet you could literally be on some island on the other side of the world.

Corporate/135 pilots have the highest failure rate of any group at Spirit. Fractional guys are in the middle and regional pilots have the highest success rate.

I believe that. It’s not as fast paced and there’s less training in 135. But all things being equal assuming you passed training, the type of flying and operation is easier with the airlines everything is done for you. With 135 you do everything.

But the problem is when you do everything, there is no one there to tell you if you are doing it wrong or right. That is why some have a hard time going from 135 to 121. It is pretty easy to develop bad habits in the 135 world.

I think the main problem is the difference in the 135 SOP vs a 121 SOP. 121 is much thicker. Still most of the jets are just as sophisticated as a Boeing or airbus aircraft but theres very little emphasis in 135 in how you operate a plane other than the generic calls and profiles set by whatever biz jet manufacturers.

Corporate ?
 

Companies in the corporate world are on guard for airline pilots who want to use them as a place to crash for a bit. Often airline pilots don't work out since many haven't lifted a passenger's bag, cleaned a lav, or filed a flight plan in a very long time. If an airline pilot wants to approach a corporate position they should be incredibly humble. Often legacy airline pilots display an arrogant superior demeanor. It does not help.

Yes and no. Our corporate guys that went to CRJ training for the CL65 rating hated it . It was an airline school, so they got dinged repeatedly for not requesting the push clearance, going thru the procedure and the very specific radio and crew callouts. “We DON’T push never did get through to the instructors”. That and dozens of very specific procedures we just didn’t do or weren’t so anal about the exact words. The two areas operate very differently. Airlines are much more rigid and watched, no one ventures far and everything is meticulously run. Corporates, it was common to only find out about to 10-day thru 10 African countries two days in advance. And, just everything is your baby.

That said, I’ve flown with Global pilots from dozens of operators and 5 or 6 countries, never a serious CRM or standardization issue, just did like the school house. Gulfstream guys less so, especially guys that had flown the plane since the G II.

It has probably changed over the years. EAL, even before the Lorenzo days, was pretty relaxed.