Hey everyone I have a year or so left of school and probably acouple of years of instructing but I have been thinking a little about the future and how to get into Business Aviation. I know that building hours and networking are two necessities to getting a job in this filed of aviation but does anyone else have any suggestions. I have looked at some internships and plan on applying when I meet some of the mins but what are some other ways to get "a foot in the door?" Does anyone have any ideas for entry level jobs? Would starting at a regional be a smart way to go? I would prefer to stay away from the airlines but I am open to anything. I searched the forums and couldn't find much so some professional advice would be much appreciated.

 

I would say that an internship with a corporate flight department would be the #1 way to get a foot in the door. They may not hire you right out of school, but they will certainly keep your resume at the top or the stack for when you have their minimums (assuming you did well as an intern). It also looks good to other corporate operators if you have some internship experience with a recognizable flight department in your past.

Otherwise, and to build time, a good progression is flight instructing, then pax charter, then maybe a Fractional operator, then start knocking on flight dept. doors. I say pax charter and Fractional because they put you in the same circles as corporate operators for networking purposes and season you for the job of flying people around. You may also get to add a type rating or two in the process and this never hurts when looking for corporate jobs. The job of flying corporate is quite a bit different than freight and different than even regional airline flying.

In corporate flying, like it or not, the passengers are King and the sooner you realize how to keep them happy, yet still be able to educate them to the fact that you are the boss when it comes to safety and dealing with ATC constraints, the better you will succeed. It's a fine balance sometimes and not everyone is good at it, even if you are a top notch pilot.

It's hard to argue with the fact that the regionals are hiring like crazy right now and it's a good way to get some fast time in the logbook at the moment, so that shouldn't be overlooked. The only problem is, it can be hard to convince a corporate operator that you aren't planning on returning to the airlines at the first opportunity of a primo Major job. This is known as having the "airline stink" on you. You may wind up liking the airline side of things, though.

 

Try getting a job at the local FBO as a lineman, you'll get to meet all the local corporate operators and make a good impression with them and hopefully somebody will let you get a little right seat time with them and then you can just keep going from there. I did it that way and I now have a pretty decent job flying a lear 31, plus you make more money as a lineman than you would as an Fo on an RJ (how sad is that?)

 

Get a job at the FBO meet and talk to all the pilots you can. It worked for me, one guy I know pumped gas and instructed for the local FBO then started flying cancelled checks in cessna 310's got hired on with the corp flight dept on the field,flew thier citations and 1900's , went to netjets flew the X , and now just got a job with a fourtune 100 co. flying Gulfstream 4and 5's .