SonicFlyer

Models covered (CE-525 type rating):

• Cessna Citation Jet CJ, Cessna Citation Jet CJ1, Cessna Ciation Jet CJ1+ (CE-525)
• Cessna Citation CJ2, Cessna Ciation Jet CJ2+ (CE-525A)
• Cessna Citation Jet CJ3 (CE-525B)
• Cessna Citation Jet CJ4 (CE-525C)
• Cessna Citation M2

SonicFlyer

• CE-500 Type Rating

  Aircraft information: The first flight of the Citation series took place in September of 1969. FAA certification was received in September 1971, two years after the first flight of the FanJet 500. The last delivery of the Citation I occurred in 1985. After the Citation I, many other Citation variants were designed and received FAA certification.
  
  The Citation CE-500 series (CE-500 Type Rating) jets marked the beginning of the largest family of corporate jets and pioneered the business jet market. More than 2,000 aircraft that are covered by this type rating are currently delivered. The Citation Encore+ was the last model built covered by the CE-500 type rating. Cessna is no longer producing the Encore+.
  

Models covered:

• Citation I (CE-500), Citation I/SP (CE-501)
• Citation II (CE-550), Citation II/SP (CE-551), Citation S-II (CE-S550), Citation Bravo (CE-550B)
• Citation V (CE-560), Citation Ultra (CE-560U), Citation Encore (CE-560E)

Diesel8

I see openings for BE-400 jobs all the time. Wheels Up cornered the used market on them. You could possibly get a DEC job with them. The are very hungry for pilots. Moser Aviation lists openings on the 400 Nextant.

Also try Indeed.com and just type in "BE-400". I did that and 4 jobs came up, two home based. You could also try some of the other networking sites. If your on social media there are other job listing opportunities.

BStill

Thanks. There have been BE400 postings on Climbto350 about once a week or two, have dropped a few resumes there over the past couple weeks, one of which was home-based. Just noting that they lag by about 10-1 behind postings for the newer Citation and Phenom gigs. Just learned about that Nextant upgrade for the Beechjet, very cool.

Hawkerdriver1

Great advice! 👍


HD

AA717driver

Matters not. What are you looking for? Many 135 companies will type you and, depending on experience, fly you as SIC for a few months then upgrade. Fly Exclusive is good in that regard.

Where do you live? Do you want a home based position? How old are you? How much do you want to work? The world is your oyster these days. PM me and I’ll give you a rundown.

BStill

Where do you live?: Northern Virginia. I-95 corridor mid-way between D.C. and Richmond, so lots of home airports close by: DCA/IAD/BWI/RIC
Home based position?: Sure. I flew with a home-based fractional (Raytheon Travel Air) many moons ago, long enough to get typed in prep for the upgrade but left for NWA before I could bid PIC. Enjoyed the fractional flying more than NWA (on the panel), but the SIC pay back then was tight, and the schedule was rough when I still had kids at home.
How old?: mid-50's
How much do you want to work?: willing to work as much as possible to maximize flight time as well as soft-pay.

I've been out of flying for a long time. Will start submitting apps in a few weeks as soon as I finish a BFR flight review, to have at least some current flight time on the apps. Ideal end goal is to spend at least 5 years with a Major before 65, but will be happy anywhere the pay is "good enough" just to fly for a living again. Debating whether to start with a Regional for the 121 experience, or with a fractional for more enjoyable (to me) flying. With the FO backlog at the Regionals right now, wondering if a fractional may net a sooner class date.

PointyEndFwd

Curious as to what you ended up doing. Any updates?

BStill

Thanks for asking, it's been quite a journey in a short amount of time

Chronologically:
- SWA: very surprisingly, my first interview invite came from SWA. Sure enough, a couple days later a SWA recruiter at a Meet-n-Greet (TPNx) cautioned me that it was a mistake, and got me signed up with one of their D225 pathways instead (military currency pathway). But after a couple weeks of trying to clarify, the D225 folks advised me to go ahead with the traditional interview and see how it goes. So I went ahead with the interview, for the practice if nothing else. It seemed to go well and they didn't show me the door based on my logbooks. But sure enough, after waiting over a week, I got the TBNT e-mail from SWA followed about 30 minutes later with the congratulations e-mail from their D225 shop that I had been selected to interview with them. Still waiting on that follow-up. It would mean that I pay for 15 flight hours of ME training (Seminole) with a SWA partner flight school that would train "the Southwest Way" (CRM, etc., I assume), followed by a week of B737 sim training at another SWA partner company in Dallas (on my dime as well). Upon successful completion, since I already have ATP and meet their minimums, they would place me in a new-hire class.
- Envoy: on-the-spot HR interview at TPNx. However, I think the HR interviewer assumed that my 121FE experience might qualify towards the 121 flight experience, so he went ahead with an interview there. But I've been ghosted since, presumably since that was not the case. That's the only interest I've garnered from the Regionals. But that's okay, since I've realized I have better options:
- Allegiant: that same Meet-n-Greet (TPNx) got me an on-the-spot initial interview screening with Allegiant, followed by the full (on-line) interview a few weeks later. CJO and class date in October. (I'm not available until end of September). I really like a lot of the Allegiant bases and their home-every-night-(if you live in base) model. But their first year pay never caught up to industry standard before they went into contract negotiations, which is likely going to drag out for a while. They've recently announced a deferred "retention bonus" agreement with their IBT ("I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"), but it's very little incentive for a new hire. My wife is very not impressed with it.
- iAero (a.k.a. Swift Air): CJO and class date in October. (coincidentally, as a B737 operator, iAero is one of the SWA D225 partners, and the FO on the hiring panel was a D225 cadet with about a year into iAero and about a year left before going to SWA. Presumably).
- Flexjet: just interviewed yesterday, waiting for the decision. But pretty sure I tanked the simulator ride, so just hoping they liked me enough despite that.

Of all the above, it would come down to SWA/D225 vs. Flexjet. While my head leans slightly toward SWA/D225, my heart is leaning heavy towards Flexjet. I liked that type of flying, and the modern high tech airplanes, and seems like a good company to work for. Much easier near term financial transition, and my long-term isn't long enough to make that big of a difference in career earnings potential. How much of a difference depends on how well SWA/SWAPA does in this next contract cycle. Which is another aspect of SWA that makes me nervous. From everything I've read I really don't think the SWA pilot group has the stomach for a strike, but it is a (very?) remote possibility.

Finally, most surprising of all, I interview with American in a couple weeks. I'll be holding my breath during the logbook review to see how they really feel about my large gap in recent flying experience, and if I can present myself well enough to overcome that.

One thing I've learned about this new world of recruiting/hiring scene: getting face-to-face networking touches at these Expos/Job Fairs is the key to getting looked at.