spctrpilot

Do the Fractionals hire pilots from the the majors after they reach 65?

Peloton

Yes. Then you can work till they wheel you out of the Hilton hotel in a body bag....who cares you went out as a Diamond member!!!

Question is why would you? Fracs is a tough job for young guys why would old guys want to do it?

B727DRVR

Hello,


135 and Fractionals do hire former 121 pilots, but they are cautious because a few bad apples have sometimes tainted their view of former 121 Captains... Disclaimer: I have flown 121, 135, and 91K Fractional with many great former 121 pilots and am former 121 myself, but again.. don't be "that guy".


1) "What do you mean that I have to file my own flightplan, do my own performance and weight and balance? Where are the dispatchers?"


2) "Fltplan.com?, never heard of it..." "Don't we have people to do that?"


3) "What do you mean that I have to clean and empty the Lav!?!?"


Fractional flying is infinitely more complex than my 121 flying, but also more challenging and enjoyable. If you can be flexible, and OK with the fact that your destination may change in flight, and you have to use your onboard wifi to check WX, file, do performance, etc., then you will do just fine.


My best advice for a former 121 pilot to fly fractional is to be flexible, enjoy the ride, and don't be "that" guy.

100LL

Or you could leave the fractionals alone and pick up 135 freight. Scattered around are prior 121 guys doing that work too. Easy job, don't have to worry about passengers, cleaning the plane, and the best part you can pick from 2 options. Either spend every single night at home, or spend your entire day at home. Either way you are home each and every day, with weekends and HOLIDAYS off and the pay is not to shabby starting over $50,000 up to almost $95,000 at some places. I suggest leave the fractionals to the guys that actually want to have a chance to upgrade, unlike one well known company that has a ten plus year upgrade due to retired airline guys......

FLYLOW22

And some people make it much harder than needed... or were never really good at it in the first place.

JMO127

You sir... WINNING!!!

x100 Best statement. Perfectly sums up most situations.

captjns

Great opportunity for post 121ers to mentor young low time pilots looking to continue onwards on their career path.

FNGFO

Uh, no.

You’re going to be paired with a fractional captain who probably has 10-20 years of time flying 91k unless you’re hired as a CA at a Mom and Pop operator.

You can and always should learn from everyone, but the former will be teaching you how to not just turn left in the plane and drink coffee at the fbo front desk. The latter might provide a mentor opportunity.

I would say it was 50/50 or worse as far as ability when flying with a retired 121 guys. They usually had cool stories and were often nice enough people, but it’s hard to turn off 20-30 years of the 121 life and dive into cleaning poopy toilets, stocking planes well, picking up the cabin 2-4 times a day, tons of min rest and changing schedules, and to do it all post 65.

Interacting with the passengers is the easy part. By far.

Flyfalcons

No one wants to hear how you did things at your previous employer. Instead, your captain will be mentoring you on all the aspects of flying that you didn't do at the airlines, and people junior to you will wonder why you're in the way of them trying to advance and make a reasonable career for themselves.

Peloton

I just can not figure out why any 121 guy would want to have frax as a retirement job. I mean save your money and retire and fly for fun if you still have the urge.

Nothing like getting a speeding ticket for going 251 below 10K feet cause your Captain is looking at turtles....