Gents / Ladies,

I'm currently a C-5 Loadmaster and have had the itch for flying since my first flight when I was 7. However my enlistment with the Air Force is almost up and I'm tired of riding in the back and want to pursue a career as a pilot. I have a friend who went to ATP and was hired by Colgan and he's doing alright financially as his first year as a FO but he really loves his job.

I have a few questions that I've not been able to find answers to.

My friends, family, girl friend are already used to me being away from home 14 to 21 days a month. However with the C-5's we always return back to Dover. When looking for a job with a regional airline or corporate how hard is it to get hired to work in a specific state?

Do pilots get transfered to different states to work? Is it possible to retire while working from the same air port or state?

One of the reasons I don't like the Air Force is the fact you can wake up one morning and find out you have to pack your family up and leave.

One more question I've ran across with pilot pay.
I notice most of the reginols guarantee FO's 75 hours of flight time and 75 reserve hours. Do you get paid those reserve hours as well?

Thanks for the help,

Staton

 

While airlines tend to fly to many destinations, their pilots are based at only a few cities (domiciles). Depending on the airline, there could be 1-20 domiciles available. You would have to find an airline that has a domicile in the city you want to live in. You would also need to evaluate the seniority of the domicile (can a new-hire get it, or do you need years of seniority?)

As a new-hire you will normally be sent to the junior-most domicile of that airline (hopefully you reserched that before you took the job). Once you get enough seniority you can usually transfer anywhere you want quickly and easily.

The problem with regional airlines is that they can be fired by their code-share partner or get their flying re-assigned to another distant location with just a few weeks notice. For this reason, I live where I want to live and commute to work (I try to make sure my domicile is as close as possible). This way if the domicile changes, I don't have to uproot my family.

The major airlines are more stable in this regard, but you will have to start at the regional level anyway.

The monthly guarantee varies bewteen 60-80 hours depending on company, training status, and line/reserve status. Basically, first year you will be guaranteed about 75 hours x $20 = $1500/month at most airlines. Second year pay is usually about $35/hr.

As you become more senior, you can work more and possibly get pay credit for well over 100 hrs/month, plus per diem when travelling (less than the government per diem though). A few companies have bonus and/or stock programs as well.

 

thanks for the great answers. If you where to get a position flying out of say some where in VA and you lived in Maryland. Would this be a problem if you wanted to drive it / OR could you catch a hop via say BWI to your airport and fly from there?

what's the easiest way to find what regionals fly out of what domiciles?

I was looking to stay around the MD area if at all possible.

 

Go to http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com , see left corner, look for the regional airline you want, here's a short cut, some of the lower end regionals are here:
http://www.airlinepilotcentral.info/.../regional.html and some of the better one's like expressjet are here:
http://www.airlinepilotcentral.info/.../regional.html

P.S You may not know the three letter codes used for airports, so you will probably need to google those: here's the link: LOL
http://www.google.com
Good Luck, remember, sometimes the best one is not necessarly the one closest to home.