chase

Dear Military members,

Baker Aviation is the largest employer of miltiary Skill Bridge pilots among 135 operators.

We have 8 Citation Xs, flying 135 operations in the second fastest business jet out there, the Citation X.

Many pluses for working at Baker Aviation for SB folks:

1. We fly fast (.90 when conditions permit but normally .86ish)
2. We fly with the throttles full up
3. Baker Polo shirts are our uniform
4. Cool callsign, Rodeo
5. We fly alot, planes fly 135-150 hrs a month
6. Homebasing; live where you want (major airline service within an hr) and Baker pays for the airline ticket for you to get to where the airplane is parked; all travel expenses covered, Uber/Lyft, parking
7. 9/5 weekly schedule, flowed out for the year
8. Veteran owned business, Owner/DO/CP are all vets, a mission oriented mindset with over 60% of the pilots with military experience
9. Profitable, no small task in the current conditions
10. SB pilots have gone to LCC, Major airlines with more departures predicted=your experience at Baker translates to be more attractive to the airlines
11. Lots of SB pilots to call on for assistance in making the military to civilian flying transition at Baker
12. Per diem $85 a day, $135 international

SB pilots come in all shapes, branches and sizes

We've hired:

- USA, USN, USMC helo only experienced pilots
- USAF/USN WSOs who have flown privately to get flight time
- USA, USAF, USN, USMC fixed wing pilots

As little as 120 days up to 180 days of internships have worked at Baker, all depending on your local commander's approval.

If you are enlisted and have been flying on your own to get 1000 hrs or more of only civilian time, the possibility exists for a position if the proper flying training (non-military) has been accomplished.

After the internship period is up, pilots are screened and if approved, come on the payroll and stay as long as they are in good standing with the company.

To learn more about SB, go register at this site and search for aviation jobs and you will find Baker Aviation there. https://skillbridge.osd.mil/

If you want to speak to someone at Baker Aviation about SB and hiring opportuniities, write to [email protected]. Samantha is the HR specialist and knows more about the program from the operator side than anyone. Each base/post is a little different since local commanders have the final say.

You can DM me also if you have questions.

Thanks for reading.

Roy White , Director of Operations, Citation X Driver
Baker Aviation
RET USAF, Hog driver

Stan446

Sounds awful, like a fighter squadron. Citation driver?

Sliceback

Citation X is vastly different than the typical Citation. Even starting the cruise speed with .8 is a huge giveaway! Swept wing is another tell.

chase

Truly awful...you saw right through me. Wise man you are!

v22guy

How far out are folks generally applying for the 180 day program? Is there flexibility within the schedule for major life events like attending a wedding as part of the wedding party?

chase

V22guy,

Good question. As you may know some of the services are beginning to alter the 6 month SB timeframe for getting out and are reducing that to 120 days and in some cases only 90 days.

We've been told, unofficially, that persons who get their CJO from Baker and submit it, will be grandfathered into the 6 month window. We interviewed 5 folks in the last 2 weeks who have both the 120 and 180 days. One is starting as early as April and another one is starting in Jan '25. We have SB slots at Flight Safety in the Citation X filled through May I believe.

Baker Aviation has negotiated with Flight Safety that gurantees us X sim slots through Dec '24 each month. The days of negotating and renogiating the training slots are over for us. This gives us great flexibility for filling SB slots through the end of the year if we have enough folks who are forward thinking enough to get the ball rolling on their end and make a decision to transition and most importantly get educated on the SB program with all the hoops that need to be jumped through.

The final piece is the conditional job offer (CJO) from a company that will assure the applicant he has a landing spot and has papers in hand to present to his commander to say, "see, these folks have accepted me and I have a training slot." Its the chicken and the egg problem...commanders want say yes until they see the CJO and most places work on such a close in ops schedule because they don't control their own sim schedule. Not our problem.

When you interview if you have a specific date(s) that you need to get off, we can work with that usually. If it is time during the training at FSI, sorry, can't alter those training dates. Since our schedule is a 9/5 for SB, knowing in advance we can place you on the schedule where any single block of requested dates will fall on your off days creating zero problems for us. Hope that helps.

Baker currently employs 14 current or past SB pilots. Several have elected to remain after their internship and have been deemed by leadership to be exactly who we are looking for. One just upgraded to PIC since he had the requisite total time to qualify under our policy and Wyvern/Argus. Others have gone on to SWA, P91 gig, etc.

We have several V22 pilots flying with and one we interviewed last week.


Samantha at [email protected] has her PhD in SB, send an email with your resume, earliest possible availability date (some folks throw in the leave to overcome the 120 day shortfall) and she can get you some good intel.

If you have other quesitons, feel free to contact me via DM or by cell, 214.924.9033

PitbullSR

Do we have to pay for our own type rating to be eligible?

Stan446

Why would you consider this place when there are so many other and better options?

ThumbsUp

I know nothing of this program, but skillbridge is a pretty good deal in general, because you’re doing it while you are still on active duty.

v22guy

No, Baker will cover the type rating. Email Sam at the email listed above if you have further questions.