I currently fly for a corporate flight department. We have a 182 w/G1000, a G58 barron, and a king air 350. I fly the 182 and the barron. When things turn around and people start hiring again would it be worth it for me to move to a job with the regionals. I know the pay sucks. But I think it would be fun to fly for an airline, at least for a few years so I can build some jet time. Is the QOL that horrible? On a normal week how many nights are you away from home? Just currious.

 

Are you guys hiring?

 

no not right now

 

It can be a fun job, but are you prepared to commute across the country to a crashpad living with 12 other pilots so you can sit on reserve 5-6 days on with 1-2 days off per week? The pay does suck as well, could you be content with the above schedule making around $20k-30k/yr? Ready to be an FO for 5+yrs before upgrading? Will you be ok with commuting/moving to a new base whenever the airline decides to close your current one?

It sounds like you have a decent comfortable job in your hometown. I would stick where you are even when the airlines start hiring. Jet time in an RJ isnt worth much if you plan on getting back into corp aviation in the future. Focus on your networking in the corporate world and find an entry level corp jet job if you really need jet time.

The payoff in the end as a senior mainline CA isnt nearly as sweet as it used to be. Gone are the days of $300k/yr, working 10 days a month, and having the admiration of everyone. If you get hired in the next 'wave' of hiring I would bet on being at a regional for the majority of your career. The pilots who are currently flying left seat at regionals are the ones who will have a small chance at making it to the mainline carriers when things pick back up.

 

I'm happy where I am with RAH. I know the contract we currently have was written by a sob but thankfully, he no longer represents the pilots at RAH. I am hoping and praying that our next contract will be far better than what we have currently. Hopefully, with midwest, frontier, and Lynx pilots coming onboard as 1 family, they can help out with getting a better contract since they are older and wiser.

I think RAH has a lot of potential on becoming a great company to work for.

Kind of like NetJets was before the contract they have now. I met a lot of them in PBI before coming onboard with RAH and majority of the pilots were upset with the work rules and the pay. Then they got a new and improved contract and every NetJets pilot I meet loves their job. I hope the same can go for RAH. Of course Netjets got rid of teamsters to get the better contract.

My top 2 choices of regionals to work for that have the best outlook is RAH and Skywest. I would chose those 2 only. I average 14-15 days off a month.

Good Luck

 

I think I can give you some guidance. I started at ExpressJet and got furloughed last summer. Since then I found a 135 charter company. At first I thought I struck gold as private jets are supposedly a step up from the regionals. However, the honeymoon is over and I have to say I long for my days back at XJT. Here are a few things to consider

-Pay: Most may think that nobody pays less than a regional, but that's not always true. Many of the captains at my company, flying things as big as G4s, are making $50-60k. They did it to get the type rating but now that the economy tanked the company is not giving them raises and they have nowhere else to go. The FOs here make $30-45k which is in line with some higher-end regionals like XJT and Horizon.

-Days off: You probably know that days off in the 91/135 world often just don't happen. I haven't had a "day off" in months. Its gotten quite common for the company to back date my days off to meet duty regs (illegal, but then again they invite the local FSDO to the hangar for parties a lot). In other words, I have no life outside the company. On call can be nice if you have everything you want within an hour from the airport but that's not always the case.

Airlines, even the ugliest, give you at least 11 days off. And by off, I mean, absolutely can not call you for duty. If you're dumb enough to pick up the phone and get junior manned, well you're just a dummy. At XJT I enjoyed 14 days off and hardly ever got days rolled, but even then I just added them to another block for even longer periods off.

-Travel: 91/135 does go to some neat destinations. But most of the time its the same old same old. At least the airlines you can go anywhere in the system on your time off. I took a leave of absence and got to tour Europe for a few weeks amongst other adventures. Not to mention my parents got to go on some once-in-a-lifetime trips and got big discounts through interline agreements.


So in conclusion, there's way more to regional life than meets the eye. And corporate life too. Its really what you're looking for in a job but definitely talk to some friends in those jobs to find out the full story. I know of lots of friends at my company that can't imagine doing anything else and even with my take on the airlines wouldn't trade places. Something for everyone in this world but I, for one, will take the 121 world over 91/135 any day.

 

Look long term- do you like the 91 atmosphere? Do you live in a "hub" city? Find guys who fly for companies you may be interested and pick their brains. There is no "yes/no" to your question. It all boils down to where you are, where you want your career to end up, and what are your priorities in life. Need a fixed schedule- airlines can give you that, but so can some 91/fractionals. Don't want to move? Well some fractionals have home basing, airlines is commuting. Job security- both have risk. Look at majors, look at regionals, look at fractionals, and call up some corporate departments. Is not about where you are- it's where you want to be in your career when it's all said and done. There is no "easy street" in this industry (unless your hooked up to a fortune 50 company from the get-go)

 

All of my flying is 91. We do get to fly to some pretty cool places. I love the flying. Our flight department is micro managed to the nth degree. I have been with this company for 9 months. I am just exploring future options. Eventually i would like to fly for NetJets. I didn't know if i would benifit more from sticking it out where I am and hope to be moved up to our king air, or go to a regional and get the jet experience.

 

Stay where you are, not that the airlines worth going to will be hiring in a long time anyways.... But if netjets is what you want to do, the airlines are complete opposites. They will certainly hire you over an airline guy any day. Personally the pt91 way of flying just doesn't appeal to me even though I'm doing it pt time now. I like the structure of pt121 better. On the other side there's pt91 guys that don't even want anything to do with pt121 of flying a bus from ORD to TUL over and over. It all depends on what you want.

 

Thanks for all the help and the in put. I just want everyone to know that I am not complaining I love my job. Hell I get paid to fly airplanes what could be better. I was just looking ahead to the future and just needed some friendly input from some fellow pilots.