Vern

I am a mid-career corporate Fortune 500 pilot looking to change things up a bit. I’ve got a dream job, but my family and I want to move to Columbus OH to be closer to family and job opportunities for my wife. I’m looking for anyone flying for Republic (especially someone based in CMH) that would be willing to take some time to PM me regarding what my life would look like if we made this move.
Is it reasonable to think I could make a decent wage and be home 20+ nights a month? Does the company put you up in nice places while on the road? What is the culture like and how easy is it to move trips (add/drop) and pick up incentived trips for extra money. My knowledge of 121 life is limited. Thanks in advance

Irishblackbird

Columbus is a great city with many businesses headquartered here. Cost of living and property taxes unfortunately are really starting to climb, but the school system in the suburbs tends to be above above average, city of Columbus schools, not so much. I can't speak to what Republic is like, but I'm sure someone will chime in. I fly for another wholly owned in Dayton.

As for making the cross over to 121, I hAve done that as well. I will say there is a big difference in training, and procedures but if you have type rating's and jet time it shouldn't be to difficult. You'll have to get used to being a number, as that is all you are, you are a labor input now, and really not viewed as anything special. You are gonna stay in some dumps with the airlines as everything is based on cost. You don't get to keep points, and the hotels tend to treat airline crews like nothing special. No more rental car's, the hotel shuttle is limited in where they will take you, and often you'll be eating at whatever restaurant is within walking distance. Your perdeim is what you'll use for food, and many crewmembers by crew lunch boxes and bring there food to save cost, and eat little more healthy.

If you are coming from a fortune 500, be ready for a big hit in the wallet. You may after a few years get back close to what you were making. Have you thought about netjets? They are headquartered in Columbus, and you can be home based, pretty much live where ever you want. I will say the one positive about 121, is that you have a schedule, and no one will call you on your days off. I do like 121, but there are many things I miss about flying corporate.

Good luck.

twebb

I have a background in freight and corporate. I was doing that for the past 10 years before I made the switch to 121.

-The training is a little harder than flightsafety/Simuflite. You're no longer the customer; however, you are in demand, so they treat you well and will go the extra mile to help you out.

-121 is very easy in some respects compared to 91/135. You get handed paperwork, sit down, do your flows, and off you go. No stocking, cleaning, extra paperwork, calling the boss about mx issues and prices. Alot of the weather decisions are made for you....delayed, cancelled, do this, do that. You just make sure it's legal and say okay!

-You can pick up other pilots trips on your days off, you just need the legal rest of part 117 rules.
-You can trade away all of your trips of you want, as long as someone picks them up.
-Dropping drips is harder, depends on the staffing levels, right now we are well staffed, so people are getting lucky.
-20 nights at home is definitely possible. On reserve, I average 4 nights away per month.
-With reserve, I can normally pick up a few extra trips per month. I choose to just find day trips so that I'm home. And I only pick up trips from other pilots, not trips the company offers.

Overall I'm very happy coming to the 121 world, I probably should have done it sooner, but there were so many horror stories. But I live in base, and try to maximize QOL. And I took a HUGE paycut, but you gotta cutback to grow sometimes.

Vern

Thank you TWebb and Blackbird for your thoughtful response. My family and I are looking to maximize QOL and time with children so this information is helpful. Schedule vulnerability in corporate aviation has been tough as we currently live in a area with no family support.
14+ days a month away at a fractional isn’t really what we’re looking for, although those seem to be great careers. We certainly have that on the table for discussion. Thanks to all for chiming in.

Mjm8710

I never flew corporate so I’ve never experienced the best of both worlds, but I’ll chime in anyways.

I think it would be a good move. I went from another 121 carrier to Republic because of the base locations and didn’t want to commute anymore, best decision of my life.

As for having 21 plus days off a month, good luck. Most you’ll average is 14-18 but you may have some months where you hit 20-21 (vacation months bidding min 75 hours, with day trips), although I’m hearing some of the guys on reserve are going weeks without a call-just depends on the time of year (they have a 2 hour call out by the way).

As for hotels, I haven’t found any of them to be all that poor. Some places have better food options than others,and we do not get a rental car, but the hotel staff are usually willing to drive you down the roads to get something as long as it’s with 5 miles.

Lastly, pay. This is where you may take the biggest hit. As an FO I average around 40-45k a year once taxes are taken out. Granted I bid 75 hours a month and don’t pick up anything extra. I’m fine off that pay but you may not be especially if you’re looking to have max days off. One thing to keep in mind is upgrade time is dropping. Should be coming down to 2-2.5 years very soon. That comes quickly anyways.

Ps sorry wrote this all on my phone and am in a rush, hope it makes sense. Cheers

Varsity

I think the pay is going to be an absolute shock. It's not talked about enough because regional pilots usually don't know what corporate guys make and assume it's similar.

Going from grossing 12-15k+/month to 3k a month is nothing short of a life changing event, and I hope you treat it that way.

I was never aware of how much soft pay I was making in the corporate world compared to 121, until it stopped.

Vern

Thank you MJM and Varsity. Just to clarify, my original question was in regards to nights at home, not 20+ days off. Sorry for the confusion.
I’m curious if day trips are common or if it’s safe to say I’d be gone half the month in hotels. Thanks again to all for the courteous responses.

TangoIndiaMike1

Ehh maybe. Once your here a year you can easily bid day trips. You may have some weird anomalies during Christmas or some summer flying months.
Unfortunately CMH is an outstation like IND and MCI so you will have 4am shows. Anything longer then about 2 days and the schedule may bring you home at around midnight on the last day.

I’m a DC FO that was based in CMH for about 4 months. I’ll have to double check but I don’t think cmh will have as many out and backs as hubs will(Dca, ewr, phl, lga, mia).



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TheWeatherman

CMH is one of those dumb outstations that Bedford just loves. It is a maintenance base, so don't expect many day trips/turns out of there. The advantage of an outstation like CMH is that the trips are premium, you have some great long overnights, you never have to worry about getting displaced and you know once you upgrade you will be able to get back to CMH in a short period of time. The disadvantage is the lack of day trips/turns, early shows and late starts so a 3 or 4 day trip really is 3 or 4 full days (whereas some other bases have late shows and early finishes, so in a 4 day trip you may only be gone from home 72 actual hours). Plus many more specifically with CMH where you have rampers and TSA who loath your existence and purposely work to make your job harder and you have to live in a town filled with toolbag OSU fans.

Irishblackbird

Just curious, why do TSA and the rampers dispise Republic pilots so much? Did Republic scale back it's MX operations in CMH at one point? If CMH were to loose it's MX operations would it still be a crew base?