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Originally Posted by viking767
Just wondering if this is a common occurrence and if someone who has made the move care to comment.
I do have previous corporate experience but it has been a while.
Thanks.
My two cents. I’m a United pilot that provides career counseling and pilot mentoring to many pilots getting into the industry, some of who are in mid to late 50’s. Some who have been out of the industry for several decades.
We are on the cusp of a global pilot shortage. We are not there yet. There is a perfect storm in the brew on the horizon for the following factors:
1: Massive Airline Retirements
2: US Airline industry growth.
3: Historic low for new pilot starts.
4: Successful pilot union pattern bargaining.
5: Asia to need upwards 200,000 pilots over the next 20 years.
All of this will totally dry up the US airline pilot market, including the current 20,000 US regional pilots who will mostly fill the US Legacy hiring needs over the next 10 plus years.
The reason for all the above, you can’t look at what the US pilot market looks like today, or years past to extrapolate what the pilot market will look like in 5 to 10 years. I’ve tried for the past few years and it’s moving much faster (for the better) then even I anticipated.
My opinion your opportunities as a retired 121 pilot in five years will be far greater in terms of opportunities then what you see today. I believe a huge portion of the fractional and corporate pilot ranks will be retired 121 pilots.
All that being said I agree with many others that the current fractional pilot working conditions are very difficult and are not for all age 65 plus pilots.
Not sure where you live but I’d recommend trying to be a contract cooperate pilot. Work when you want and not when you don’t want to work. A good career path towards that goal is getting hired as a full time or part time instructor at CAE or Flight Safety. They hire alot of retired 121 pilots. There you will not only get type ratings but meet countless contacts to venture into the contract corporate flying world. Alot of 91 operations and even some 135 companies hire contract pilots to fill in for their pilots when they are not available. If you have a type rating and instructor time you are a shoe in.
I’d also recommend keeping a watchful eye on the website
https://www.climbto350.com/ For less then $20 a month you can see many job opportunities postings first hand. But most importantly how it changes even more in pilots favor in the years to come.
As an example you will find a lot of charter jet jobs will hire you as a captain. Years ago at most bottom feeder 135 companies, your day off was yesterday when you didn’t fly on call. Today they actual have guaranteed days off and many home base.
The primary reason to visit this site over the next five years is to witness first hand how desperate these companies become as the pilot shortage becomes more of a reality.
Any way best of luck, hope some of this info was helpful.