I've never been someone who's looked seriously at a career in flying, I mostly have a skill elsewhere that involves flying. After recently talking with some people in and around the industry however, I get the feeling I might be missing out on a good thing.

Here's what I'm working with:
Ratings: Commercial single & multi, CFI
Total: 2800 (almost all pic)
~2k of that is x-c in complex
Dual given: 1200
Multi: 17
Inst: 10 (act)/55 (sim)
No turbine time.
(not sure what other stats would be pertinent)

I would prefer not to be gone more than 2-3 days, but I'll willing to move anywhere in the world (at least for a while) for a good job, don't mind learning another language or whatever.

ALSO: I have an MBA from a respectable school. I would really like to leverage it if possible, so if there was a company or situation that could use that, even later down the line, that would be preferred.

Sooo... what would you do? I'm not in any rush so I'm fine with waiting to try for a while to get in somewhere better than an immediately-available option, if its a matter of just waiting until a slot is available, or building my multi time up to whatever, or both. I have access to a multi, I can get to 25 or 50-100hrs, or whatever I need, just need to know what "whatever" would be.

Appreciate any opinions or insight. Thanks!

Oh, also wondering is there any website or source that would have an at least semi- up to date list of what various companies require for minimums? Pay and perks would be cool too but mostly curious what the minimums for times compared to each other are.

You're a solid entry-level pilot, more than ready for a turbine job. What sort of turbine job depends on your interests. Historically speaking, it's a good time for airlines. There's risk and no guarantees but your odds of ending up in a great place are very good by historical standards. But the airline hiring is also creating opportunities in other aviation sectors as they lose pilots to the airlines.

2-3 days per month? Probably need to look for some niche 91135 gig.

Or 2-3 days at a time? Airline trips are usually 2-4 days long, with a little seniority you could hold 2 and 3 day trips at most companies. Four day trip = three nights in a hotel.

The best aviation jobs in the world are pretty much going to be here in the US, major airlines or high-end corporate. Unless you're a citizen nobody overseas will hire you unless you already have experience (usually PIC) in the exact airline type they need. Once you get that, there are jobs in Asia and the middle-east, plus a few other out-of-the-way places.

Airlines will give you some but not a lot of extra preference for graduate degrees. Regionals don't care, they'll hire almost anyone education or not, but majors get competitive so every little bit helps.

I would avoid almost any situation where you're a pilot AND an office worker. That will usually mean office salary and fly during your time off. Or fly during working hours and catch up on your real job on your time off. Basically going to mean fly for free and probably too many balls to juggle to keep it safe.

Need 25 ME for regionals. Other ME turbine jobs will likely require, and if you're single pilot it might be several hundred hours more.

Look on this site under airline profiles.

For regionals, the mins to get hired are pretty much ATP mins and 25 ME. Unless you have serious black marks or scare them at the interview, you're hired.

For majors the PUBLISHED MINIMUMS are typically 1,000 ME Turbine (and 1,000 TPIC for a few), but nobody gets hired that low unless they're a lucky fighter pilot, VERY well connected, or have multiple affirmative action qualifications. As a civilian you'll need about 5-8K total time, and 1-3K TPIC to be in the ballpark to get a call. That's for 121 regional TPIC, for 91/135 it's probably going to take more time and more type ratings.

A what now?

Well, I meant 3 nights from home, but if I had to up that to 4 to have a whole lot more options, I guess thats fine. I'm just not triying to be gone for 14 straight nights.

OK, I wasnt sure if there was some sweet gigs in China or Mid-East or something, thought they were hiring 50hr pilots for 300k or something (hyperbolizing lol)


Roger

I can come up with 25 easy. I can probably get 50-100 without trouble, more is gonna be tricky.

Are there any certain airlines that people appreciate more than others these days? I'm really not in the loop on which ones have a decent reputation.

It sounds like my best bet would be go to regional for a few years. So question is, which one...

FYI Rick, this doesn't appear correct/might be dated information on your behalf. Didn't sound right to me, so I looked up the minimums for all of the majors and ULCCs. None listed multi turbine time as being required. Spirit and Frontier are the only ones that require multi time in their mins, and they don't even state that it has to be turbine time.

Meant 91 or 135, ie corporate/charter.

Airlines typically gone 2-3 nights, sometimes just one, and there are rare five day airline trips (four nights gone).

There are some who hire very low-time pilots but usually that means locals. They'll hire very experienced foriegn pilots as CA's and pair them with low-time local FO's... trying to build their bench strength.

Cathay Pacific might still hire low-time Americans as IRO's., they're unique in that they're truly an ex-pat airline... mostly US, UK, Ozz.

Regionals are your best bet then.

Regionals broadly fall into upper and lower tier, with plenty of debate as to who fits where as they've all been raising pay lately. But it could be worth working for a lower-tier regional if you can live in base vice commuting to a "better" regional. Do some reading in the APC regional forums to learn more. One other thing to consider... a few have been badly burned recently with pilot shortages so they tend to "stock up" on pilots meaning a new FO might sit reserve with very little flying for a year or more.

Probably, they'll give you a ME ATP free and a quick 1000 hours turbojet after which you can decide which path to pursue.

That's true but for YOU it will need to be ME turbine.

They only allow ASEL turbine time because some fighters only have one engine. If you're not a fighter pilot, they really want multi turbine crew time. It would be exceptionally rare for someone to get hired at a good major with only caravan or pilatus time, and there would probably be a good reason for it like affirmative action or family in senior management.

In this industry you cannot plan your career based on published minimums, you need to do the research and find out what the actual competitive minimums are (and it's different for mil vs. civilian).

I could be wrong on this but I’ve come under the impression that the majors rack and stack based on hours logged by age. Is this correct? I’ve especially heard this for European carriers. Here’s my stats:

34 y/o
1800 TT
205 TIC
1300 Turbine
3 type ratings
Air Force veteran (non flyer)
BS in Finance Magna Cum Laude
Some volunteer work

I believe I have most the boxes checked and am currently on the right path. Just completed my first year at 121 and on track to upgrade next Summer. Do I need to have a certain number of hours for my age? I’m a career changer. Thanks! Any advice appreciated.

Eric

Have no idea about Europe, this board is mostly US. You'd have to ask on pprune.org for that. Anything you hear about overseas airlines mosr likely DOES NOT apply in the US, and vice versa

In the US there's no hours/age criteria, that would be rather discriminatory and rather obviously so.

A few majors may consider "career trajectory", where they expect you to keep moving up the lader on a certain timeline. This is nothing more than a work-around to allow age discrimination, it allows them to pass over an entire generation of older pilots who got stuck at the regionals during the lost decade and therefore did not "career progress" through little fault of their own.

But that would not apply to a career changer who starts later in life but moves up quickly (you will in today's climate).

If you're looking at the top tier majors, you'll probably need at least 2-3k+ 121 TPIC and 5k+ TT (LCA or other 121 instructor jobs will help a great deal).

But by all means apply to all majors as soon as you meet the mins, and keep the apps updated. You never when they might randomly pull your name out of the hat. Be prepared for an interview if you have apps out.