avi8tir

Hi there,

Wanted to ask some questions and get opinions. I turn 38 in June. I have been flying planes since I was 13 years old. Got my private very early and then came my instrument a few years later.

I went to college and got a business degree and went to work for my family business. We sold to a private equity investment company in 2007 and are now a public company. I am the last family employee of 4 generations at the company. My dream since I was probably 5 years old was to be a commercial pilot.

Now, as the company has grown/changed etc, I am considering a huge leap and leaving the only employer I have ever had. It wouldn't be easy.

As mentioned above, I am instrument rated and have about 600 hours. Mostly in a Cessna 400 and SR22 with some tampico/tabago/trinidad mixed in during the early years. no turbine time.

What would by best steps be to working my way to to a corporate or regional or major?

One of my biggest concerns is the pay.... I know it can be VERY low in the beginning.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

JohnBurke

Low is a relative term, insofar as wage may be. It depends what you're used to.

If you'd come along a few years ago and set your sights on a regional, you'd have entered with sub-poverty wages. Today you can enter at seventy grand, which is lightyears from what it was not so long ago.

At your experience level, corporate really isn't an option.

You'll need more experience. Traditionally, instructing is the way to go.

You may be a bit disadvantaged in that it sounds like all your flying experience to date has been private; make sure that you're up to speed on the way to do things, rather than the way you've taught yourself to do things, or the habits you've picked up flying privately.

Conversely, at your experience level, you've already been flying a mixture of higher performance singles and light twins, which is good (so long as it hasn't been about bad habits).

You'll need to meet ATP minimums. How you get there is up to you. As said, the traditional route is instructing, but flying jumpers, towing banners, and other means will also move you along in total time.

PRS Guitars

Keep your day job while you knock out your Commercial and CFI/II locally. It shouldn’t take long and there is no need to go to a school like All ATP or anything with your time. You probably already meet the XC requirements, so you just need to learn the maneuvers for the check ride, and knowledge requirements. Get the commercial, then switch to the right seat and get proficient and take the CFI. Instruct for 2ish years then off to a regional. 2 to 5 years later off to a major, hopefully.

One thing is that this plan is predicated on you living near a flying club or school, which I’m sure you do, based on having a business large 3nough to go public.

TiredSoul

If you have 600 hrs you should already be eligible to learn the trade at PlaneSense and a couple of other ones.
Stick around there to get to ATP mins while learning the job instead of instructing.

rickair7777

Assume 1-2 years of little pay until you get to ATP mins.

You can instruct to build time, but that will require a few months and thousands of additional dollars for CFI ratings, As it is you'll need a CPL and ME rating, 1500 hours total time and at least 25 hours in a twin for regionals. I assume you're good on night/XC.

Or as TiredSoul pointed out, since you already have 600 hours, you could just get a job flying 91 or 135. Those would have low pay, maybe lower than CFI pay, but you would save the time and money of the CFI ratings. Worth noting that the CFI ratings are nice boxes to check on major airline applications.


The off to regionals. Pay is better than it used to be. You'll make $40-50k+ first year (depending on bonuses, they vary between airlines), and will go up a little from there. 2-3 years as an FO might get you called for a ULCC/LCC. If not, or you want to try for the big six, you could upgrade after about 2-3 years, spend two more years building 121 TPIC and by then the legacy hiring boom should be firing on all cylinders. Junior regional CA's make around $80K, after ten years it would be $120K-ish at most regionals (do your homework).

The future of the regional business is uncertain, so I would plan on moving on to a major.

This process will be a lot easier if your family is willing to move once or twice along the way.

Also... if you live in the Northeast or Chicago (or are willing to), those are junior bases for many airlines so you would have a lot of options and faster career progression. If you want to live on the west coast, things will go more slowly.

hindsight2020

It bears highlighting for the OP that 50K via signup and retention bonuses is not the same as 50K in CBA negotiated payrates. I recognize this might be regarded as a distinction without difference to someone who was gonna do the regionals come hell or high water even if it paid 2004 era money; still I think the OP would be wise to internalize these nuances, as opposed to assuming everybody will make it to mainline because retirement potato. To each their own.