Bucking Bar

I'm hearing about 50% of the guaranteed (correct spelling BTW) flight spots are getting drones. Not sure how he could avoid that fate

Do your own due diligence before investing.

Oh and Fly NAVY !

bat21

You're right, the military is not for everyone.

bat21

If you are looking for current info on which aircraft the Air Force is assigning to people graduating from UPT baseops.net has a thread titled "Track selects and assignment nights" which is in the general forum area. Without doing the math "half" might be a little high.

Godzilla

Your plan looks like a good one.

Glad someone is still willing to instuct and plans on having 1500 hours before going to an airline.

You will develop strong stick and rudder skill and make many contacts if you instruct at a good school.

Corporate may be as good a place to step up the ladder as regionals. Harder to get the job but better pay and many corporate pilots have gone on to good airline careers.

80ktsClamp

I actually had a couple days between choosing between the military and continuing on my civilian path. Had I chosen the military path I would still be active duty. I was really leaning toward military but felt I had decent positioning to be in a good place in the civilian world.

I chose the civilian path and am projected to be extremely senior for a very long portion of my career.

I would have loved to have been military, and it certainly would have been for me. But it would not have been benificial....

scambo1

Thats why the guard/reserve are the route I'd recommend. Active duty is a career decision by itself. Both are good tracks, but the citizen soldier just has soooo much more flexibility.

Truth is, I wouldnt even know how to pursue the airlines using the civilian route. There is another topic that is a subtopic in this thread: The plan B. The military is a built in plan B.

You may "dream" about being a major ailine pilot, but after being one for awhile, I would say it isn't really the end all. It is a job that is good and doesnt infringe too much on my other carreer. The cycles, the pay cuts, the mergers, and all the other unpredictable aspects knock the shiny-ness off in a hurry. Sadly the "good old days" are never coming back. This does not mean I am discouraging you, just go in with your eyes open...the perfect carreer is rarer than a winning lottery ticket.

Bucking Bar

The civilian route these days means finding a corporate job for a while. The fractional operators have reduced the number of corporate jobs as customers have transitioned away from the high fixed costs of aircraft ownership. The light jet market is very poor currently, but there have been some recent signs of recovery.

Also he can broaden his search to a Company that lets him fly himself around as part of the job. For instance, aviation insurers usually have a small corporate fleet to visit their customers and handle losses. Law firms, oil companies, sales, pharmaceutical reps, all use general aviation to get around more quickly and at less expense than airline flying. Often the manager / pilot can back door his way into the company's real flight department this way and get into the large cabin jet fleet. In some cases the pilot gets a say in what airplane(s) get bought.

Then, if he wants to leave his $100,000+ job with expense account, where he is treated with respect, for a regional airline he can (and he should in most cases).

Corporate flight departments can be very fickle things. Take GM as an example of a here today, gone tomorrow, back the next day example of what can happen in corporate aviation. Jobs are even more "who you know" than in the airlines. The boss has to like you (and they are predisposed to think their pilots are the best). I never ran into anyone at that level that was not very pleasant to crew, but there are horror stories the fractional pilots tell. My guess is that it is the wives and kids who can be highly dynamic. Also, meetings frequently run long and trips to the beach seem to pop up on short notice.

That being said, I still miss flying pristine equipment to very pleasant destinations at very reasonable hours, taking helicopters into the city and eating meals that cost more than my monthly income at a regional airline.

hoserpilot

Go up to Alaska and fly. There are more planes than cars up there.

tsquare

This... right... here... ^^^^^^^^^^

Sputnik

No such thing.