Best company to work for that you’re home *most* nights?

jonvcaples said:
Good luck! The only guarantee is there are no guarantees. One of the guys from old reserve unit got his ME and a job flying a King Air in college while working part time as a line person by impressing the company CEO. This stuff CAN happen but not something one should make a key element of your plan.

Be professional, friendly, ready to pay your dues, and keep making progress.
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Great advice. Thanks much
 
Newsflash: Pay and homesteading are generally inversely proportional in a transportation industry job. Shocker. Pick one, cuz you can't have both.

Allegiant would be a another option, OP. I wouldn't count on it being there your entire career, but it would be as good a homesteading ride while it lasts as you could get in this industry, when normalizing for pay.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Newsflash: Pay and homesteading are generally inversely proportional in a transportation industry job. Shocker. Pick one, cuz you can't have both.

Allegiant would be a another option, OP. I wouldn't count on it being there your entire career, but it would be as good a homesteading ride while it lasts as you could get in this industry, when normalizing for pay.
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why wouldn’t you count on them being around?
 
Tarheelpilot said:
why wouldn’t you count on them being around?
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I mean mergers, downturns, industry changes and what not. Nothing unique to Allegiant to be clear. These fates can and have happened to companies of larger size.
 
I do medevac, and the only time I'm not home at night is when I get stuck out somewhere due to wx (I fly in Alaska, so this happens frequently)
 
I have a few buddies at Allegiant, and if you happen to live in one of their bases it can be a really good gig. Some consider it to be the best job in the industry, full stop.

But to @hindsight2020 ’s point, while any airline is susceptible to mergers and change, even a small change at Allegiant could very well put an end to being home every night.

That said, I made a similar argument in 2010 and Allegiant is still going strong. In the last decade I’ve spent almost 800 nights in a hotel. I had quite a few pilots across a bunch of employers at my wedding last year and one was an Allegiant guy. My Delta buddy pulled me aside at one point, pointed to the Allegiant pilot and said, “That guy is the smartest ****ing pilot in this room!” :) :p
 
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Allegiant! And odds are that you live near one of their bases. Will Allegiant be around in 20 years? Who knows? Will a corporate flight dept? They aren’t exactly stable either?

I think for the pay and being home every night, Allegiant can’t be beat. (And no, I do not work for them)
 
Fortunately, I have had a good run in part 91 corporate aviation. My current flight department has been in continuous operation in one form or another, through many mergers and acquisitions, since 1955. Flying for a large public company is about as good as it gets stability-wise, but honestly, there is no such thing as a safe and secure path in aviation. Our entire industry -- including airlines, long haul freight, cargo, corporate, charter, you name it -- was and always will be volatile in terms of job security.

The challenge is arriving at that good, steady, long-term "landing destination" in one piece. Aviation has a way of chewing people up and spitting them out. Many of the pilots I started flight instructing with are no longer flying. But many others are now senior captains with the airlines, or flying for good corporate operators.

There's a "dues paying period" for nearly all of us. This means tougher jobs with longer hours, less desirable schedule, lower pay, maybe even equipment maintained to less than a sterling standard. It seems to be a rite of passage in our industry. It's difficult to cross this gap without plowing through it the hard way. There are exceptions, but they're few and far between.

But this is the best time ever to be a pilot, so do your best and you might be surprised at what you come up with.
 
I’m surprised someone as young as the OP is concerned about overnights. To each his own of course, but one of the best things about a corporate/charter job is the potential for rockstar overnights. As I got older that sort of thing became less and less important (thus the switch to 121), but as a single dude the week long trips to Costa Rica etc were awesome!
 
midwestpa24 said:
Biggest downside to those gigs is most operate on call. You may have as little as an hour's notice of a trip.
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There are some good corporate gigs out there. Have a buddy who works about 100 days/year, easy flights, salaried, jet. 1000 hr minimum to fly in the right seat with him as a safety. Salary is 60/70k, and he has more time on his hands than he knows what to do with. Minimum 24 hrs notice... He said there are some tough gigs though..had a drink with the pilot for a person in electric car business who he said looked like he hadn’t slept in a week... My friend has certain safety rules he lays out in agreement with his boss as PIC, and his employer respects those rules 100%, recognizing they are in place for the safety of everyone on board. He built his flight hours for this gig years ago by flying an old Hollywood guy’s wife around for free.
 
kayoh190 said:
PlaneSense?
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I work for Plane Sense and the schedule is 8 on 6 off and you should count on being away from home on those 8 days. The only day trips are out of PSM and usually are accomplished by crews doing overtime on their days off.
 
jayhawk74 said:
I work for Plane Sense and the schedule is 8 on 6 off and you should count on being away from home on those 8 days. The only day trips are out of PSM and usually are accomplished by crews doing overtime on their days off.
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Good to know! Thanks for chiming in with some first hand information.
 
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