Becoming a pilot in today’s industry

bobmrg said:
"I don't know one pilot that has their a&p that worked on the airplane they flew."

There was a time when I was backup pilot to a Learjet operation...when one of the regular crew was not available I got to add to my turbine hours. That ended when the mechanic they had been using got his Lear type rating. Having the A&P might make a hiring decision easier some day.

Bob Gardner
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Thanks sir!
 
Half Fast said:
What part of town? I was raised on the westside, in a neighborhood called Wesconnet. Dad and two uncles worked at the NARF at NAS-Jax. @Stan Cooper is another Jax native on the forum.
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Yep; born and raised there in Riverside and Lake Shore. I went back to my 60th Lee H.S. reunion in early March. I briefly considered a flying career after I got out of the Air Force, but thought if I had to do it for a living I'd lose my passion for it. After working in aerospace engineering for a decade I switched careers and got into banking; that was a good decision as I had a decent income doing work I enjoyed and never lost my passion for flying.

If you want job security become an undertaker or a tax accountant; there will never be slumps in death or taxes. ;)
 
I think it’s a great high risk (kind of)/high reward job. Not many jobs where you can make close to half a million dollars and work half a month. Getting in now is certainly not the best time but we were due for a cyclical downturn so the virus may have just lit the spark. I can’t see myself doing any other job.
 
This is not the last time the aviation industry will face a crisis. Could be 10 years, could be 20 years before the airlines are in the same boat as now.

I walked away from the whole pilot route years ago. I have a nice secure job with a pension and I instruct on the side. I have no regrets. I love flying, I love it so much when I was doing it full time work, it became just like any other job. Days off, I did want to be near an airplane, and flying 135 for me felt like being a limo driver, just plug in the auto pilot and just sit there counting the minutes to land. It wasn’t the flying I love, it was cruising a straight line of boredom. And then if you are with someone that has no personality, can’t joke around, or just irritates you. It makes that flight 10x longer with no escape.
 
From one young guy (A&P, Comm SEL/MEL w/ 525 sic type) to another, if you want to break into corporate aviation be it 91/91K/135, you are better off sticking with one side of things. Has having an A&P helped me in my career so far, sure, but it has also slowed down my movement into a flying position as well. Having both skills sets really gears you towards a small part 91 operation best (think 1-2 turboprop or light jets) as they usually have a smaller operational budget,,, now they have someone who can do both, fly and manage the aircraft. The best advice I would give you though is network as much as you possibly can, from what i have seen and experienced, most corporate jobs outside of the fractionals tend to be had from having connections.
 
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