For those of you who fly for a living,

Dean

Dean

Pattern Altitude
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Mar 11, 2005
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Southwest Missouri
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Dean
what kind of flying do you do? How did you get your start? My plane(N11152) use to be a traffic watch plane in KC, MO. Someone at Gastons last year said they use to fly it, I think it was Greg B, but not sure. I would like to fly for a living, but for what I have seen entry level flying jobs paying, I would be in the poor house. My CFI is now flying for a small airline out of St.Louis and makes less than $25K. If I was 20 years younger it may be different, so my flying will be for fun. Maybe when I retire, I will find a flying job to supplement my income. I am not interested in the airlines, but would love to fly charter or corp.
 
Dean said:
what kind of flying do you do? How did you get your start? My plane(N11152) use to be a traffic watch plane in KC, MO. Someone at Gastons last year said they use to fly it, I think it was Greg B, but not sure. I would like to fly for a living, but for what I have seen entry level flying jobs paying, I would be in the poor house. My CFI is now flying for a small airline out of St.Louis and makes less than $25K. If I was 20 years younger it may be different, so my flying will be for fun. Maybe when I retire, I will find a flying job to supplement my income. I am not interested in the airlines, but would love to fly charter or corp.
Click to expand...

Hi Dean.

Yeah, that was me. I have a few hours in 11152 doing Traffic in KC and just a bit of instructing.

I don't know what you do now, but jumping in to a flying career is a tough row to hoe if you want to make a living at it. As you know, entry level is not much better than poverty wages. My suggestion is to keep the day job, get the ratings and work part time at flying, where ever, what ever that may be.
 
Getting into the biz is expensive and a great deal of paying dues (ie - poverty wages and bad hours). I would agree with Greg. Stick to your paying job and build up your ratings. As soon as you have your commercial, simply ask around to see if you can do anything. Chances are you could instruct PT, fly jumpers, fly banners, aerial photos, traffic watch, maybe sightseeing flights. In your situation, I would veer away from corp or charter because they are looking for career pilots. It all depends on your schedule. Most importantly, keep it fun!!!!
 
I will play the devils advocate. The other guys have told you to stay in what you are doing. In the words of Doug Flute, "F#$k'n chuck the ball down the field." LOL Go for it. Leave your comfort zone like I did and go for it. I will say it will hurt though. :) I do miss the money. :)

Brent Bradford
www.officialflyingturds.com
 
Had been flyin for some time, owned a few planes, made good money and was bored to death. Decided I would try this flying thing for a living at mid life. Wife two kids, dog etc. It was very very difficult at times and required a good deal of soul searching on numorus occasions. Decided to start at a local fbo pumping fuel,visiting with pilots,working on ratings. I wanted to really learn what this thing was about from the ground up and side to side. Then 9/11 hit. Stock market took a poo. That about killed the deal for me, did not have enough time to be competitive and was being recruited by a company trying to get me back into the old game. Watched my investments tank....it was tough to turn the money down but I stuck it out with no regrets now. Yes I do enjoy flying for a living:D and yes I do miss the old paycheck:D , but I would not change a thing.

If you want to do this for a living make sure your family is on board with your plan and ensure that you have the financial resources to get you through this journey. It can be a loong strange trip indeed.
 
After "flying for a living" for a company that wanted me to fly in unreasonable weather, I have decided that I really miss flying for a living. Selling carpet is fun, but it still doesn't beat the feeling of cutting perfectly into a piece of sky and getting money to do it. I went to SIU in Carbondale, starting in Jan 2002, and I got done with my COM SEL in Feb of 2003. I got the flying job in April of 2005.

I did the whole, pump gas, fly two days a week thing for four months. The 3am-9pm twelve hour flying days was really what got to me. It was pretty rough overall, but a great learning experience. (As in learning what not to do...)

My next gig I am working for free. Doing a little bit of missionary flying up in Alaska. I figured, we're poor all the time anyhow, might as well fly for free....

That's one way of getting the job done in aviation....

--Matt
 
I paid my dues flight instructing (actually only for 1 1/2 years - 690hrs) Now I am flying charter/tours. So I guess I am in the process of a career, but the hours are fine and I am loving the flying.
 
Dean said:
what kind of flying do you do? How did you get your start? My plane(N11152) use to be a traffic watch plane in KC, MO. Someone at Gastons last year said they use to fly it, I think it was Greg B, but not sure. I would like to fly for a living, but for what I have seen entry level flying jobs paying, I would be in the poor house. My CFI is now flying for a small airline out of St.Louis and makes less than $25K. If I was 20 years younger it may be different, so my flying will be for fun. Maybe when I retire, I will find a flying job to supplement my income. I am not interested in the airlines, but would love to fly charter or corp.
Click to expand...

Well, I kinda count since part of my annual income is from flying, the rest is from running boats and consulting.
As to the flying, I built my time by buying an old Travel Air when I had about 60 hrs and a private ticket. I was working as an aircraft mechanic during the week and a boat captain on weekends so I could afford it. Through the connections I made at the shop, I got ferry work which led to meeting more people and more ferry work, hauling skydivers, some pipeline work (while still putting in several shifts a week on boats, passenger boats and ship assist tugs, I was a busy boy back then)... and then on to a regional carrier in the Bae 3100 Jetscream, once you've flown that, you can fly anything, it's the worst squirliest no autopilot plane out there. Did that for 3 months and then went back offshore as a captain because I needed to make real money and the scheduling and standby of the commuter as well as base location didnt provide me any other income opportunities. Was in TX for a while with a ranch and working on my time off from being offshore as a mechanic rebuilding wrecks and restoring vintage planes and one of the guys on the field had an Ag spraying business and I got involved in that. That's the best paying aviation job per hour, problem is that it isn't steady, but I have other steady income so doesn't really matter much plus it's flying I really enjoy even if it does get monotonous at times.
 
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