Any airline pilots that still flies GA?

Good reason I don't fly for a living. I like hanging out at the airport and flying on the weekends....
 
Many do, as Greg said. I know of two personally. One is a DPE and Captain at UPS and the other is a FO at Delta flying the 777. Both fly GA actively when they’re not flying heavy metal at work.
 
Some part 121 fools even continue to instruct, and draft the occasional family law document.
 
There's a ton of them. In the ATL area south of Hartsfield are numerous fly-in communities, and most of the occupants are airline pilots and mechanics. Airline I flew at had quite a few that flew and owned GA planes.
 
I do/did. I'm on military leave from Delta, but I flew my Bonanza (& Eagle & A-4) while I was active with Delta. Don't plan on flying any less GA when I go back - should be flying a lot more props when I have all that free time at the airline! :D Can't wait!

Why do you ask?
 
A lot of the airline guys who fly/own a GA aircraft are well established at a career airline (Delta, UPS, American). I'm at a regional and know very few that own a plane, let alone fly GA. As someone mentioned, a lot of people want nothing to do with aviation on their days off. I still fly on the few days I have off.
 
austin757 said:
A lot of the airline guys who fly/own a GA aircraft are well established at a career airline (Delta, UPS, American). I'm at a regional and know very few that own a plane, let alone fly GA. As someone mentioned, a lot of people want nothing to do with aviation on their days off. I still fly on the few days I have off.
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Actually I know a lot of regional pilots who own and fly GA, many.
 
I am one of those that when I retire, I will hang my certificate on the wall for decoration...... probably.

Need to add, I fly 135, not 121.
 
Lots of guys at my job still fly GA. One even owns a Cheyenne.

I've been slacking on the GA front lately, but hope to fix it this year and fly a bunch more.
 
pigpenracing said:
Good reason I don't fly for a living. I like hanging out at the airport and flying on the weekends....
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They're not mutually exclusive - I still love the GA side and enjoy hanging at the airport. I like weekday flying better though - fewer folks in the pattern. :)
 
Zeldman said:
I am one of those that when I retire, I will hang my certificate on the wall for decoration...... probably.

Need to add, I fly 135, not 121.
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I was also 135 and corporate. I wondered what I would do. I never flew GA much when I was working, and I haven't flown GA since the day I delivered the work airplane to its new home. I kicked around the idea of doing either soaring or aerobatics, but so far I haven't done either. I saw a company nearby that gives seaplane rides. I emailed them asking if they gave instruction. I never heard from them so I guess the answer is no, or they don't want any business.

I ended up getting interested in sailing, and spending my money on international travel. I could have bought an airplane for the money I have spent, and will spend, on that. But that's kinda what my plan was to begin with, so it's good. I don't miss it, especially the part that made it a job.
 
EvilEagle said:
I do/did. I'm on military leave from Delta, but I flew my Bonanza (& Eagle & A-4) while I was active with Delta. Don't plan on flying any less GA when I go back - should be flying a lot more props when I have all that free time at the airline! :D Can't wait!

Why do you ask?
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Just wondering, since I want to become an airline pilot. I heard airline pilots gets a lot of free time off.
 
lol I see what you did there. furloughs are no joke. caveat emptor.
 
AirplanepilotJJ said:
Just wondering, since I want to become an airline pilot. I heard airline pilots gets a lot of free time off.
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A very generalized answer is that you can:

A) make all the potential money your current employer allows, and have some time off
B) make an average amount of the potential money and have a decent amount of time off
C) make a decent amount of the potential money and have a significant amount of time off

Early in your employment cycle, the above may not apply so much. Later in the cycle, you might find better conditions than that.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
now....that's the part that doesn't add up. If they did have an interest they'd be involved in GA.
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Not necessarily...I retired 10 years ago and have not flown an airplane since...don't really care whether I do or not. It is like my time spent in the military. I enjoyed jumping out of planes in the middle of winter...at night...and spending the next two of three weeks running around in the snow. Playing army riding around in helos. Going overseas for NATO exercises...shootin' guns and blowing stuff up. Not involved anymore and don't care if I do any of that stuff again, but I am still interested in the military. Read about what is new, modernized and happening today. Drop in on several military forums to see what the new guys are doing and their experiences. Same with aviation. Hope that will make some sense.

Noah W
 
I sporadically stayed interested and flew a little GA while at the airline. When I retired from there 4 1/2 years ago I think I was burnt out, at least on airline flying, and it took awhile before I went out to the local airport to get a FR and checkout in a C172. Hadn't flown GA in years but did ok on the FR and got signed off. Since then I've gotten into it more and doing a little flight instruction on my schedule. Fun taking my grandson up occasionally.
 
A decent amount of captains at my airline own their own planes and still fly some GA. I am relatively active. I instruct/fly anywhere from 5-15 hours a month.
 
AirplanepilotJJ said:
Just wondering, since I want to become an airline pilot. I heard airline pilots gets a lot of free time off.
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Don’t expect a lot of time off. I was lucky and never sat reserve and by my second month on the line, I was holding weekends off and 15 days off. I never missed a holiday or birthday. I hold anywhere from 15-22 days off a month depending on how much I want to fly. Like I said, don’t expect a lot of time off and expect to miss holidays and important events. I’m upgrading in 2 weeks and the QOL will severely decrease.
 
My good friend is a Captain at Southwest...for the most part has no interest in flying GA...but he is an absolute nut for RC airplanes hahaha. I swear his entire house is filled with RC airplanes. That said, he will go up in cool low and slow airplanes from time to time (Cubs, etc).
 
jordane93 said:
Don’t expect a lot of time off. I was lucky and never sat reserve and by my second month on the line, I was holding weekends off and 15 days off. I never missed a holiday or birthday. I hold anywhere from 15-22 days off a month depending on how much I want to fly. Like I said, don’t expect a lot of time off and expect to miss holidays and important events. I’m upgrading in 2 weeks and the QOL will severely decrease.
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Living the dreammm...so how bad does your QOL go down when you become Captain? Do you commute?

I'm getting closer and closer to finishing up my ratings at ATP...just scared to make the jump ha
 
jordane93 said:
I am relatively active. I instruct/fly anywhere from 5-15 hours a month.
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I think this is really cool. I'm about to pull the trigger on a flying club that has a couple of 182s and a 172, and was thinking about getting back into instructing on a limited basis. Gotta hit the books and do a bunch of flying first though!
 
There's a large contingent of SWA pilots here in KC who do formation flying in RVs.
 
CC268 said:
Living the dreammm...so how bad does your QOL go down when you become Captain? Do you commute?

I'm getting closer and closer to finishing up my ratings at ATP...just scared to make the jump ha
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It's all about seniority, as you move up the seniority list you bid your schedule for what you desire. You can fly a lot, fly less w/ more time off, etc. So when you get hired at an airline you're low man on the totem pole. If there's a lot of hiring going on you'll move up in seniority quicker. A lot hiring is projected in the next 10-15 years, so it's a good time to get on if you want airline flying.

Here's an airline message board you may be interested in, but don't believe everything you read there. You can get good information there, but there's a lot of POAers with airline experience on here as well.

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/
 
mscard88 said:
It's all about seniority, as you move up the seniority list you bid your schedule for what you desire. You can fly a lot, fly less w/ more time off, etc. So when you get hired at an airline you're low man on the totem pole. If there's a lot of hiring going on you'll move up in seniority quicker. A lot hiring is projected in the next 10-15 years, so it's a good time to get on if you want airline flying.

Here's an airline message board you may be interested in, but don't believe everything you read there. You can get good information there, but there's a lot of POAers with airline experience on here as well.

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/
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Yea I understand that for sure. Haha honestly I find airlinepilotcentral and airlinepilotoforums to be depressing. Seems like there are a lot of guys on there who preach how horrible their job is. I sort of choose to stay off there and keep a positive attitude about it lol.

The thing I am struggling with right now is time vs. debt. I can get my ratings debt free by using my engineering job, but it will realistically take me a few years to do it. We have had so many avionics issues with my airplane that my dad and I are considering just selling the thing. The down time is just becoming so excessive and I am delaying my ratings with this thing. Or...I can fast track this at a place like ATP and take on some debt (I have NO debt right now). I really don't like the idea of debt, but it might make sense for me to just get going on this. I could be at a regional by start of 2020 (I would be 26 years old). I would obviously be taking a huge cut in pay leaving my engineering job, but I am miserable sitting at a desk all day. I've realized it just isn't the career I want for the next 45 years. It's been a real mental battle, but worst case if I don't like flying for a living I can go back to engineering. My fiancee is very supportive of the flying career idea. She is used to her dad being gone two weeks at a time since he has worked in the oil industry up in Alaska his whole life.
 
On my airpark we have six active airline pilots: three United and three American. They all have at least one GA airplane. We've got a couple of retirees from the airlines as well who are still flying GA.
 
CC268 said:
Yea I understand that for sure. Haha honestly I find airlinepilotcentral and airlinepilotoforums to be depressing. Seems like there are a lot of guys on there who preach how horrible their job is.
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Only go to APC if you need some piece of objective data, such as upgrade times, pay rates, or that sort of thing. That's all it's good for. The amount of miserable people on that board is astounding, and it's also overrun with trolls, which doesn't help either. I mainly peruse APC for entertainment value.
 
kayoh190 said:
Only go to APC if you need some piece of objective data, such as upgrade times, pay rates, or that sort of thing. That's all it's good for. The amount of miserable people on that board is astounding, and it's also overrun with trolls, which doesn't help either. I mainly peruse APC for entertainment value.
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hahah...idk that place confuses me...I know many airline pilots and all are truthfully happy guys and enjoy their job despite some of the downsides of airline flying.
 
kayoh190 said:
Only go to APC if you need some piece of objective data, such as upgrade times, pay rates, or that sort of thing. That's all it's good for. The amount of miserable people on that board is astounding, and it's also overrun with trolls, which doesn't help either. I mainly peruse APC for entertainment value.
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I mainly go there to see what's going with my old haunt, ASA, and unfortunately it's sad. SkyWest is so anti-union they're dissolving their union airlines, ASA & ExpressJet. "Tool of The Day" on the Major thread is funny at times, always check that one out. I would say better info on the Major than the Regional thread.
 
CC268 said:
Yea I understand that for sure. Haha honestly I find airlinepilotcentral and airlinepilotoforums to be depressing. Seems like there are a lot of guys on there who preach how horrible their job is. I sort of choose to stay off there and keep a positive attitude about it lol.

The thing I am struggling with right now is time vs. debt. I can get my ratings debt free by using my engineering job, but it will realistically take me a few years to do it. We have had so many avionics issues with my airplane that my dad and I are considering just selling the thing. The down time is just becoming so excessive and I am delaying my ratings with this thing. Or...I can fast track this at a place like ATP and take on some debt (I have NO debt right now). I really don't like the idea of debt, but it might make sense for me to just get going on this. I could be at a regional by start of 2020 (I would be 26 years old). I would obviously be taking a huge cut in pay leaving my engineering job, but I am miserable sitting at a desk all day. I've realized it just isn't the career I want for the next 45 years. It's been a real mental battle, but worst case if I don't like flying for a living I can go back to engineering. My fiancee is very supportive of the flying career idea. She is used to her dad being gone two weeks at a time since he has worked in the oil industry up in Alaska his whole life.
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Some wives enjoy their husbands being gone for 3-4 days a week lol. I think mine did lol. Hey, you have an excellent back up with your engineering degree & experience, so if you want to go, as I said, the next few years are a good time to take the plunge.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
now....that's the part that doesn't add up. If they did have an interest they'd be involved in GA.
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I used to race cars. That is not a job, it is not a career, it is a life. To race and have any sort of success a person is absorbed into it. nothing else matters. There is no outside world. Only racing. Spend 18-20 hours a day getting ready for the next race. One day I walked away from it to start a career in aviation. Even though I do not race anymore I am still interested in racing and what the latest technology is.

Flying will probably be the same way.
 
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