Path to becoming a corporate pilot

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Logan2224

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Logan Abner
Question for you guys. I have decided that I want to take the path of becoming a corporate pilot. Maybe netjets or another charter service. I'm getting close to finishing my private, and after this semester I will be working on instrument. I'm a 20 year old college student working on a business management degree. So what's the best way to get from the 65 hours I have now to the requirements to hold a job like that? Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Get a job at the largest FBO in the area as a fueler. Be the super Johnny on the spot. Spend every penny you have on collecting ratings.

It's not what you know. It's who you know.
 
Finish college, get a good job with your degree, then pay for your ratings out of pocket.

The job will bootstrap you into having enough time to get some sort of pilot job without debt..Which is the way to go. From there you're going to have to work for crumbs and pay your way before you have the time and experience needed to get a decent paying corporate gig.

You may get to the point where you're making decent money and you decide working for crumbs isn't for you.
 
fly alot!

I know you're short on $ being in college and all, but you should try to join a partnership, flying club, form a partnership etc..

The trick to building hours with the smallest amount of $ is to find another pilot who wants to do the same, and go fly somewhere while taking turns being safety pilot with the other pilot flying under the hood. You can log PIC time while being a safety pilot ya know.
 
jesse said:
Finish college, get a good job with your degree, then pay for your ratings out of pocket.

The job will bootstrap you into having enough time to get some sort of pilot job without debt..Which is the way to go. From there you're going to have to work for crumbs and pay your way before you have the time and experience needed to get a decent paying corporate gig.

You may get to the point where you're making decent money and you decide working for crumbs isn't for you.
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Yeah I have a friend who is leaving a well-paying job to be a pilot. He bought a 152 and has been building hours, he hopes to get to 1500 hrs as quickly as possible and start his career with an ATP. Still going to work for crumbs for awhile but its better than starting out at 250hrs with nothing but a commercial ticket.

He does some ridiculous time building - he'll fly 20 hours in a weekend.
 
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Fly a lot. And find someone with a twin. Twin time will be the hardest to come by economically, according to everyone I've ever talked with who "made it". They either bought their own or had access to a non-rental. Or... Had tens of thousands in Student Loan debt.
 
I could be wrong but I doubt that time in a 152 is going to carry a lot of weight. JMO
 
Thanks for the info guys! My dad is a pilot also and has a nice Dakota which is nice. I'm still renting a plane for now till I finish my private then I will be flying the Dakota.
I'll eventually probably just get a 152 or something or buy the Dakota from him. Dad believes in what I'm doing and is helping pay for it which is great, but I'm not counting on that forever.

So I just need to fly as much as I can, that's what it boils down to. Do anything I can do to build up time.
 
ronnieh said:
I could be wrong but I doubt that time in a 152 is going to carry a lot of weight. JMO
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Theory: The time spent in the 152 will build judgement which will translate when he transitions to bigger/ faster multi-engine airplanes. This will provide some insulation for safety's sake to keep the time builder from doing something to cut his time short.
 
denverpilot said:
Fly a lot. And find someone with a twin. Twin time will be the hardest to come by economically, according to everyone I've ever talked with who "made it". They either bought their own or had access to a non-rental. Or... Had tens of thousands in Student Loan debt.
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Ahhhh...... there's also a thing called MEI whereby you get paid to fly twins.
 
Basically the advice in post #2 pretty much nailed it. Get your CFI, CFII, MEI as quickly and as debt freely as possible then prepare to do a lot of sucking up. The corporate gig is all about networking. Depending upon who it is your working for being a corporate pilot is a lot like being an aerial butler.
 
Art VanDelay said:
Depending upon who it is your working for being a corporate pilot is a lot like being an aerial butler.
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:rofl: That is very true. It's also akin to being someone's driver, which you are, after all.
 
Art VanDelay said:
Basically the advice in post #2 pretty much nailed it. Get your CFI, CFII, MEI as quickly and as debt freely as possible then prepare to do a lot of sucking up. The corporate gig is all about networking. Depending upon who it is your working for being a corporate pilot is a lot like being an aerial butler.
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I'm good with that honestly. I like the idea of dealing directly with people.
 
Logan2224 said:
I'm good with that honestly. I like the idea of dealing directly with people.
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That's good because if you are not comfortable dealing with people, and you meet all kinds, you will not like the job. It's not all about the airplane.

As far as a path, like others, I would say the obvious, the more time you have the better, especially PIC and multiengine. Other than that I think it's a lot of right time, right place, although there can also be wrong time, wrong place as many people I know have found out over the past few years.
 
Just about any flying counts for the 1500 you need for your ATP. However, for what it sounds like you want to do about all that counts will be your multi time. Hang out at the airport. Befriend any corp pilots you can find.
 
You could build 150 time to qualify for the ATP but so what? The ATP is going to count for little untill you start looking at turbo jet jobs. Turbo prop for the most part could care less. When you are moving into turbo prop the insurance companies (they call the shots) will be looking for time in class and catagory but mostly in make and model. Applying for a job with an ATP and 1500 TT in which 1300 is in a 150 will get you laughed at. An ATP with 500 turbine might get you looked at in the right seat for a turbo jet. You need to concetrate on ME time first then get turbine time as soon as you can. As far as how to accomplish that, not a clue. Perhaps someone else can help. Most go the instructor route.
 
I read somewhere about a school that's training its primary students with ZERO time in V L J's
 
If the OP wants to get on with NJ, he might as well be a 500/100hr pilot and get hired at a regional, fly there for a year or two and then apply to NJ. NJ is a huge operation (3000 pilots) and has less of a who you know atmosphere than a smaller "traditional" corporate office.

They have 400+ on furlough right now, haven't heard about recalls, but I haven't talked to my friends that work there in a while.

From the website, the mins:

To qualify as a NetJets Aviation pilot candidate, you must have the following prerequisites:
  • Airline Transport Pilot Certificate (Multi-Engine Land)
  • Current FAA First Class Medical certificate
  • 2500 hours total pilot time
  • 500 hours fixed wing multi-engine time
  • 250 hours instrument time (actual or simulated in flight - excludes simulator time)


Expect the "going rate" to be higher. Working at a 121/135 gig flying 80hrs/mo will be one of the "easiest" ways to get the time needed.

My friends at NJ love it, FWIW. Great, new equipment, a huge variety in flying, ability to live in a bunch of places and decent pay. They say it is quite a bit of work though. "Show up on Sunday and have no idea where you're going for the next 7 days."
 
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I have a friend at NJ who is one of the furloughed. He isn't expecting to go back to work there any time soon. He is expecting to be flying for someone else for several more years before going back. They are having some issues with management there now. As he says, once the management issues resolve themselves it will be a nice place to work again.

Becoming a corporate pilot is a tough gig to get. Tough to get a good one. There are lots of crappy ones to be had. I have worked for both good and bad. It is all about who you know and not so much about what you know. So as posted previously, network, network, network.

Also something to consider is that for the most part part 121 pilots are not that widely accepted by most corporate flight departments. Airline guys for the most part just don't get it when it comes to a corporate operation. They have really good flying skills. They just don't tend to get or get into the mindset you have to have to be a good corporate pilot. Bottom line is that it depends on the perceptions of the person(s) doing the hiring.

Many corporate operations like to hire local people first.

I have done both and if it wasn't for the fact that I was a corporate pilot before going to the airline then I would have had a really difficult time getting back into corporate flying.

My path was
CFI/CFII/MEI (4 years)
Managed and Flew Piper Seneca & Cessna 421 (5 years)
Part 135 Cessna 402's (Pax & Cargo)
Part 91 Corporate (14 years)
Part 121 Airline (1 year) & hated every minute of it other than the schedule.
Part 91 & 135 (1 year)

Whether you go to the corporate side or the airline side, hopefully you get to where you want to be. Because quality of life is what really counts and being happy at work really makes a big difference in that happines.
 
ronnieh said:
You could build 150 time to qualify for the ATP but so what? The ATP is going to count for little untill you start looking at turbo jet jobs.
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You gotta have 1200 TT to fly SPIFR if i recall correctly.

He owns a partnership in a piston twin so he has a decent amount of ME time, just trying to hit the minimums quickly and cheaply... while keeping a day job

It is 152 time but you have to realize that almost half of that is under the hood, and he logs a lot of night hours as well as actual IMC - the 152 is IFR certified and he files and flies IFR whenever possible, as well as logs approaches. We fly weeknights after work frequently to get night experience and sim imc time... both are valuable to a potential employer. And at about $25 an hour its hard to beat.
 
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Art VanDelay said:
Basically the advice in post #2 pretty much nailed it. Get your CFI, CFII, MEI as quickly and as debt freely as possible then prepare to do a lot of sucking up. The corporate gig is all about networking. Depending upon who it is your working for being a corporate pilot is a lot like being an aerial butler.
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I agree one hundred percent. It is largely who you know that counts. A lot of my jet time was as right-seater for guys with whom I had instructed. You have to become an airport bum so that your name and face pops up when the question is "Joe's sick today...who can we get to fly right seat?".

Bob Gardner
 
The replies are great guys!
I've been looking into jobs at local airports but haven't come up with much yet. I'm planning a month long trip to Europe this summer, so it would be best to start a new job AFTER that.

Once I graduate, I'm thinking about moving to Florida. I've got two years of school left, so hopefully I can build up a significant amount of hours in that time, then maybe go to one of the big schools in Florida for an ATP.

You guys are definitely helping me get my plans together and I appreciate it.
 
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