80for80
global synchronizer
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2003
- Posts
- 313
hot careers
You read about big-name
airlines going bankrupt
and you think: bad time for
pilots. But then you go to the
airport, and it's jam-packed.
Get on the plane,
and every seat is full.
The fact is-- this is a great
time to become a pilot.
Pilots in a changing industry
By Robert Ross
Rob Eichelbaum never knows more than a day in advance where he’ll be taking business executives in the seven-passenger Cessna Citation Ultra jet he pilots for NetJets, a privately chartered flight service. And that’s just fine with him.
“It’s like being in a cross-country flying club,” he says. His job is night-and-day different from his last one, flying for Independence Air, a small airline that served regularly scheduled routes for Delta. And so is the industry he entered five years ago after getting an aeronautical science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Behind the headlines about major “legacy” airlines going bankrupt is an unreported story about how the aviation industry is reinventing itself and, in the process, creating exciting new pilot jobs like Eichelbaum’s that didn’t exist a few short years ago.
“There’s never been a better time to become a professional pilot than now,” says Cass Howell, who chairs the aeronautical science program for would-be professional pilots at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus. The degree is also offered at the Prescott, Ariz., campus.
Small carriers expand market, jobs
Pilot hiring is strong at the regional airlines, according to Howell. “The regionals don’t carry the burden of the legacy carriers’ big retirement and benefit packages,” he says, “and that keeps their costs low.” They also keep things simple. Southwest, for example, flies only one type of plane, allowing it to use the same tools and training for all of its planes.
By making air travel affordable for many people who never flew before, the low-cost regionals, in addition to competing with their bigger rivals, are actually expanding the market.
That means more jobs for people like Embry-Riddle alumnus Dan Voss. When regional carrier ASA hired him to fly Southeastern routes in a 50-passenger Canadair jet, he had only 750 flight hours and 55 hours flying a multi-engine plane, “a lot lower than someone walking in off the street would need,” he says. A big plus, too, was the university-arranged internships he did with ASA and Continental before graduating.
Most aeronautical science students start at Embry-Riddle with their eyes on airline jobs, Howell says, because “they can see the path” – a feeder system similar to baseball’s major and minor leagues. After young pilots accumulate enough air time flying for a regional airline or a cargo carrier, they’re eligible to move up to a major airline.
Many are aiming for a job like Sharon Sweeney’s. The first officer with United Airlines flies a 777 from New York to London, Tokyo, and Singapore. After graduating from Embry-Riddle, she flew freight and regional airline routes for three years in the Pacific Northwest, then moved up to Pan Am, flying from New York to Washington, Boston, and the Caribbean for two more years.
It doesn’t take long for Embry-Riddle students to learn there are other satisfying pilot jobs besides those with the major airlines, which fly domestically and internationally, and the regional U.S. airlines, which serve domestic routes.
Business aviation flying higher
New pilots also are needed to serve business travelers who are trading commercial aviation’s long lines and high-priced last-minute tickets for “fractional ownership” of a jet. While some business people pilot the jet they own a share of, most contract with a company like NetJets to fly it for them when they need it.
And later this year, the Federal Aviation Administration will certify a new generation of high-tech “very-light jets” for flight. The FAA expects up to 5,500 of these pilot-friendly small jets to be acquired by corporations, air taxi services, and individuals by 2017. With two aviators required per plane, as many as 11,000 more pilots might be needed in this brand-new segment of the industry.
One source of less-visible professional pilot jobs is the flight departments of companies that fly their executives and customers in the corporate jet to do business around the country and the world, from Dallas to Dubai.
"This career path lets young pilots move up to the left seat of a large business jet in three to five years," says Frank Ayers, chair of flight training at the Daytona Beach campus. “Many prefer that to the longer wait as a copilot in the major airlines.”
Embry-Riddle graduate Jeff Jablonski was flying a small furniture company’s Citation jet when Coca-Cola hired him as a pilot. Like Voss, his flight time when he signed up – 1,000 hours – was much lower than the 5,000-hour norm for corporate pilots. He also did a student internship with Texaco’s flight department, which paid off when a former supervisor there moved to the beverage giant.
Medicine, mail and medivac
Cargo carriers such as FedEx and DHL also need professional pilots to fly everything from mail bags to medicine to their destination by the next morning.
Susan Karkman, a captain with Tradewinds Airlines, transports pharmaceuticals from Puerto Rico to Connecticut, Indiana, and North Carolina. The Embry-Riddle graduate prefers her job flying the “vampire shift” to her earlier piloting stints with Comair and TWA. “I just smile sometimes when I’m starting up the engines,” she says.
Helicopter jobs are growing in number, as well, according to Denny Lessard, who chairs the aeronautical science program at the university’s Arizona campus, where students can earn a minor in helicopter flight. He says potential employers include the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, border patrol, oil industry, medivacs, and wildlife agencies.
Sarah Thomas, who graduated from Embry-Riddle with a degree in aerospace studies, flies helos for Sky Helicopters in Dallas, Texas, where she’s a senior flight instructor. When she’s not teaching flight students and doing aerial surveys of construction sites, she flies standby for a TV news station. She has her sights on flying for an emergency medical service, the “top of the line” job for helicopter pilots.
Eat-sleep-breathe aviation
With flight-training businesses located at just about every airport, why learn to fly at a university, and why choose Embry-Riddle?
“The major airlines only hire college graduates, so why not get that degree at Embry-Riddle?” Howell asks. “The academic education that students get here is value-added. We steep them in four years of eat-sleep-and-breathe aviation.”
“They’re also getting first-quality, professional level flight training that’s well suited to the structured world of airline operations,” Howell says. “They know how to do things procedurally the minute they’re on the job.”
Coming from a university with the nation’s largest aeronautical science program gives graduates an edge in getting pilot jobs. “A manager at a major airline told me recently that a third of their pilots have Embry-Riddle degrees,” Howell says.
With numbers like that, he says, “our graduates come to the hiring table with a credibility that serves them well.”
Rob Eichelbaum shares that assessment. “When the interviewer asks where you did your flight training and you say Embry-Riddle, it’s done,” he says. “Embry-Riddle is the standard in the industry. People still call it the Harvard of the Sky.”
You read about big-name
airlines going bankrupt
and you think: bad time for
pilots. But then you go to the
airport, and it's jam-packed.
Get on the plane,
and every seat is full.
The fact is-- this is a great
time to become a pilot.
Pilots in a changing industry
By Robert Ross
Rob Eichelbaum never knows more than a day in advance where he’ll be taking business executives in the seven-passenger Cessna Citation Ultra jet he pilots for NetJets, a privately chartered flight service. And that’s just fine with him.
“It’s like being in a cross-country flying club,” he says. His job is night-and-day different from his last one, flying for Independence Air, a small airline that served regularly scheduled routes for Delta. And so is the industry he entered five years ago after getting an aeronautical science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Behind the headlines about major “legacy” airlines going bankrupt is an unreported story about how the aviation industry is reinventing itself and, in the process, creating exciting new pilot jobs like Eichelbaum’s that didn’t exist a few short years ago.
“There’s never been a better time to become a professional pilot than now,” says Cass Howell, who chairs the aeronautical science program for would-be professional pilots at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus. The degree is also offered at the Prescott, Ariz., campus.
Small carriers expand market, jobs
Pilot hiring is strong at the regional airlines, according to Howell. “The regionals don’t carry the burden of the legacy carriers’ big retirement and benefit packages,” he says, “and that keeps their costs low.” They also keep things simple. Southwest, for example, flies only one type of plane, allowing it to use the same tools and training for all of its planes.
By making air travel affordable for many people who never flew before, the low-cost regionals, in addition to competing with their bigger rivals, are actually expanding the market.
That means more jobs for people like Embry-Riddle alumnus Dan Voss. When regional carrier ASA hired him to fly Southeastern routes in a 50-passenger Canadair jet, he had only 750 flight hours and 55 hours flying a multi-engine plane, “a lot lower than someone walking in off the street would need,” he says. A big plus, too, was the university-arranged internships he did with ASA and Continental before graduating.
Most aeronautical science students start at Embry-Riddle with their eyes on airline jobs, Howell says, because “they can see the path” – a feeder system similar to baseball’s major and minor leagues. After young pilots accumulate enough air time flying for a regional airline or a cargo carrier, they’re eligible to move up to a major airline.
Many are aiming for a job like Sharon Sweeney’s. The first officer with United Airlines flies a 777 from New York to London, Tokyo, and Singapore. After graduating from Embry-Riddle, she flew freight and regional airline routes for three years in the Pacific Northwest, then moved up to Pan Am, flying from New York to Washington, Boston, and the Caribbean for two more years.
It doesn’t take long for Embry-Riddle students to learn there are other satisfying pilot jobs besides those with the major airlines, which fly domestically and internationally, and the regional U.S. airlines, which serve domestic routes.
Business aviation flying higher
New pilots also are needed to serve business travelers who are trading commercial aviation’s long lines and high-priced last-minute tickets for “fractional ownership” of a jet. While some business people pilot the jet they own a share of, most contract with a company like NetJets to fly it for them when they need it.
And later this year, the Federal Aviation Administration will certify a new generation of high-tech “very-light jets” for flight. The FAA expects up to 5,500 of these pilot-friendly small jets to be acquired by corporations, air taxi services, and individuals by 2017. With two aviators required per plane, as many as 11,000 more pilots might be needed in this brand-new segment of the industry.
One source of less-visible professional pilot jobs is the flight departments of companies that fly their executives and customers in the corporate jet to do business around the country and the world, from Dallas to Dubai.
"This career path lets young pilots move up to the left seat of a large business jet in three to five years," says Frank Ayers, chair of flight training at the Daytona Beach campus. “Many prefer that to the longer wait as a copilot in the major airlines.”
Embry-Riddle graduate Jeff Jablonski was flying a small furniture company’s Citation jet when Coca-Cola hired him as a pilot. Like Voss, his flight time when he signed up – 1,000 hours – was much lower than the 5,000-hour norm for corporate pilots. He also did a student internship with Texaco’s flight department, which paid off when a former supervisor there moved to the beverage giant.
Medicine, mail and medivac
Cargo carriers such as FedEx and DHL also need professional pilots to fly everything from mail bags to medicine to their destination by the next morning.
Susan Karkman, a captain with Tradewinds Airlines, transports pharmaceuticals from Puerto Rico to Connecticut, Indiana, and North Carolina. The Embry-Riddle graduate prefers her job flying the “vampire shift” to her earlier piloting stints with Comair and TWA. “I just smile sometimes when I’m starting up the engines,” she says.
Helicopter jobs are growing in number, as well, according to Denny Lessard, who chairs the aeronautical science program at the university’s Arizona campus, where students can earn a minor in helicopter flight. He says potential employers include the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, border patrol, oil industry, medivacs, and wildlife agencies.
Sarah Thomas, who graduated from Embry-Riddle with a degree in aerospace studies, flies helos for Sky Helicopters in Dallas, Texas, where she’s a senior flight instructor. When she’s not teaching flight students and doing aerial surveys of construction sites, she flies standby for a TV news station. She has her sights on flying for an emergency medical service, the “top of the line” job for helicopter pilots.
Eat-sleep-breathe aviation
With flight-training businesses located at just about every airport, why learn to fly at a university, and why choose Embry-Riddle?
“The major airlines only hire college graduates, so why not get that degree at Embry-Riddle?” Howell asks. “The academic education that students get here is value-added. We steep them in four years of eat-sleep-and-breathe aviation.”
“They’re also getting first-quality, professional level flight training that’s well suited to the structured world of airline operations,” Howell says. “They know how to do things procedurally the minute they’re on the job.”
Coming from a university with the nation’s largest aeronautical science program gives graduates an edge in getting pilot jobs. “A manager at a major airline told me recently that a third of their pilots have Embry-Riddle degrees,” Howell says.
With numbers like that, he says, “our graduates come to the hiring table with a credibility that serves them well.”
Rob Eichelbaum shares that assessment. “When the interviewer asks where you did your flight training and you say Embry-Riddle, it’s done,” he says. “Embry-Riddle is the standard in the industry. People still call it the Harvard of the Sky.”
uke: 
