Airnet or Airlines?

[trybysky]

Frieght! I don't regret this route, I'm having a blast and have never been sharper on instruments. Also I got to build multi turbine PIC after 3 months, something I would have had to wait a couple years for with most Regionals. Of course I'm in an old beat up beech, and they're flying some beautiful jets.
Whatever floats yur boat. Good luck.

 

[cforst513]

how many guys went from freight into corporate? i'd like to avoid the airlines, if possible. my CFI got a class date at airnet so if i'd like to go that route he would definitely walk in my resumé. but after that, i'd like to get with a good corporate outfit. have any of you guys done this?

 

[3blade]

Airnet supplies a lot of pilots to the corporate side of flying, I think it's where most guys go that drove the Lear around for a while. NetJets, FlexJet, Citation shares, Flight options to name a few.

 

[Goose Egg]

How can you get a decent quality of life when there are flight instructors pulling in more cash than a three-striper at Great Lakes or Mesaba.

Go to a different airline? Wait a year? Spend your money on food and rent instead of booze? If you think that I'm making more than the guys at Great Lakes, Mesaba, or any other regional, think again. And if I can make flight instructing work financially...

-Goose

 

[Dave Benjamin]

First of all I'd avoid making career decisions based on first year pay.
Look down the road 5, 10, 15 years and ask yourself where you want to be. Although Airnet is a fine place to build experience you also have to look at how much of their flying will be lost due to continuing implementation of Check-21.
Turbine PIC, preferably with a glass cockpit is what many carriers prefer. Although I'm not saying you won't get hired by a good paying major straight from Airnet how much more of a chance is there of getting hired from a 121 carrier?
You'll have to suck it up first year at a regional.
Second year you should be making in the 30's though.
A 5th or 6th year turboprop captain can make $60K plus. In the RJ it's in the $70's.
Where I work we are losing a steady stream of guys to Southwest , Jet Blue, UPS, and Fed Ex.

 

[Sgt. Hartman]

how many guys went from freight into corporate? i'd like to avoid the airlines, if possible.

If you want to go corporate, my suggestion would be to hang around at AirNet for a couple of years. In that time upgrade to the Lear and get your type (The type is provided to everyone at their one-year recurrent in the jet weather or not you are upgrading to captain). Hopefully by this time you will have 3000 or more hours total time with 600 to 1000 in the lear with a type rating and an ATP. With this you should be close to competitive for a captain position with a 135 charter operator with a lear 31/35/36 which will pay at least double what you will get at NetJets, Flex, Fltops in the first few years if thats the route you want to take.

 

[starcheckdriver]

Where I work we are losing a steady stream of guys to Southwest , Jet Blue, UPS, and Fed Ex.

And where do you work? And with regard to those leaving, how long have they been with your comapny?

 

[Doc Holiday]

Another thing to look at when talking about how many people move on to nationals or majors is the number of pilots at a particular company. AirNet is a small company with 200-300 pilots, many of which who intended on going the corporate/charter/fractional route. Several regionals are over the 1000 pilot mark and I would guess that most have their sites set on the 121 world. People have and will continue to move on to the nationals/majors from AirNet, just not a very large percentage of the pilot group.

 

[3blade]

First of all I'd avoid making career decisions based on first year pay.
Look down the road 5, 10, 15 years and ask yourself where you want to be. Although Airnet is a fine place to build experience you also have to look at how much of their flying will be lost due to continuing implementation of Check-21.
Turbine PIC, preferably with a glass cockpit is what many carriers prefer. Although I'm not saying you won't get hired by a good paying major straight from Airnet how much more of a chance is there of getting hired from a 121 carrier?
You'll have to suck it up first year at a regional.
Second year you should be making in the 30's though.
A 5th or 6th year turboprop captain can make $60K plus. In the RJ it's in the $70's.
Where I work we are losing a steady stream of guys to Southwest , Jet Blue, UPS, and Fed Ex.

That pretty much sums it all up. Good post

 

[Dave Benjamin]

And where do you work? And with regard to those leaving, how long have they been with your comapny?

All the regionals are losing pilots right now. If you haven't noticed most of the regionals are hiring like gangbusters due to expansion and attrition. I've been here for 5 years. One carrier I left out of the list is CO. I've watched at least 2 or 3 go there recently with 2-4 years of flying for us. One of the guys that left for UPS recently was in my initial class. Another one was about a year senior. I'd say the majority of those getting hired elsewhere have 3-7 years with us. I know a few that have gone to Alaska and some to America West.

Airlines like to hire RJ captains. The experience transfers over quite well. There isn't a whole lot of difference between flying for a regional and flying for a major which is why so many guys are getting the call. That's not to say someone wouldn't get hired straight from Airnet but that's the exception rather than the rule. Most airlines that I know of hire mainly from the regionals, military, and some corporate. Southwest used to hire from companies like Ameriflight and Airnet but I'm not sure if that's still the case. To get an interview at Southwest you pretty much have to have the 737 type rating which will set you back 7-8K. Most of the other airlines aren't even going to look at the resume.

One thing I'm seeing in this thread are signs of immaturity. Guys that are complaining about preceding aircraft flying stabilized approaches need to get their heads out of their posterior. If you want to be a professional learn to fly like one. Most FOM's require you to be stabilized at 1000 AGL which equates to about 3 miles out. I get paid by the minute. The company tellls me how they want their multi-million dollar investments operated. Some freight dog getting upset at slowing or having to do a missed because of lack of situational awareness doesn't bother me one bit. I flew a fair amount of 135 frieght and the lack of professionalism bothered me then and some of the inane comments I've seen are reminders of that nonsense.