Contract Pilot Pay

[Iflyamouse]

How do contract pilots usually get paid: by the flight hour or by the day? Which is better?

I'm sniffing out an opportunity to be a contract pilot out West in the Turbo Commander/Merlin/King Air C90 category. Any gueses as to what could I expect to get paid for flying this type of plane on a contract basis?

I saw the ProPilot salary survey and Captain salaries for these planes average about $45K. Does this sound accurate?

 

[Falcon Pilot]

As a Falcon contract pilot I work by the day/week/month, whatever the customer wants. When I show up for a flight I am FSI or SimuFlite trained and current in the A/C.


Contract Pilot Rates are listed on this page

http://pilots4rent.com/rates.shtml

 

[Iflyamouse]

If a pilot charges a daily rate, does it generally include per diem or hotels? And is that rate the same regardless of whether you fly or not? (i.e. layovers)

Thanks for the link ... maybe I'm worth a little more than I thought.

 

[Falcon Pilot]

The daily rate starts from the day you leave home until the day you return home. Expenses are charged by actual out of pocket expense.

As for stand by time (time at home covering a airplane) it’s at the daily rate or something else negotiated with the company.

 

[Kingairrick]

Check out bizjetpilot.com. It is a free site for contract pilots. There is a pay survey page there also, broken down by regoin and aircraft.

King Air contract pay in central FL is 300-350 a day + expenses.

Hope it helps.

 

[FracCapt]

I occasionally contract in the Hawker. $700 a day PLUS EXPENSES(hotels, meals, rental car, etc) regardless of whether I fly PIC or SIC. The rate is the same whether I fly or sit at a hotel. I am ALWAYS available when on contract. This means that I do not even consider having a drink while I am being paid for contract work. I adhere to 135 flight/duty limitations - but aside from that, I am available to them 24/7 if they are paying me. If they call me to fly, and it is safe to do so - I fly. For the past several years I have always had offers to do contract work when I was looking for it...no shortage.

 

[msw]

BE-20 Contract Pilot work in SoCal?

Since we are on the contract pilot topic, maybe you guys can help with a few suggestions:

I'm semi-retired, but trying to get some part-time contract work flying a King Air 200 somewhere in Southern Calif area, but not having much luck at it. I'm not interested in anything full time, ideally would like 1 - 2 days a week filling in for some full time pilot that would like a day off. I've got about 8000TT, 2000 multi and 650 BE-20 PIC, with FSI recurrent training every six months. Are my times too low? Any of you guys got suggestions for "breaking into the market"?

 

[FracCapt]

BE-20 Contract work in SoCal

To be quite honest, for your total time, your multi and time in type are pretty low. Is there a reason for that? Did you start flying professionally after 20 years as a private pilot? Did you start flying FW after many years flying RW? What part of SoCal are you looking for work? Try checking out the operators at VNY, SNA, and LGB. If you find a company that operates 200's, put on your suit, print up a resume, and go to their office to talk to the Chief Pilot. You may have to do this several times at each location to actually get to meet the CP. If you send them a resume stating you are interested in part time contract work, they will probably throw it away as soon as they read it....but if you actually show up there, it's a different story. Speaking as somebody that was responsible for hiring pilots in the past, trust me - it makes a BIG difference when a person shows up rather than faxes or emails a resume.