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pay for piston twin pilot?

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sleepy16

New member
Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Posts
2
What would be reasonable for a passenger flying, on call 24/7 almost the entire year, home most nights, light twin pilot in the central US???? Please help soon - before I have to name my price to the boss:eek:
 
sleepy16

If we are a passenger,then $00.00,if we are a crewmember such as SIC about $125.00/calendar day.For a PIC about $175-$200/calendar day.Piston twins operating pt.135 normally do not have SIC's unless there is no AFCS and the ops spec's call for an SIC.
 
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...not sure what 24/7 on-call means. If this is just standard 135 charter life, i.e. hard days off are rare, but, you usually get a few days off a week, I'd think ball-park wage might be between $35-$40K, maybe as low as $30K. If 24/7 means a pager on all the time, and you never, ever, get to have a beer, then I'd expect way more than that.
 
50k is not unreasonable for 24/7 on-call stuff. A couple of years ago I was flying a cabin class piston twin for that much. Don't sell yourself short, that 24/7 stuff adds up.

-casper
 
I'm on almost 24/7. The only days I don't work are when it's overcast and on the weekend. Thats the survey business. Working that much flying piston twins, I pull about $46K.

Speaking of which, It's 640am on Sunday and clear in the northeast right now. It'll be a long day for me.
 
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Sticky

Sticky,

I like your motto. It seems a little dark however. Do you work out of Grand Rapids?

Skyline
 
Corp Piston Twin

sleepy16 said:
What would be reasonable for a passenger flying, on call 24/7 almost the entire year, home most nights, light twin pilot in the central US???? Please help soon - before I have to name my price to the boss:eek:

Let' see, if you are a corporate piston twin pilot then the pay typically is between $45-50K and you are flying up to date, well maintained attractive aircraft for someone who thinks you are an asset.

If you are a Part 135 piston pilot then the stardard bottomfeeder pay will be between $24-30K flying a POS of questionable maintenance for somone who thinks you are a liability.

Which coincidently is the pay and situation for a Lear Part 135 copilot.
 
Skyline said:
Sticky,

I like your motto. It seems a little dark however. Do you work out of Grand Rapids?

Skyline

Nope. I do know the company you're thinking about though. Heard good things about them. I'm with one of the largest aerial acquisition firms ;). Based in Philly unfortunately . Have you flown survey in the past?
 
I have....I need a job.

On the 135 piston twin. I was offered 24k on call 24/7 in a be-58 and also co-pilot in a king air. To me that meant flying two airplanes which meant no time at home and no money to pay bills. I turned it down and am looking for something a little better. I mean if i wanted to make 24k I'd go to the regionals.
 
Sticky

Sticky,

No I never did that kind of work but I have a friend who works there. He tells similar stories. It sounds like a good job, no pax, no cargo, VFR only.

Skyline
 
Skyline said:
Sticky,

No I never did that kind of work but I have a friend who works there. He tells similar stories. It sounds like a good job, no pax, no cargo, VFR only.

Skyline

Yeah..there are perks to the job. No pax, no cargo, no "super pilot" captain, VFR only, home everynight.

Down sides are no schedule. Maybe get 5 days off a month. VERY demanding flying. I'll spend 5 hours on flight lines that are .03 miles wide and with altitude limited to within 50 feet.
 
Survey Work

I worked aerial survey for about 5 years, in many types of airplanes. It was great work, except that the on the road time got really old. I also never had any hard days off, but I did have lots of soft days off, if you count sitting in a hotel room off. I am now flying on demand part 135 in a Baron with 1 hard day off per week, home almost every night and making 50k per year.

Everyone has a different job situation that will make them content, but you will not get your dream job or your dream salary if you do not ask for it.
 
Unfortunately, I learned that the hard way. It seems the only way to get a raise is to at least get a job offer. I was always amazed at how the answer changed from "we simply cannot afford a raise right now" to "how much would it take to make you stay" when I had an offer for a new job. Of course, some companies will call your bluff, so you have to be prepared to take the new job.
 
Loved the survey work - like flying a 5 hour ILS.

I'd expect between 36k-40k for flying a piston, cabin class, pressurized twin - you gotta eat.
 
NoPax said:
Loved the survey work - like flying a 5 hour ILS.

Isn't that the truth! Flew over the DC ADIZ today for 4.3 hours at FL190 in a C310. Ground speeds south bound were 205, and north was 141. Felt bad for the photographer though...so many drift changes.
 
Sticky said:
Ground speeds south bound were 205, and north was 141.

When I was survey flying, we had to fly our lines +/- 10m laterally, +/- 50ft vertically and +/- 10kts GS. All while not banking over 3 degrees (while we were on the line). We had target altitudes for the lines, and groundspeed for the shutterspeed of the camera that was set prior to takeoff.

I got to do Monterey CA and the San Francisco Bay area, all from about 3500ft - think it was a FEMA contract.

With winds like that we probably would have had to do them one-way or cancel the mission.
 
Hey, thanks for your help ya'll!!! Maybe I'll be lucky and get over 30K out of him. -and demand a few hard days off a month - Now I know not to take a penny less.
 
I get 250 per charter, and some commission on whatever fat I can add to the bill. Baron 58, single pilot mostly. Sometimes I have an SIC who gets 125. I also instruct full time though. We have one plane and I do all the marketing, advertisement, etc.
 
Sticky,
We've been shooting the entire ADIZ the past week and I had those same groundspeeds.... pretty sweet going one way....not the other. I was at 13.5. If it wasn't for all the coordination with tracon and all the BS that goes along with the job it really is a cool yet demanding job. Get to go and "loiter" in a lot of places almost noone else gets to go!! Can you say FRZ 1500 ft MSL all day....
 

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