Stay At My Gig Or Go Contract?

[LXApilot]

Guys & Gals,

Just looking for opinions. I'm currently flying -91/-135 as a Citation V ultra captain and am making good money with good benefits and home 15-18 nights per month. Occasionally flying the Citation III as PIC but not as much as I'd like to.

That being said I'm still not very satisfied with growth/transition opportunities and have been looking at getting a BD-700 type rating or getting recurrent on the EMB145 Legacy and switching to full-time contract work.

Any advice would help. I appreciate your words of wisdom.

- C

 

[Fokkerflyer]

I'd stay where you are. If you are that unhappy, look for FT work elsewhere. In today's economy the job market is such that you don't want to throw away a decent job without having a better one.

Also, unless you have the connections already, not many places will use you as a GLEX contract guy without any experience in the airplane. Keep that $40K in your pocket.

As for the Legacy contract work, I honestly do not think there are many of them out there.

Sorry to be gloom and doom here, but that's my .02

Best regards,
FF

 

[AA717driver]

You would join about a million Cessna-rated people vying for contract work. Same with the Legacy--every Joe Embraer RJ Capt. is a potential Legacy contract pilot.

BBD is churning out GLEX's at a high rate. But Fokker is right--0 time contract pilots are almost as lonely as the Maytag repairman.

A couple friends are trying to do contract on the G550 with 0 time. It's SLOW going. They're getting calls but it takes years off your life waiting for the phone to ring.

Maybe suck it up and try to find FT work with a company that has a large cabin (even if it means going 135) to get the rating and time in type. Good luck. TC

 

[NCherches]

Guys & Gals,

Just looking for opinions. I'm currently flying -91/-135 as a Citation V ultra captain and am making good money with good benefits and home 15-18 nights per month. Occasionally flying the Citation III as PIC but not as much as I'd like to.

That being said I'm still not very satisfied with growth/transition opportunities and have been looking at getting a BD-700 type rating or getting recurrent on the EMB145 Legacy and switching to full-time contract work.

Any advice would help. I appreciate your words of wisdom.

- C

I think it would be the STUPIDEST decision in the world to leave a job in which you are making good money, benifits and decent schedule. Besides with the state of the industry if you have a job (regardless of how bad it sucks) you better stay put. We haven't seen the worst and watch out as the airline boys start looking for corporate gigs!

Full-time contract pilots are like professional poker players... some make it big but most end up homeless, drunk and sleeping in the streets!

 

[johnsonrod]

Stay at your current gig until you can find a good, full-time replacement. Stay but network a lot on the side.

 

[Mountain Troll]

Treat it like a business. Would you spend the money to open a doughnut shop or laundromat without information? What is your marketplace? What is the supply of trained or untrained pilots for that type? Do the homework. Would you open shop next to a place that exists. Don't open a ham sandwich shop in a Jewish neighborhood. This is why pilots fail at being a contract pilot. 15% of time is pilot skills, the remaining time is business skills, ya know, marketing, sales, accounting and so on. Most pilots don't want to work that hard or have the discipline to make it long term.

 

[Shag McNasty]

Treat it like a business. Would you spend the money to open a doughnut shop or laundromat without information? What is your marketplace? What is the supply of trained or untrained pilots for that type? Do the homework. Would you open shop next to a place that exists. Don't open a ham sandwich shop in a Jewish neighborhood. This is why pilots fail at being a contract pilot. 15% of time is pilot skills, the remaining time is business skills, ya know, marketing, sales, accounting and so on. Most pilots don't want to work that hard or have the discipline to make it long term.

Very well said, couldn't agree more. The last two sentences are spot on.