Mike I agree and totally understand your thinking. Exactly why I haven't gone to a crappy regional for no pay or any of the other places that I have been reading about over the past 1.5 years or so on this site and others.
A decent regional has far better quality of life than your job. I've worked corporate, charter, and am now at a regional. The schedule at my regional is the best I've ever had in aviation. The pay isn't that great first year, but after that it improves fairly significantly while still maintaining a good schedule.
Maybe I wasn't clear though, the way I got this position was networking. I hear everyone say, NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK. So I was working with a long time family friend who is an aircraft broker. He bought a G-III to resale. Leased it to a guy for 3 months for a trail period. Owner wanted to purchase it. Owner also wanted it crewed by a qualified crew. I get the phone call along with the current captain of the airplane, " if you guys go to school right now, (captain to recurrent, me to SIC), for insurance purposes, since you guys aren't current. This guy will hire both of you Salary, and good salary".
Please don't take this as a slam, but if the owner really wanted a qualified crew, this wouldn't include a SIC with 1500 hours and no turbine time. Sounds like the owner wanted a cheap crew, which is not a good sign. It also sounds like you think $60k/yr is a good salary for a SIC. For a part 91 G-III SIC with lots of international flying, it flat out sucks. I also used to work as an underpaid part 91 SIC, so I understand how it goes... But I certainly understood it wasn't a "good salary".
When I became a PIC, they continued to low ball my pay... So I left. My own fault for accepting the initial low pay as an SIC. See how that works? Start low, stay low. There is no "I'll start low to get my foot in the door, and then negotiate to where it needs to be!". That never works!
So captain and I went to Simuflite, same time, as he is a contract guy and paying for his own recurrency for 6 years now I guess. So now, we both have stable jobs, only downfall is never knowing our schedule. And next year, owner is either, paying for our recurrent training, or buying a G-IV, and sending us both to get typed.
Ah, the old carrot on the stick routine. Never, EVER trust what somebody says they're going to do when it comes to future promises in aviation. I know this from my own experience, as well as observing situations that others have been through. Working for a corporate flight department that requires pilots to pay for their own types is about as far from being stable as it gets. What happens when something expensive breaks? Or the novelty of the new jet wears off? What if your aircraft broker friend didn't do a good job of explaining the EXTREMELY high operating costs associated with a large cabin jet off warranty? When the owner gets the new plane, don't be surprised if he expects you guys to pony up for the type again. After all, you already did once! If you don't, then he'll probably just find another guy like you that will.
Maybe I am out of line as a 30 year old, been ferrying aircraft instead of flight instructing for the past few years just to work up to a better job, but I don't see where I let an owner get away with anything.
Well, you don't know what you don't know. Paying for your own type sets a terrible precedent within your flight department. You already mentioned in another post that you guys stay in cheap hotels, eat cheap, crappy schedule, etc. Pretty much every corporate pilot would agree, that's a lot of HUGE red flags. I bet your duty days are horrendous too.
My way of thinking was head to a regional to make 30k a year if I was lucky, they pay for everything, or spend 18k one time and make triple that a year.
That's always a possibility, but that's assuming your job doesn't just go away all of a sudden, leaving you with an expensive experience in a G-III. Quite honestly, you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to work at this place for a year, and then move on to a premium Gulfstream gig when you have 2000 hours total time. It's possible, but not probable. Because it's such an old airplane, the G-III is typically operated by charter ops. Most insurance requirements for large cabin charter require far more than a 2000 hour SIC. Typically 3500 or so is about right.
