How to adjust to less flying?

undflyboy06

undflyboy06

Well-Known Member
For those that made it into Corporate with relatively low time (2500-3000 hrs), how did you get used to the lifestyle of flying less when you still wanted to build your total time? I have been having a battle of the conscience lately over the concept of wanting to fly more to build up my total time or to accept where I am at and to finally enjoy my job and life. I was previously 121 and 135 cargo, so I have been used to flying my butt off and building up time at a descent pace, approximately 650-700 a year.

A couple of months ago, I was able to get my foot in the door with a local 91 operator. I have gone now from flying a lot to only flying approximately 250-300 hours a year. What's bugging me is that I am only shy of 3500 TT. I know that Corporate is not known in the industry for building time. Since I'm only 30, I know that I will eventually get to a point where I am happy with my total time. I am just used to seeing large aircraft operators in general want 4500 to 5000 TT. Eventually I would want to get in with those types of operators like a lot of pilots, but it will take me 7-8 years to get my TT up there.

It's just taking me some time to adjust to the change of pace. Even though everything in my quality of life has improved, I think I'm kind of in shock still. I'm just not used to having an aircraft that works, descent schedule and great pilot & owners. I'm just use to working like a dog.

I feel better now :). Thanks everyone for listening.
 
I've done the airline life and I was at a good airline, It sucked. Went back to corporate make good money tons of time off and now I can do some real estate brokering on the side.
 
undflyboy06 said:
For those that made it into Corporate with relatively low time (2500-3000 hrs), how did you get used to the lifestyle of flying less when you still wanted to build your total time? I have been having a battle of the conscience lately over the concept of wanting to fly more to build up my total time or to accept where I am at and to finally enjoy my job and life. I was previously 121 and 135 cargo, so I have been used to flying my butt off and building up time at a descent pace, approximately 650-700 a year.

A couple of months ago, I was able to get my foot in the door with a local 91 operator. I have gone now from flying a lot to only flying approximately 250-300 hours a year. What's bugging me is that I am only shy of 3500 TT. I know that Corporate is not known in the industry for building time. Since I'm only 30, I know that I will eventually get to a point where I am happy with my total time. I am just used to seeing large aircraft operators in general want 4500 to 5000 TT. Eventually I would want to get in with those types of operators like a lot of pilots, but it will take me 7-8 years to get my TT up there.

It's just taking me some time to adjust to the change of pace. Even though everything in my quality of life has improved, I think I'm kind of in shock still. I'm just not used to having an aircraft that works, descent schedule and great pilot & owners. I'm just use to working like a dog.

I feel better now :). Thanks everyone for listening.
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How did you swing that!? I was trying to do that for several years and could never network with the right people I guess. I just went back to what I know and have been successful at it, but I must not be that personable.
 
ppragman said:
How did you swing that!? I was trying to do that for several years and could never network with the right people I guess. I just went back to what I know and have been successful at it, but I must not be that personable.
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Just luck and timing to meet the guy. After that it took around a year of staying in touch and a few contract flights.
 
Im in the same boat as you, I just did my log book and Im at 2700 tt and I just turned 27. I have a pretty decent 91/135 gig but have only logged 260 hrs in 9 months. Its gonna take a while to get to a good build up of hours and I hope it doesnt hold me back in the future.

In my down time I bought a house and fixed it up, That keeps me pretty busy lately.
 
I think this is also a big issue for companies with a flight operations department. We are a Part 91 operation with a Flight Operation Manual that is mostly Part 135 with some 121 (mainly crew rest requirements). We want to hire the best people but we also want to keep them This isn't a big problem with our FO's as they are senior-level people and are being paid pretty much equivalent or more to what they were getting in their last job (121, 135 or military). However, it is a challenge for our SO's that are looking to build jet time (they know it, we know it and they know we know it). We would like to keep these guys/gals but we are a small operation ((2) G-550's) and it is unlikely any of our FO's will be leaving soon so there is no upward mobility. We pay our SO's very well but we don't fly a lot of hours. What we do is provide experience they may not have such as international flying (Asia and Europe) and working with a great bunch of people plus a reasonable amount of time off. We also have a low hour C510 they can fly on their own time if they get a SP type rating (we will pay for the rating in exchange for a 12-month bond prorated daily). Over the last 3 years we have lost some SO's but we parted on the best of terms because we each knew the other person's expectations.

I'm going to digress for a minute because it really bugs me when I read about some of the experiences of some corporate pilots. Our pilots do not arrange catering or transportation. We use Collins Ascend for that and we have Travel Coordinators (otherwise known as FA's) that deal with Collins Ascend). Everyone including myself, loads their own luggage on the aircraft. Why should professional pilots be required to act like bell hops? Everyone at our company is on the same team. Our FO's have Director titles within our company so they are classified as executives. Our CP is a VP. We treat our flight operations people the same as we do any of our other employees not like some third class citizen unlike other companies.

My advice is if your looking for a good corporate job, try and find a company whereby the senior management understands and is committed to their Flight Operations and/or even has a CEO that flies. I think you'll have a better time of it.
 
Lucky8888 said:
I think this is also a big issue for companies with a flight operations department. We are a Part 91 operation with a Flight Operation Manual that is mostly Part 135 with some 121 (mainly crew rest requirements). We want to hire the best people but we also want to keep them This isn't a big problem with our FO's as they are senior-level people and are being paid pretty much equivalent or more to what they were getting in their last job (121, 135 or military). However, it is a challenge for our SO's that are looking to build jet time (they know it, we know it and they know we know it). We would like to keep these guys/gals but we are a small operation ((2) G-550's) and it is unlikely any of our FO's will be leaving soon so there is no upward mobility. We pay our SO's very well but we don't fly a lot of hours. What we do is provide experience they may not have such as international flying (Asia and Europe) and working with a great bunch of people plus a reasonable amount of time off. We also have a low hour C510 they can fly on their own time if they get a SP type rating (we will pay for the rating in exchange for a 12-month bond prorated daily). Over the last 3 years we have lost some SO's but we parted on the best of terms because we each knew the other person's expectations.

I'm going to digress for a minute because it really bugs me when I read about some of the experiences of some corporate pilots. Our pilots do not arrange catering or transportation. We use Collins Ascend for that and we have Travel Coordinators (otherwise known as FA's) that deal with Collins Ascend). Everyone including myself, loads their own luggage on the aircraft. Why should professional pilots be required to act like bell hops? Everyone at our company is on the same team. Our FO's have Director titles within our company so they are classified as executives. Our CP is a VP. We treat our flight operations people the same as we do any of our other employees not like some third class citizen unlike other companies.

My advice is if your looking for a good corporate job, try and find a company whereby the senior management understands and is committed to their Flight Operations and/or even has a CEO that flies. I think you'll have a better time of it.
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I like this guy and his operation!
 
I got hied to my current gig at 1000 hours. Six years later, I'm sitting at 3000. With an internal rec, I interviewed at a Fortune 250 flight department that operates a G-IV and V (with a 650 on order), but missed out because the guy they hired had types from his time as an instructor at FlightSafety. My internal rec told to keep in touch with the DO and CP because I would be a highly preferred candidate in the next round of hiring.

Two months later, I was drinking at a bar with a crew from another locally based plane. The topic of my interview came up, and one of the other pilots was perturbed that I hadn't let him know ahead of time. He showed me the DO's phone number in his phone, stored with first name only, and told me that if I had wanted the job, he'd have made sure I got it. They are very close friends and talk on a weekly basis.

Long story short...stop worrying about how much flight time you have. For the most part, it doesn't really matter in the corporate world.
 
Getting your foot in the door in that world is the key. I'd drop anything I have going on for that chance right now. Reality is though, I gotta go get some recent experience and probably some TPIC before I can get a legit look, and I have some connections, just can't get past the insurance companies.
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
Long story short...stop worrying about how much flight time you have. For the most part, it doesn't really matter in the corporate world.
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That's not really true for a 91 operation because of the insane insurance requirements. If a part 91 company has a Flight Operations Manual (which they should have), it will almost always include (and should include) minimum qualifications for PIC and SIC. If the qualifications are 'Light", the insurance company will never buy-in and once a company signs-off on a Flight Operations Manual, it is gold. Aside from that is the practicality.. Do I want a low-time (relatively speaking) pilot on the flight deck of our G-550's? In all honesty, probably not. I would agree with you if your are talking about experience north of 2500 hours with turbine time (for SIC's).
 
Lucky8888 said:
In all honesty, probably not. I would agree with you if your are talking about experience north of 2500 hours with turbine time (for SIC's).
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Well, the OP said he has 3500 hours, so...

I saw a job posting the other day for a G100/G200 job that wanted 8000 hours TT. I laughed, called the HR department senile, and clicked on over to the next posting.
 
skypilot6 said:
Im in the same boat as you, I just did my log book and Im at 2700 tt and I just turned 27. I have a pretty decent 91/135 gig but have only logged 260 hrs in 9 months. Its gonna take a while to get to a good build up of hours and I hope it doesnt hold me back in the future.

In my down time I bought a house and fixed it up, That keeps me pretty busy lately.
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This is the exact situation I was in at 30 and it has been absolutely devastating in terms of my career progression at 35
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
Well, the OP said he has 3500 hours, so...

I saw a job posting the other day for a G100/G200 job that wanted 8000 hours TT. I laughed, called the HR department senile, and clicked on over to the next posting.
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Yea, you are right. I missed the 3500 hr part. But, there is also Turbine (Jet) time requirement. The 8000 hours for G100/G200 sounds like something an insurance company would initially "demand." 8000 hours seems like a strange number. 5000, yea, 7500, maybe..
 
I am going through the same thing right now. Our company has a CJ & a Baron. I've only flown the CJ 51 hours so far this year and the Baron about 150. We are on track to maybe fly the CJ 90 hours this year. I am starting to feel this job may be detrimental to my career, even though all the time at home is without a doubt nice. I just can't imagine having less than 1000hrs turbine in 10years, so I am starting to think I should bail now before most flight departments won't even look at me because of such little turbine currency.

I'm sitting on around 3000tt as well....
 
Thanks everyone for sharing your input or experiences. I think I have finally convinced myself to just enjoy my job and everything else. I have been thinking about what a friend told me a while ago and that is you will eventually get your hours one way or the other, so might as well enjoy the QOL. It just took me a while to finally realize that.
 
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