Right now I'm instructing at a flight school here I'm flying like 5 to 6 hours a day. At this rate I'll be at 135 minimums within a few months, so I need to start thinking about my next "move".
Heres the thing, I have absolutely no desire to fly a huge jet. I love GA planes. I'll take a Baron, a Lance, a Caravan, or a Stationair over a CRJ any day. I'm not sure I'll feel this way forever, but as of right now, I want my next move to be in smaller planes.
Since none of the regionals fly small planes (that I know of), freight is my only option. For the longest time I've always just assumed Airnet, since I know a bit about them, and they fly the type of planes I want to fly. Recently I found out about a few other companies that do the same sort of thing Airnet does. I think one of them was called RamAir, and the other was Ameriflight. Are there any others?
What I'd like to know, is how do these companies compare to each other? Can someone point me to a webpage that sort of compares and contrasts the different companies? I know Airnet is all night (or at least 90% night), are the other two mostly day? Is the pay roughly the same among the three?
Also, bases. I kind of want to settle down somewhere, like in a big city (San Fran, LA, Miami, Phily, etc) and stay there for a few years. I want my social life back. I moved far away from where I grew up to do my instructing, and I have absolutely no social life. Is the life of a freight pilot similar to a flight instructor? Will I be forced to work long hours, and be shuffled from base to base as I move up in seniority? I want to be able to get into other hobbies, such as playing in a band, white water rafting, cycling, etc. Will working for a company like these make doing these things impossible?
Also, kind of related: When building for 135 mins, was the 500 hours of XC time hard to achieve? Generally speaking, is the normal amount of XC you do in flight training enough to gather 500 by the time you get 1200, or should I plan on making my students do the odd touch'n'go at another airport while doing local?
Heres the thing, I have absolutely no desire to fly a huge jet. I love GA planes. I'll take a Baron, a Lance, a Caravan, or a Stationair over a CRJ any day. I'm not sure I'll feel this way forever, but as of right now, I want my next move to be in smaller planes.
Since none of the regionals fly small planes (that I know of), freight is my only option. For the longest time I've always just assumed Airnet, since I know a bit about them, and they fly the type of planes I want to fly. Recently I found out about a few other companies that do the same sort of thing Airnet does. I think one of them was called RamAir, and the other was Ameriflight. Are there any others?
What I'd like to know, is how do these companies compare to each other? Can someone point me to a webpage that sort of compares and contrasts the different companies? I know Airnet is all night (or at least 90% night), are the other two mostly day? Is the pay roughly the same among the three?
Also, bases. I kind of want to settle down somewhere, like in a big city (San Fran, LA, Miami, Phily, etc) and stay there for a few years. I want my social life back. I moved far away from where I grew up to do my instructing, and I have absolutely no social life. Is the life of a freight pilot similar to a flight instructor? Will I be forced to work long hours, and be shuffled from base to base as I move up in seniority? I want to be able to get into other hobbies, such as playing in a band, white water rafting, cycling, etc. Will working for a company like these make doing these things impossible?
Also, kind of related: When building for 135 mins, was the 500 hours of XC time hard to achieve? Generally speaking, is the normal amount of XC you do in flight training enough to gather 500 by the time you get 1200, or should I plan on making my students do the odd touch'n'go at another airport while doing local?
). The class that started this week had three VFR pilots but two of them were sent home because of the instrument test. Just search the site for the training gouge or PM me.
