Data Scientist & CFII VS Regional FO

Interviewed with a local 135/91 in TEB area few weeks ago with an offer in hand. They are looking to get me on board on a Hawker 800 and King Air 300 ( considering I do good in Hawker training.... King Air is for Spring-Fall special ops to different short fields in NE and I have tons of experience instructing from short strips). Starting pay is not too high but understandable (65K base + cell allowance, per diem, good 401k). Second year is 85k base and from my understanding they are desperate for PIC's so in theory I can be flying as a PIC in about 2 years. All I would have to sing is a 1 year training contract. Think I may take this and if it doesn't work in a year or so, will head back to engineering. Can use time away from home to polish programming skills etc. Judging by flightaware.com, some months airplanes have done mostly day trips out and back, other months a mix of out and backs and 4-5 day on the road.

Thoughts?

Go for it, you can always go back to engineering.
 
I would love to be part of operations/flying perhaphs assistant DO or DO. I wouldnt mind mixing flying with office/managment type of work.

Then you need to fly 135 - you should probably come to Alaska as well. You could be doing that in 3 or 4 years.
 
I don't think airlines will be a good fit for me. I think lack of involvement and doing constant 3-5 day trips to the same boring destinations I could care less about will kill it for me.

Interviewed with a local 135/91 in TEB area few weeks ago with an offer in hand. They are looking to get me on board on a Hawker 800 and King Air 300 ( considering I do good in Hawker training.... King Air is for Spring-Fall special ops to different short fields in NE and I have tons of experience instructing from short strips). Starting pay is not too high but understandable (65K base + cell allowance, per diem, good 401k). Second year is 85k base and from my understanding they are desperate for PIC's so in theory I can be flying as a PIC in about 2 years. All I would have to sing is a 1 year training contract. Think I may take this and if it doesn't work in a year or so, will head back to engineering. Can use time away from home to polish programming skills etc. Judging by flightaware.com, some months airplanes have done mostly day trips out and back, other months a mix of out and backs and 4-5 day on the road.

Thoughts?

I would focus on your schedule. That could be a great or terrible gig depending on how much they want you to work. The airline life isn't for everyone. There are some gigs with some defined schedules like 8/6s and 16/12s that may allow you to continue to work with your data jobs on the side. I wish you the best in aviation, but with your current gig and being able to work remotely that sounds like as killer of a gig as you can get. I mean if you can work remotely and make that kind of money is there anywhere else you'd like to live? If I'm reading you right you could literally bounce around the US and possibly outside of it and make amazing money. That said have you ever looked into maybe something seasonal like crop dusting or fire fighting. As I understand it a lot of firefighting is sitting around and while you may not have the best of connections it might allow you to work both at the same time if you're able to off-load the work to someone else when needed.
 
I would focus on your schedule. That could be a great or terrible gig depending on how much they want you to work. The airline life isn't for everyone. There are some gigs with some defined schedules like 8/6s and 16/12s that may allow you to continue to work with your data jobs on the side. I wish you the best in aviation, but with your current gig and being able to work remotely that sounds like as killer of a gig as you can get. I mean if you can work remotely and make that kind of money is there anywhere else you'd like to live? If I'm reading you right you could literally bounce around the US and possibly outside of it and make amazing money. That said have you ever looked into maybe something seasonal like crop dusting or fire fighting. As I understand it a lot of firefighting is sitting around and while you may not have the best of connections it might allow you to work both at the same time if you're able to off-load the work to someone else when needed.

Thank you! I have decided to give this Hawker gig a try and see where it takes me. Worse case scenario, I get a type rating and few hundred hours of jet time and go back to engineering (I am a little over 5 years experience now, shouldn't be too hard to find a job around NY/NJ area I think) or pull my connections and break into data science (I did not interview for this particular data job yet, still in my design engineering job which is not going anywhere). I figured I can use the time on the road (whenever I get an overnight) to sharpen my programming skills and 1 year isn't that much of a time. If I like it I stay and work towards PIC (company said to expect 130-140k a year as a CA within 18-20 month mark), and If not at least I know I have tried and won't have to deal with regretting not trying it.

Thoughts?
 
At your age you can't really go wrong, especially if your significant other is on board with it. You will never know unless you give it a try. When I was about your age I had a similar situation to choose between ATC and pilot. I had about your times except mine was scenic tours rather than instruction. I took the leap and went for ATC. When I washed out it sort of kicked me back into flying which turned out really well in the end. Your lucky to have two good options to explore.
 
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If it helps, I just left a really stable IT job after almost 7 years. I have 3 kids but the aviation itch just kept going. I also was miserable in IT, so there’s that. If I hate 121 I’ll look into 135.
 
I am sitting in initial now and things are going smoothly.......so far lol My engineering company has asked me to work part time for them (remotely and from office whenever I can) so that is super sweet. If for whatever reasons things don't work in a year, I should be able to transition right back to where I came from or worst case find another IT or engineering job or even start instructing at CAE as I live 20 minutes away from NETC. :)
 
Nice. Keep us in the loop. I wish I had some other skills besides watching basketball and drinking beer.
 
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