Grooming ones self for a chief pilot position

DakotaBlue

DakotaBlue

New Member
Hey yall, im currently a cfi at a large flight academy but ive never been interested in the regionals, just not my cup of tea...the reason i did it is for the speed of it....so anyway....i have a about 500 hours right now my II, and enrolled at ERAU online to get my business degree...my ultimate goal is to become chief pilot of a fortune 500 company one day. Any suggestions as to how to prepare for this...i.e. masters degrees, AGI, and the such....any info would be great!
 
Well you will need to build up probably about another 1500+ hours and then try to get on with a good Charter company (Pax carrying) and fly there for several years... Once you have 4000-5000 hours and a good amount of jet time (including a type rating or two) you will be a prime candidate for a job with a Fortune 500 flight department. Once you get hired you will probably spend a year or two as an F/O and then upgrade to Captain... After probably another 10 years or so as Captain you will have a good amount of experience and have a good idea what it takes to run a Flight Department... Once an opening comes, then you can try to position yourself to be selected.

Typically large corporations promote from within, they don't hire off the street for the Chief Pilot position.

You will definately want a 4 year degree as a minimum... Many years of work experience are also required.

I followed the road you are looking to take... the Regionals (and airlines in general) never appealed to me... If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me...
 
thanks cap....im glad you answered the question the way you did...because thats what i had in mind...eventually i want to get my masters so that wont be an issue...however i have a few opportunites...135 carrier flying military ops and cargo and pax rarely, charter with king airs and lears, or regionals as a last resort....like i said im at an academy, so i get the whole interview with a regional at 1000 hrs...if i do take the job with the regional because the other opportunities fail would that adversely affect me getting a job in the corporate world once i get the hours to be competitive. I want to get into the charter world if at all possible because i think it will give me good experience...any ideas on how many hours i would need to be competitive at a place like this?
thanks again
 
The problem with going to a Regional if you want to fly Corporate is that you will not have any opportunity to network, which is very important in getting a Corporate job. You'll get hours at a Regional but you won't meet the right people. Most Corporate operators would rather hire guys flying Charter since this type of flying is closer to flying Corporate than flying for an airline.

Figure out where you want to end up (Corporate or Airlines) and lay out your game plan... Don't try and jump back and forth, you will get much further by picking one route and sticking with it.
 
I already know that i want to fly corporate so it looks like i need to put my head down and wait for a charter job rather that time building at an airline....persistence will pay off eventually i hope!
 
When you reach 1200 hours go out and find a 135 freight job ASAP. Build up some multiengine time and then find a nice charter operator that flies turbine airplanes. If corp is your ultimate goal, stay out of the airlines, it is a completely different track to be on.
 
a buddy of mine just recently quit a well known regional after less than a year and took a job with a fractional operator. the regional helped him to get the turbine time requirement and gave him good experience flying passengers.
 
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a buddy of mine just recently quit a well known regional after less than a year and took a job with a fractional operator. the regional helped him to get the turbine time requirement and gave him good experience flying passengers.

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Remember getting hired at a Fractional and getting hired at a Fortune 500 Corporate Operator are two entirely different things...

If you want a good Corporate job, stay away from the airlines...
 
A good friend of mine is Chief Pilot for a Fortune 500 company. He did a stint for a regional during his time building days. He made a point of maintaining previously made contacts in the corporate world while building that turbine time.

You're right - it's not the best way to position yourself for Corporate. But it can be done.
 
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A good friend of mine is Chief Pilot for a Fortune 500 company. He did a stint for a regional during his time building days. He made a point of maintaining previously made contacts in the corporate world while building that turbine time.

You're right - it's not the best way to position yourself for Corporate. But it can be done.

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I never said it can't be done, but when you are psoitioning for these jobs, you want the deck stacked in your favor as much as possible...

We have a couple former airline guys who work for us, BUT they ALL had inside recommendations. The guys (such as myself) who didn't know anyone on the inside but still got hired all had Charter or previous Corporate experience, no airline.
 
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Remember getting hired at a Fractional and getting hired at a Fortune 500 Corporate Operator are two entirely different things...


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I knew it was comming
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I knew it was comming
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Funny how that always comes out, eh C-kid?
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I think a more important idea from the post he was refering to is that a person used an airline to gain the experience to get on at a fractional. I am hearing this more and more. Awsome change in pilot mindset. I love my job.
laugh.gif
 
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[ QUOTE ]
I knew it was comming
laugh.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Funny how that always comes out, eh C-kid?
grin.gif


I think a more important idea from the post he was refering to is that a person used an airline to gain the experience to get on at a fractional. I am hearing this more and more. Awsome change in pilot mindset. I love my job.
laugh.gif


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My point was, Fractionals hire many more pilots per year than a Fortune 500 company, so there is far less competition (i.e. larger number of job openings)...

I've said it a bunch and I'll say it again... Fractional and Corporate jobs are VERY different... They typically have different hiring mins, pay scales and other issues.

My point being is if you want to work for a Fortune 500 company you are better off going the Charter route vs. the Regional route for the reasons I stated above...

Getting hired with a good Corporate Operator isn't so much about the number of hours as it is about the experience you have...
 
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... Fractional and Corporate jobs are VERY different...
My point being is if you want to work for a Fortune 500 company you are better off going the Charter route

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Actually I agree.

Furthermore, in a charter environment, you are more likely to fly related equipment to the corp aircraft you desire. Of course, some commuters are using the same avionics packages as corp aircraft. Both the Do328 and ERJ series carry the Primus 1000 suite like the Citation Encore and Excel, and similar to the Primus 2000 in the Citation X (...and the DA900EX
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).

Long lists of operational differences......


Hey FalconCapt,
Does the 900EX have a CAS message system along with the annunciators? I was just looking on airliners.net and saw it has EICAS as well as annunciators. Is it P1000 or P2000?
 
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Actually I agree.

Furthermore, in a charter environment, you are more likely to fly related equipment to the corp aircraft you desire. Of course, some commuters are using the same avionics packages as corp aircraft. Both the Do328 and ERJ series carry the Primus 1000 suite like the Citation Encore and Excel, and similar to the Primus 2000 in the Citation X (...and the DA900EX
wink.gif
).

Long lists of operational differences......

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The main issue is the work environment... You can teach pretty much anyone to run the avionics and fly the plane, but being able to do "The Job" is where having the Charter background (vs. regionals) is where it will make the difference. Plus flying Charter (or even Fractional) gives you endless networking opportunities compared to flying for a regional.


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Hey FalconCapt,
Does the 900EX have a CAS message system along with the annunciators? I was just looking on airliners.net and saw it has EICAS as well as annunciators. Is it P1000 or P2000?

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Yes, We have a full CAS system along with the annunciator panel. It is the Honeywell Primus 2000 Avionics package with triple NZ-2000's and triple LaserRef III's...
 
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Yes, We have a full CAS system along with the annunciator panel. It is the Honeywell Primus 2000 Avionics package with triple NZ-2000's and triple LaserRef III's...

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We have Loran
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So do a lot of fractional pilots view fractionals as their career goal or are most of them time-building for corporate or airline slots? Further, don't most of the frax operators have similar hour requirements (2500+) as a lot of corporate depts?
 
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So do a lot of fractional pilots view fractionals as their career goal or are most of them time-building for corporate or airline slots?

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I think most guys view the Frax as a stepping stone, mainly due to the very low pay... I believe EJA starts new hires at about $28,000... I have heard this about EJA Pay: "A captain starts at $37,560 (except for the BBJ), receives $60,984 after five years and continues to increase to a maximum of $95,784 at year 14."

As a comparison, our first year guys are doing well over $80,000 PLUS bonus (this years bonus was over 10%) which would make their pay close to $90,000. This doesn't include all their other benefits such as Pension, 401k match, full medical coverage, full expense report, etc... It would take about 13 years at EJA to get to the pay level of our year 1 guys...


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don't most of the frax operators have similar hour requirements (2500+) as a lot of corporate depts?

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As an example, my company has the following typical minimum requirements:

Pilot Certificate: ATP
Total Time: 5,000
Multi-Engine: 2,500
Turbine: 1,500
Jet: 750

Having at least one Jet Type Rating and some International experience is a plus (Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean don't count)...
 
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As an example, my company has the following typical minimum requirements:

Pilot Certificate: ATP
Total Time: 5,000
Multi-Engine: 2,500
Turbine: 1,500
Jet: 750

Having at least one Jet Type Rating and some International experience is a plus (Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean don't count)...

[/ QUOTE ]

...wow
 
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