Funny how over the years i'm finding other people that want a career flying freight! This is my fourth year of flying for a living, and the fourth that i've flown freight.
From the standpoint of flying for smaller freight carriers, you can expect quite a different expirence than your friends that go to commuters. You can plan on flying old and used airplanes in bad weather for not near top wages(oh yea, most of the airplanes you will be flying has NO autopilot). You can also expect alot of night flying, alot of time sitting around a hub in the middle of the night, and adjusting your life around your new nocturnal life.
On the good side of this is the expirence you build flying in the conditions you operate from day to day(or should I say night to night). There is great opprunities for lower time pilots to build turbine PIC time. And for us who just love them, the chance to fly older airplanes. My career has had me flying in some of the more cool, old, strange, and ugly airplanes you can imagine. For my age I have alot more time under my belt than all the guys I started out with, and 95% of it is PIC and half of my time is transport catagory PIC. I wouldn't have that much PIC if I had went with the commuters.
Also, depending on what kind of operation you work for, you could do all sorts of different kind of flying. If you get into an airline that flies scheduled runs plan on flying to a hub, sitting around for 3-6 hours, then flying home. If your airline does Ad-Hoc charter, you can plan on flying different places all the time hauling god knows what. I have hauled something as mundane as a radiator, to something as exotic as a male gorilla on his way to mate with a female! Also, if your doing ad-hoc, plan on living off a beeper, and not having a social life outside the crew house while your on call.
I fly freight because I like the lifestyle. I enjoy working with people, but I have never been turned on my hauling pax. Just somehting about getting out of a crew bus and walking up to an old airliner with a BIG hole cut in the side that excites me. Maybe it's also because freight airlines are the only place I can fly the airplanes I have always wanted to fly... Who knows why, but I definatly know flying freight is NOT for everybody.
Flying freight has taken me to most of the US, most ALL of the Caribbean islands, alot of Mexico, alot of Canada, and some of South America! Try going those places working for a commuter... The bad part is, I USUALLY didn't get to stay there long!
My hope is to fly for UPS one day, although I would not pass up an opprunity to go to FedEx, DHL, or Airborne. There is really good stability in freight, and there is really good pay. You just have to get over the part that the company you work for looks at you like it does its delivery drivers. Frankly, i can't wait to put that brown uniform on!
Anywho, if anybody is interested in a night in the life of a Caravan/Shorts/Convair freight pilot, just let me know....