is it possible to have a full career flying corporate?
Posted by Fr0styyx1@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 12 comments
Hey all! Coming up towards the end of my schooling here in Australia and now have a career choice to make. Aviation has always been a big passion of mine and and flying moreso. However as cool as big widebody jet's seem to me the corporate side has always had a soft spot. Gulfstreams, globals, so on.
Just wondering if anyone has started and ended their career flying corporate? Is it doable or do i have my head in the clouds here? And of course, the obligatory pay cheque question. Thanks!
Icy_Huckleberry_8049@reddit
yes, there are thousands of pilots that have done this. It just doesn't get the same publicity that flying for the airlines does as it's not as well known.
WeakStorage4786@reddit
My friend started and will most likely end his career flying for our big tech corporate company. he started as an F/O and is now the head of all corporate jets operations (still flying)
EpicDude007@reddit
Get some jet time at a small to medium sized operator. If they mainly has one airport as base you will meet their regular clients. Some of those clients will have their own plane and just use yours sometimes. I know several people who went that route. Others worked as a sim instructor and found their gig that way. There are also several websites targeting those jobs. Finally and that’s a lot of the jobs is through word of mouth.
primalbluewolf@reddit
... in Australia?
randomroute350@reddit
Yeah you absolutely can. Without getting too deeply into it, if you got on with the right unicorn job, you could do pretty well. You just won’t do airline 121 well. And the risks of losing your job are always higher. If you hang around long enough, you’ll see that most people eventually go 121. There’s a reason (pay benefits shedules union etc etc )
ApatheticSkyentist@reddit
Absolutely this.
I’m at pretty near the tippity top of 91 jobs and am considering 121 next year if they start hiring again.
Solid-Cake7495@reddit
Corporate in Oz is tough to get into, with some pretty shonky operators (I know from personal experience).
Flying corporate for an entire career is entirely possible though.
Skynet_lives@reddit
There are plenty of pilots that get into corporate and never leave. There are benefits to the corporate life like moving from left seat to left seat and only having four or five pilots in your group so you’re all familiar with each other. Also the flying tends to be much less 300 to 400 hours a year is a busy corporate gig.
Pay isn’t as much as legacy 121, but is on par with ULCC and ACMI captains and plenty of people make those careers. Benefits are all over the place, some are great some are after thoughts, depends who you work for.
bae125@reddit
Absolutely. There’s just not that many of those jobs. Like all of aviation only two things matter: timing and who you know
primalbluewolf@reddit
Its doable, but very much who-you-know and not what-you-know.
Starting your career flying corporate depends on someone giving you a job that insurance won't cover you for due lack of experience.
If dad doesn't run a charter business, you're going to need to build hours somewhere, and in Australia thats likely going to start with either skydiving, scenics, light charter, mustering or instructing. Not corporate jets.
If you aren't currently rubbing elbows with the kind of people who can just go flying on a private jet for fun, you're going to find it pretty hard to impossible to land a jet job without any experience.
OrionX3@reddit
I work for a small part 91 outfit in the US, and I would say definitely. 2 of my coworkers have been with the company for 20 and 40 years respectively flying citations and gulfstreams as well as some other stuff. I don’t see myself going anywhere else tbh but we’ll see. Love the work and the schedule
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Hey all! Coming up towards the end of my schooling here in Australia and now have a career choice to make. Aviation has always been a big passion of mine and and flying moreso. However as cool as big widebody jet's seem to me the corporate side has always had a soft spot. Gulfstreams, globals, so on.
Just wondering if anyone has started and ended their career flying corporate? Is it doable or do i have my head in the clouds here? And of course, the obligatory pay cheque question. Thanks!
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