Expert: D. Norkus - 7/29/2004

Question
What is the market like right now for pilots?  I'm not really interested in being a passenger airline pilot, but more of a cargo or small/private plane pilot.  I'm a US citizen, veteran of the Army, and currently looking for something more exciting than an office job.  I'd appreciate any advice.  Thanks! - Don

Answer
Don

"Pilot shortage" is a term many flight schools like to throw out. There never really is a shortage per se, but a shortage of QUALIFIED pilots from year to year. The market right now is inundated with furloughed airline pilots. Many looking to go corporate or some other avenue. However, there are smaller jobs that these extrememly qualified guys won't take as they consider them a step down or they don't pay enough. (You will find pay is very low amongst the small cargo operators and even the regional airlines.)

You say you are interested in private business or corporate and small freight company type of flying. The 'private' or charter/fractional operators for hire like Net Jets and the like are very hard to get into right now. These jobs pay pretty well, and the furloughed airline types have filled their resume baskets. Cargo like UPS or Fed Ex is the same. Plus the qualifications for these jobs are very high or well over 3,000+ flight hours. The same one would expect of someone applying to the major airlines if not far beyond that with so many interested in those jobs presently.

Private flight departments at a small company may be less competative, but the positions are very hard to find out about. Word of mouth and personal contacts usually get pilots into those kinds of jobs.

Small cargo may be the least difficult to get into. Operators like Ameriflight or Airnet fly small single pilot piston & turbine night freight and hire in at substantially lower qualifications (about 1500 flight hours). Many consider jobs like this to get experience to the airlines but the regionals require about the same flight experience as these "Part 135" on demand or scheduled air cargo operators. (Part 135 is the FAA regs that covers these ops, while 121 is airline and 90 is general aviation.)

Since you did not say you have any flight experience, I assume you have zero flight time. Getting your ratings and obtaining the level of experience required to get a job will require at least $40K and 2-3 years of your time. Once you do become qualified and manage to get hired, the pay will be about $20-30K/yr as a new hire. There is just so much to cover and this is such a limited forum to do so. Therefore I will suggest further research at this most informative site for aspiring commercial pilots:

www.jetcareers.com

There are numerous pages about FAQs you will want to read and in peticular, this page is about a "day in the life' of a corporate pilot:

http://www.jetcareers.com/corporate.htm

They also have a message board that will be very informative to you. I suggest you post your question there for further feedback as well as reading over the posts about similar questions/careers already there.

In addition, this site has message forums for present and aspiring corporate/commercial aviators. It's another good place to get more feedback:

www.flightinfo.com

For research on who is hiring and what types of qualifications the applicants had, visit:

www.aviationinterviews.com

There are a few corporate & charter companies in the database at that site. Reading the interview gouge will give you an idea of what they are looking to hire and what kind of qualifications you will need.

Good luck
Dot