Bizjet careers

[jonnoboy]

Fellow flyers,

I am having my quarter life crisis and need some guidance! I currently work as an Avionics Engineer in the UK. I have my PPL with about 110 hours and love being in the airnow just as much as my first flight 15 years ago.

The problem is I'm not cut-out for this 9-5 office stuff and want to do something about it. Initial dreams were for the RAF. nearly got in, confidence got knocked and now too old to try again.

What appeals to me is the bizjets, or other forms of commerical flying that isn't airline orientated including agricultiral flying.

I don't really want to do an intense 60k course, but wonder how else i could find my way on the flight deck of a Citation or Gulfstream without having to remortgage the house I don't have!

Any advice, greatly appreciated.

Jonnoboy

[Chilli Monster]

Sorry jonno but in Corporate hours are king (for insurance purposes).

Even if you spent £60K on a CPL/fATPL course you'd still need a lot more hours than that'll give you.

You could go down the U.S licence route, and try and get a ride in an 'N', Bermudan or Cayman bizjet but a lot of these positions are "right place, right time, right face" situations.

There's a lot of people out there with the same dream as yourself - you have to speculate to accumulate I'm afraid (in time and places to be as well as financial).

[jonnoboy]

So in the real world, you think it would be easier to find an airline job and then move to bizjets?

How many hours would a Company be looking for to fill a RH seat position?

[CPTVOR]

Jonno,

Chili Monsters post is 99.9% correct but there are exceptions to every rule. I got a bizjet job with 300hrs TT, right after finishing my CPL\Multi IR. It was definately a case of right place, right time, at least thats where my CV was.

The best advise for any wannabe can be found on the wannabe's forums, but do yourself a favour and try to avoid the unnecessarily negative posts.

[Baron Von Mildred]

Un-necessarily negative from your perspective.

[jonnoboy]

Duly noted, thanks.

I understand that much in life is about being in the right place at the right time, and of course contacts always help.

I will continue building my hours and get my CPL. I'm then thinking of doing an instructor and multi-engine rating (with IMC for time being) to get my hours up further and at least get paid a little for doing what I love doing. Once I stand in good stead, I'll keep a bloody good look out and be a persistant bugger!

Any other opinions, as I'll take them on board!

cheers

[LHmain]

I stated flying late, I was on the spanners until I earned enough to pay for my tickets. I knew lots of pilots who told me the pitfalls of this chosen vocation. I saved the money, done the work and got lucky. Nothing ventured nothing gained. If you don't buy a ticket you can't win the lottery. Go for it.

[global707]

Jonnoboy

The CM is right. Hours count in this game, so your thoughts of investing in an Instructors rating is good. As gutty as the work can be, at least you are getting paid for flying and the hours soon rattle up in the log book. At any decent school you should be able to knock out 600-800 hours a year. At the end of the day, besides the need for specific hours on multi, turbine etc etc once in the system, the main benchmark is TOTAL time and thats where you will get ahead with instructing. That said, beware, its a hard graft.....

Cheers

[TFE731]

Jonnoboy

Just a thought, Biz jets often suffer from luck of available maintenance when away from base. As a lot of problems these days are Avionic based you may get taken on by a long range biz jet opperater as a travelling engineer. If they like you and you can get the approprate licence you might be able to work your self into the right hand seat from there.

I know it’s a bit of a long shot but it might work.

TFE731

[lancaster52]

anyone know how to get out of night freight flying at the age of 40 ?