Whats it like flying biz jets
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Whats it like flying biz jets
Curious about flying biz jets. Is it full time, part time or do operators like to use adhoc pilots they can just call on occasionally. Also which type rating is the most likely to get someone a job or do you guys have multiple type ratings? Im thinking about joining the scene but I dont want to do it as a full time thing, just a few flights a here and there, get paid a fair rate and satisfy my need to fly without the sacrifice of being a full time pilot. Any real life stories and experiences welcome. Thanks.
First, don't buy a rating, leave that to the owner. You cannot possibly know which rating will be required for the job you want.
Second, part time cintracting maybe difficult without time in type. No one with a $50 million jet wants you to be a student on it.
Third, do you have any corporate experience dealing with owners and their passengers--likely needed. It isn't a lark as your comment, "thinking about joining the scene" would imply.
If you're outside the US, disregard, foreign owners don't seem to care who glides them.
GF
Second, part time cintracting maybe difficult without time in type. No one with a $50 million jet wants you to be a student on it.
Third, do you have any corporate experience dealing with owners and their passengers--likely needed. It isn't a lark as your comment, "thinking about joining the scene" would imply.
If you're outside the US, disregard, foreign owners don't seem to care who glides them.
GF
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Curious about flying biz jets. Is it full time, part time or do operators like to use adhoc pilots they can just call on occasionally. Also which type rating is the most likely to get someone a job or do you guys have multiple type ratings? Im thinking about joining the scene but I dont want to do it as a full time thing, just a few flights a here and there, get paid a fair rate and satisfy my need to fly without the sacrifice of being a full time pilot. Any real life stories and experiences welcome. Thanks.
Corporate flying deserves committed, dedicated and well trained pilots who fly regularly rather than weekend warriors who lack commitment as you seem to be! 🙄
PPRuNe Handmaiden
I am gathering by your profile you work for Titan doing contract work for other airlines?
Firstly, I wouldn't buy a rating, it will inevitably be the wrong one.
Business or private jets range in size from Eclipses to A380s.
Freelance or part-time is difficult to get unless you know someone.
The job... Well. Depending on who you are working for it could range from you doing the flight planning and buying the catering to having departments to take care of that.
Even so, you still need to check and load the catering, clean and prepare the cabin, oversee the refueling, toilet service etc. You'll probably have to fetch the pax from the terminal or at least escort them to the aircraft.
You'll have to load the bags and most likely give the safety brief and settle them into the aircraft. If you don't have a FA, you'll often have to do a basic service, food, drink etc.
Tidy the cabin prior to arrival, check on the pax onward requirements (car etc).
Either hand them to the FBO or escort them through the terminal. Unload the aircraft, clean, tidy, refuel and either put the aircraft to bed or fly another sector.
Slightly more work than the usual airline flight.
Firstly, I wouldn't buy a rating, it will inevitably be the wrong one.
Business or private jets range in size from Eclipses to A380s.
Freelance or part-time is difficult to get unless you know someone.
The job... Well. Depending on who you are working for it could range from you doing the flight planning and buying the catering to having departments to take care of that.
Even so, you still need to check and load the catering, clean and prepare the cabin, oversee the refueling, toilet service etc. You'll probably have to fetch the pax from the terminal or at least escort them to the aircraft.
You'll have to load the bags and most likely give the safety brief and settle them into the aircraft. If you don't have a FA, you'll often have to do a basic service, food, drink etc.
Tidy the cabin prior to arrival, check on the pax onward requirements (car etc).
Either hand them to the FBO or escort them through the terminal. Unload the aircraft, clean, tidy, refuel and either put the aircraft to bed or fly another sector.
Slightly more work than the usual airline flight.
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4500hrs B737, EASA ATPL. left flying 5 years ago as too much sacrifice for family and poor quality of life in middle east working for national carrier. Dont need to fly as a career as have a decent other job but still have the itch. Thought maybe biz jet would be an interesting option on a part time basis. Thanks for the constructive replies, Ill ignore the superiority complex reply of one responder!
On average how many days per month would a part time pilot typically work in the biz jet arena?
On average how many days per month would a part time pilot typically work in the biz jet arena?
You left airline flying because it was "too much of a sacrifice"; wait till you try business jet flying!
Unfortunately, in Europe it seems part-time pilots and "self improvers" have seriously damaged the career business jet professionals. Look at it from the owner's perspective, "I've got a pilot who wants me to train him, pay him a professional wage and benefits" OR, "I can get a pilot by the day who pays for his training". Which would you choose, if you were paying? In EU, the owners often grab the cheapest, in the US, 98% of the Chief Pilots wouldn't waste a second throwing them out.
Contractors with good experience in type in the US can work all they want for $1,500-$2,000 per day and usually are on speed dial with two or three departments. I am not sim current on the Challengers and Globals (4,000 hours on the types) and can't stop the phone from ringing.
GF
Unfortunately, in Europe it seems part-time pilots and "self improvers" have seriously damaged the career business jet professionals. Look at it from the owner's perspective, "I've got a pilot who wants me to train him, pay him a professional wage and benefits" OR, "I can get a pilot by the day who pays for his training". Which would you choose, if you were paying? In EU, the owners often grab the cheapest, in the US, 98% of the Chief Pilots wouldn't waste a second throwing them out.
Contractors with good experience in type in the US can work all they want for $1,500-$2,000 per day and usually are on speed dial with two or three departments. I am not sim current on the Challengers and Globals (4,000 hours on the types) and can't stop the phone from ringing.
GF
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For many years, or rather decades, I flew business planes - not jets at that time, but compared to handling a fully loaded piston twin on vintage avionics in difficult conditions, flying a modern bizjet is children's play - beside another job. No problem at all, no accidents or incidents...
I wouldn't want to fly with a colleague who does less than one mission per week - even experienced pilots tend to get slow after a longish break and are not much help to their other crewmember. But one day flying every week should be fine for someone with your experience and no need to build hours.
Apart from that, every bizjet job is different. There can be no "one answer for every question", especially not a generic question like yours. And, as has been pointed out already, the good (*) jobs are not advertised. Know someone who knows someone and the job will find you.
(*) "good" has a different meaning for everybody in our sector. For some it means a lot of money, for others it means being home every evening.
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Is that really so? I see it differently. We "self improvers" (or rather "self downgraders" considered the number of ph.d. holders in various disciplines and other highly qualified professionals who never forgot their childhood dream of flying an aeroplane and who now serve caviar and champagne to their passengers) have kept our sector alive over many difficult years. And for business aviation, the "difficult years" are those when the airline industry booms with everybody under age 40 running away from small jets. Without us "self improvers" or pilots otherwise not interested to drive airborne buses, bizjets would then either stay on the ground or be flown into the ground by those rejected from the airlines. Please think about that for a second.
Consider what terms and conditions would have been like IF owners had to compete for the airlines for pilots? Maybe subsidizing owners is just "buying" a job.
gf
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[QUOTE=galaxy flyer;9899675]Consider what terms and conditions would have been like IF owners had to compete for the airlines for pilots?/QUOTE]
Haha. Paying for one's typerating and the supervision maybe? Being paid so bad that one has to live in a trailer park outside the airport? (This is what one hears about pilots flying for feeder airlines in the US). There are no trailer parks where I live. And no bizjet pilot I know of has ever paid for his supervision - as is standard with some low-cost carriers.
Haha. Paying for one's typerating and the supervision maybe? Being paid so bad that one has to live in a trailer park outside the airport? (This is what one hears about pilots flying for feeder airlines in the US). There are no trailer parks where I live. And no bizjet pilot I know of has ever paid for his supervision - as is standard with some low-cost carriers.
I've flown 135 ( charter in the USA) for two years. In my first year I've been to 110 airports that I'd never been to before.
Unless you're high time in the airplane and very experienced in this side of the industry then part time charter flying is not for you.
Unless when you fly for a private owner and you only go to the same 2-3 destinations like a second home or business.
But flying for a private owner you don't have legal protection as far as scheduling and duty times are concerned.
It sounds you're looking for fun flying and somebody to pay for your currency.
Can't fault you for that but charter flying may not be the niche you're looking for.
It is possible to do what you want.
My main job is as a survey pilot, doing contracts in Africa and Latin America on turboprops. But in my time off I live next to a busy European GA airfield with large numbers of privately owned single-pilot jets (Citations, Phenoms). I get freelance work on them as second-pilot. It helps that I previously flew as a biz jet pilot so am familiar with the scene. My TRs are now all lapsed, but I don't need a current TR to fly as second pilot on a single pilot aircraft. The money I earn is just a top up to my salary as a survey pilot, and it is good fun to fly jets occasionally.
I do also know of a female pilot who has her own successful IT consultancy. She pays out of her own (deep) pockets for 3-4 type ratings, and freelances maybe 6-8 weeks per year. I doubt that what she earns pays for what she has invested in training, but for her it is more of a hobby I think.
My main job is as a survey pilot, doing contracts in Africa and Latin America on turboprops. But in my time off I live next to a busy European GA airfield with large numbers of privately owned single-pilot jets (Citations, Phenoms). I get freelance work on them as second-pilot. It helps that I previously flew as a biz jet pilot so am familiar with the scene. My TRs are now all lapsed, but I don't need a current TR to fly as second pilot on a single pilot aircraft. The money I earn is just a top up to my salary as a survey pilot, and it is good fun to fly jets occasionally.
I do also know of a female pilot who has her own successful IT consultancy. She pays out of her own (deep) pockets for 3-4 type ratings, and freelances maybe 6-8 weeks per year. I doubt that what she earns pays for what she has invested in training, but for her it is more of a hobby I think.
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Thanks for the responses, some good help and ideas coming through there. There is some options out there for what I am looking for but I certainly dont want to pay to fly, although I suspect thats what it would come down to if I pursue it part time.
I guess also that I would need a licence issued in each country to fly an aircraft registered I that country, is that correct and does that create problems when getting work?
I guess also that I would need a licence issued in each country to fly an aircraft registered I that country, is that correct and does that create problems when getting work?
but I don't need a current TR to fly as second pilot on a single pilot aircraft.
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I could be wrong but is there not some ruling now that only flight crew can occupy seats at the controls, and as you are not type rated and the aircraft is being operated as single pilot ops, should that seat not be vacant during flight? I understood the days of safety pilots were over.
https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/FOD201021.pdf
I could be wrong but is there not some ruling now that only flight crew can occupy seats at the controls, and as you are not type rated and the aircraft is being operated as single pilot ops, should that seat not be vacant during flight? I understood the days of safety pilots were over.
