Life as a Corporate Helicopter Pilot

[RkyMtnHI]

This is going really well folks, please keep posting with your input..

 

 

If you have worked, or are now working, in a position as a Corporate Pilot, or support team, please let us know about your experiences. We have listed some basic ground rules and questions, but you can certainly add as much information as you would like.

 

Ground rules:

 

We want to know about YOUR actual experience, not hearsay.

 

Do not slam operators, we want to know the good and the bad, but please keep it professional.

 

If you have support folks that are not on the forum, you can ask them to type up a paragraph and add it to your post, it would be great to get their input as well.

 

Suggestion:

 

You might reply in a 'quote' so you can type inbetween the questions like this:

 

"What was best about the job?"

 

your answer here

 

or, cut and paste the questions and then answer..

 

Questions:

 

What were your qualifications (hours, certificates, and prior experience) when you got this job?

What was your pay and other considerations (vacation, insurance, 401k matching, etc).

How long did you work in this area? How many hours per year did you log?

What were your primary job responsibilities?

What was best about the job?

What was worst about the job?

Where did you go afterward, and how did this job help you get into your next one?

Was this your dream job or a rung in the ladder? Was it what you expected it to be?

If it's in the past, would you go back? if you did return, what would you do differently now?

 

What advice would you impart on folks wanting to follow this career path?

 

Thanks in advance for your help and input, this information could help many thru-out their careers.

 

aloha,

 

dp

[Helipilot PTK]

Came across this post, wanted to bump it up to see if we can get a response.

[CO423]

It would be appreciated if some of you guys could take a minute to answer a few of these questions. As a student it would be great info to read.

Good day

[ralpez]

trying to bump this up again

[Falko]

i havent done it but i know couple fixing pilots who do cooperate jobs, there is lost of sitting around at FBO's/Hotels and waiting for the customer to arrive at the airport.

 

Depending on for the size of company you are working for, it might be anywhere from just a very few flights a months, unknonwn schedule, up to lost of flying and a somewhat recurrent schedule.

[McGavin]

I guess I fly part-time "corporate" in the Los Angeles area. It's probably not the norm so I was hesitant to resoond, but here it goes:

 

1. About 1,000 hours of turbine LE experience. (It is who you know)

2. $250 a day with no extras. Sometimes it's for a quick drop at LAX (40 min round trip flight) and sometimes it's all day with a lot of waiting around.

3. I have been doing this for over 2 years. My boss flys about 200 hours a year, but I get less because I job share based on my availability (I have two other jobs)

4. The job is really more about management than flying. I'm tasked with managing maintenance, storage, insurance, other pilots when I'm not a available and even selling the helicopter. Once in a while I get to fly.

4. I enjoy the flying. The mission is much different than my previous experience and includes flights to the Laker game or winery.

5. I'm basically always on call and schedules sometime change by the minute.

6. Still doing it. It's really not a job that you would use as a stepping stone.

 

I'm not going to directly answer all the questions because some don't really apply to me. I enjoy the flying, partly because it is much different than LE work. I feel it has helped round me out as a pilot. I obviously don't do it for the money or as a resume builder. The enjoyment level is highly dependent on who you are flying for. I like my boss so this is a great job for me.

 

I don't think there is much corporate work out there (at least not in my area). I would be hesitant to make corporate flying a goal just because most people I know (including myself) have just fallen into it. I know a few people who do this type of "corporate" work and none of them are really full-time jobs. On the other hand, there are the charter type pilots that are just employed by a school or company that flys a wide veriety of missions from instructing to "corporate".

 

 

[ridethisbike]

Hopefully Lynn will see this thread and chime in. I know he flew corporate for a while. Met his wife at Heli-Expo on accident (wonderful lady). I believe she said he left it not too long ago though.

[jeffs]

So you don't get to wear a business suite and fly higher UPS all day? Well that sucks lol. That actually what I wanted to do. So anyone know who flies the Victoria secret model helicopter?