This is the first of what I
hope to be many entries that chronicle my new career as a professional
pilot. About six months ago, Stephanie
and I decided that it was time for me to go ahead and pursue my lifelong dream
to fly for a living, specifically as an airline pilot. We made this decision together, and for a
number of reasons.
The last few years have
marked a great increase in the demand for pilots at all levels, mainly because
of a strong economy, airline expansion, and large number of Vietnam-era pilots
reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60.
As a result, airlines have lowered their minimum flight times and
requirements to hire pilots to levels not seen in many years.
Although it has not really
been intentional, the large amount of flight hours I have accumulated over the
last seven years through flight instruction, cross country trips, and Civil Air
Patrol have reached the level where airlines would start to take my resume
seriously in considering me for a flight crew position. Having reached 1200 hours late this year, we
realized that I could, indeed, be hired by a number of carriers.
Also, stability in our
financial lives and our lack of children at this point make it an ideal time to
switch careers. Having accumulated six
years of experience in software engineering, I am able to officially call
myself a “consultant” and have made arrangements with two companies to write
software in my off-time, including my former employer, Jeppesen.
In November I interviewed
with Ameriflight, the largest Part 135 freight carrier in the nation. My “in” was a friend of mine I met in Civil
Air Patrol, Scott Granger. Scott worked
for Ameriflight for six months before being hired as a first officer by
American Eagle. Scott gave me the name
of an assistant chief pilot who is in charge of the 19-pilot Portland
domicile. After a short interview, Tom offered
me a position as captain, flying a Cessna 402 throughout Oregon and Washington. The position promises to be very
challenging, as I will be trained to fly in the “single-pilot, all weather”
environment that Ameriflight uses to deliver feeder freight and cancelled
checks to small cities. That was about
two months ago.
Now I am sitting in San
Francisco airport, awaiting my connection flight to Burbank, California, the
headquarters of Ameriflight. Starting
tomorrow I will be attending eight days of training, including one day of
paperwork, three days of simulator lab sessions, and four days of traditional
ground school. I do not expect much
difficulty at the school as it covers mostly topics I have been teaching to my
students over the past couple of years, and I feel I am fairly IFR proficient. Still, flying the “Ameriflight way” will
certainly present new challenges and information that I hope to quickly learn
and apply.
I am very excited about the
start of Ameriflight ground school (and my career in general). I have been waiting for six months for this
day that I can call myself a professional pilot. I honestly can’t believe I will be flying, something I have done
for free for 337 hours this last year, and being paid for it. I can’t imagine what form my career will
take shape one year from now, five years from now, 20 years from now, and as I
approach my retirement. I can’t wait to
find out.
I consider this first flying
job to be largely an unknown, a test to determine if the career of a pilot is
for me, although I have little doubt that it will be. Certainly the wages will be just awful, about $1500 per month,
but Stephanie and I will be able to stay off the food stamps through her job as
a wedding coordinator and my software consulting. In fact, I probably could have waited a bit longer, built more
time, and gone straight to a passenger regional airline, but I have little
patience for waiting around and I believe the experience I will build at
Ameriflight will help me a great deal through my entire career. If nothing else, it should certainly put me
at an advantage to those who have done little else besides fly around the
pattern with students in a Cessna 150 to build their time.
Well, my beer is about
finished and boarding is to begin soon, so I will sign off for this entry.