I’m looking for a career change. I currently hold a bachelors degree and work as management in manufacturing. The office life isn’t for me, being outside/traveling has always been more my speed.
I think getting a commercial pilots license and getting paid to fly would be amazing minus the ‘away from home’ lifestyle that seems to come with it.
My question, are there positions that have you home every night? At most traveling overnight 10% of the time? Ideally a job flying smaller planes in a non-corporate environment. Thanks in advance!
There are a very few number of positions that offer pilots the ability to be home every night. Flight instructing, flying parachute jumpers and maybe some law enforcement jobs come to mind. None of these pay a salary that I suspect you would be happy with on a long term basis.
If you want to be a professional pilot, you will have to adjust to a significant portion of your life spent on the road.
Airplanes fly away from places over distances that really can’t be covered by car. While there may be some flying jobs that will get you home every night they are few and far between. While it’s possible it won’t be easy.
You might want to think about helicopters as they fly far less distances and those pilots are often home every night.
Hi Brendan, here’s a few airlines I’ve found in my quick research that seem to do more day trips - Empire Airlines, Allegient, Cape Air, HA inter-island …but as the Pilot mentors have stated these opportunities are fewer overall
While there are airlines that will allow you to be home considerably more often than others, those schedules often take years of seniority to hold. That’s the reason most state weekends and holidays as that’s what those at the bottom (and even higher) are given.
Seniority is not about flight hours but years of service at the airline. Hire rapidly you gain seniority depends on many factors. As an example I’ve been at my airline 9yrs and still can’t get all weekends and holidays off and also can’t get many single day trips.
To add a little: These jobs are out there but they are not easy to get. You really limit options if not willing to fly overnights either.
I have 2 buddies that fly Barron’s and PC12s mostly overnights and locals during the week. Salary around 100k plus bonuses (about 115-140k).
Pilots flying medical stuff usually have decent at home schedule.
if you find these types of jobs then expect to make $40k-120k/yr for your whole career. Likely will have multiple job hunts as industry changes.