Flight Express 210 Pilot

[TheOneMarine]

Do they normally overnight anywhere, say, if based out of ORL? What are the odds of getting ORL off the bat anyway? And lastly, is this just overall not a place to make a career? just curious is all.

[Boris Badenov]

No overnights, unless a plane breaks. Even then, very, very rare. If travel is your thing, you can usually pick up some TDY work to the less, uh, "appreciated" bases if you're so inclined. Decent hotels, rental car if you wrangle for (and need) it, plus per diem (not much).

ORL tends to go senior as far as I remember, but you never know. Pretty much any base is possible out of training, just depends on who quit that week and whether anyone else has bid it. Regardless, you with two or three months seniority, you should be able to bid most any (210) run that opens up as the guys who've been around longer than that are usually where they want to be.

There are a few guys who have made a career out of it, or at least spent 5+ years doing it. Not many. If you aren't wedded to six figures and a 777, it's not a bad way to earn a decent-but-not-spectacular living, particularly when you get a low flight time/high duty time run in a base you want to be in. I sat on a run that was ~2 1/2 hours of flying in a baron with a 13 1/2 hour duty day for about 6 months longer than I really needed to to move on, and took a pay cut to move to bigger equipment. It can be pretty cush if you're on the right run. That said, in the beginning, you'll probably be flying a fair amount. It's not horrible, but you'll be tired when you get home. Another thing to consider vis a vis making it a career is that check flying isn't going to last forever. IF they stay in business, the company will almost certainly change substantially.

Good luck.