CorporatePilot

The work

Corporate flying trades the airline’s predictability for flexibility. The destination can change on the day, the field can be short, and the crew is often two people who also handle the catering, the customs paperwork and the hotel. The flying is more varied and the standards are no lower.

A typical day

• 01Plan a trip that may be re-planned twice before it departs
• 02Operate into shorter runways and smaller fields than an airliner would
• 03Handle the ground arrangements the airline has a department for
• 04Wait, sometimes for days, then fly at short notice

How people get in

• From instructing

  A very common route. Corporate operators hire on judgement and attitude as much as on hours.

• From the airlines

  Some pilots move the other way for the variety, or for a roster that suits them better.

How it unfolds

1. Year 1Instructing or charter, learning to operate into fields an airliner would never see.
2. Years 2-5First officer or single-pilot on a light jet, and every part of the trip that is not flying.
3. Years 6+Captain, and often the person who plans the trip, handles the customs and books the hotel.
4. LaterChief pilot for an operator or a single owner, which is a management job with flying attached.

Is there a job in it

The hard parts

The schedule is not yours. A trip can move by a day or a continent with an afternoon of notice, and standby is genuinely standing by. You are closer to the customer than any airline pilot ever is, which is a skill in itself and not one everybody enjoys.

What you would need

• Short-field technique
• International procedures
• Customer judgement
• Self-dispatch