Anybody get hired in their 40's flying corporate

helinas · Post by **helinas** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:45 pm

I just got off the phone from one of my old buddy and happen to tell me he was hired by a corporate outfit as a first officer at the age of 41. Is there a chance to get hired at the age of 41 or later flying corporate? I wish him good luck and good for him because he had been at this game for a long time and he never quit and he also had about 1300 hours total time with 440 of twin pic.
Is there any hope for us other yahoos in our early 40's. If anybody has any stories to say please I would like to hear them.

Sub-Space Canoodler · Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:27 pm

Yes I have known a few but they all have much more time. Keep working and good luck to him...

Juggs · Post by **Juggs** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:25 pm

Nope. No chance of flying corporate after the age of 41. This is clearly spelled out the charter of coporate flying in section one.

I don't know, it's like anything else. There will be people that are hired for some jobs that are very young, others that are hired that are considerably older. There is no official cut off age for hiring. Some companies may prefer employees that are younger due to the demands of the job, other companies prefer older employees. Luck of the draw. You won't know unless you get out there and knock on doors. This is especially important in Canada as the corporate aviation sector is not as developed here as it is in the US. Corporate more so than other aspects of the industry is based on who you know. Quite often a corporate flight department may only be one or two airplanes with a minimal crew. Since generally corporate jobs are fairly well paying, people end up sticking around at them. So, not a lot of movement happens.

duplicate2 · Post by **duplicate2** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:18 pm

helinas wrote:I just got off the phone from one of my old buddy and happen to tell me he was hired by a corporate outfit as a first officer at the age of 41. Is there a chance to get hired at the age of 41 or later flying corporate?

Are you calling your friend a liar? Otherwise I would say you've answered your own question.

There's obviously a chance. Whether it's likely is a much bigger question. Depends on your experience and what the company is looking for. Some would probably like the maturity and others would like young 'uns who don't mind being away for weeks at a time.

You're relatively low time helinas right? I would say unless you have a serious "in", your chances are low.

Check Pilot · Post by **Check Pilot** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:44 pm

Juggs,

You have obviously misread section One of the Charter of Corporate Flying.

If you didn't already know, there is a minimum age requirement to be met before you can even get a type rating on your Licence. It only applies to Gulfstream products like GIV and GV however. If you will notice, those pilots all have to be and look over age 60. You must also walk with a pronounced list to one side because of all the hours of flying whilst sitting on ones wallet.

So don't be so quick to try interpreting the "Charter".

There, you've been correcred.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:10 pm

Older = Better for the corporate employer,

Don't know if someone older with a family, would like the corporate lifestyle.

trey kule · Post by **trey kule** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 3:23 pm

I think most corporate flight departments hire base on what they perceive is a professional pilot. And fortunately for the grecian grey set not rushing around, consideration for others etc. are perceived to be more developed in them

And....and, for my personal old bald opinion, I hates it when I have to do a ride and put on a headset that just came off of some young pilot's gel coated head..... walk into the interview with shiney slick hair and your job hopes are nil. The lesson here being we are all human and we hire as humans do, not from some preformatted set of specifications.

TTJJ · Post by **TTJJ** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:49 pm

I got hired by a corporate outfit at the age of 44.

xsbank · Post by **xsbank** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:39 pm

Most corporate operators want older guys because they want stability - they don't want you sloping off to an airline after a year or so. They want you to stick around until the CEO quits/they sell the airplane/you retire. Most C.O.s have steady crews who hang out together on loooong layovers, so you must 'appeal' to the guy hiring you, 'cause you will be in his face more than his wife! For example, one operator I know goes to Brazil for a month. Another to Europe for 5 weeks or more. You don't rack up the hours very fast but you DO rack up the Marriott points. Most of the good corporate jobs aren't really 'corporate' anyway, they are flying the owners/CEOs personally.

As one mechanic I met on one operation said, and he was not really kidding "...don't ever work for anyone who isn't at least a billionaire, otherwise they 2-bit you to death on your maintenance and expenses..." There really aren't that many billionaires in Canada...

One good way to get a start in corporate is to get a job with Flightsafety or Bombardier in their training facilities and get to know all the operators. The down side is that both of those outfits are in YUL. Some of the guys I knew there are flying full-time with C.O.s now, and lots of the guys are still there 'cause they like the pay and being home every night.

By the way, Flightsafety 'MIGHT' be a way into the US???

After you've been there for a while, you can get any type rating they have 'free'. Want to get a BBJ rating? G5?

CAE/Simuflight is all over the world now...

What's 2 or 3 or 4 years instructing on the latest sims, not flying much, getting new type ratings, going to do for your career?

CID · Post by **CID** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:44 pm

Most of the corporate operations I know of have relatively older guys in command (50 or 60) with a stable of younger guys to occupy the right seat. But even those tend to be 30+.

Just my observation.

22down 24tago · Post by **22down 24tago** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:22 pm

Hired at 40..

CVDRIVER · Post by **CVDRIVER** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:49 pm

Why would you want yo be a corporate slave at 40 , you have no control over your life, would you want to be away from home for 200 days a year at age 60. The only stability in aviation is to work for a company that makes money from Aircraft not a company that has a toy. i manage to make 170,000 and with 4 months off per year. if you are good at what you do you will succeed. Not Airline Be imaginative

cheers

Cool Rythms! · Post by **Cool Rythms!** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 8:03 pm

Sure, I'm 41 and I was hired by a corporate operation here in Montreal earlier this year. Unfortunately, they did not last long, but just the same, it would have been a great position with a very good starting salary and I would have been based right here at home, working with a great bunch of people. And I obtained a type rating on a jet, so it wasn't all for nothing.

I guess there must be a better flying position out there somewhere for me.

STOL · Post by **STOL** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:54 pm

I was hired to corporate in my 40's, mostly I think because I also had an AME licence. Unfortunately, operators think they're going to get a two-for-one deal and even though it was never discussed during the interview, they soon got around to asking me to look into some snags and reparing and sign them out (mostly signing them out only) I didn't mind while they only asked that I do this on the airplane I was flying, but later I was expected to fix other airplanes as well. Needless to say I didn't last long. I did some ferrying next and then went overseas for what I guess was a "corporate" job. I relieved an English Navajo pilot in the UAE who was overdue for leave (I had exactly 40 minutes of Navajo time...) I spent four months there in a really nice hotel all expenses paid and with a good salary. In four months I never turned a wheel - they never needed/wanted to go anywhere. So I got paid the equivalent of about a year's salary in Canada to sit by the pool for four months. Ocasionally I'd get a call from the owner's son and I'd have to go to dinner with him in some fancy expensive restaurant. This was a cultural thing as I was later told. A young Arab man of breeding and stature cannot be seen in public by himself, especially in the company of females, to maintain his reputation. Funny where "corporate aviation" takes you. I later got another corporate flying job, but I backed into that one too with my AME licence. This time they paid me extra for doing maintenance, although not at the full AME rate, but at least they didn't try to get a "2-fer". I was in my 50's by then and began to notice that once your hair starts to turn silver and you start losing some of it, people begin to respect you a bit more than when you were younger. At times I was being interviewed by people half my age. That can be a liability - they can get the impression that you'll be out for their jobs and refuse to consider you, but you probably don't want to work for someone so narrow-minded anyway. But people do come around to recognising that here's a guy who managed to stay alive three-four decades and that probably didn't happen because he was stupid or ham-fisted.

Bottom line : It's never too late. Don't turn anything down that looks half descent. Get all the training and experience you can and as many licences as you can. Stick with it if you love it - otherwise do yourself and everyone else a favour and get out. (I got out for a while, but someone found me and threw another job at me - I've now had nearly 20 jobs in this game. I don't have any money, but then again I can still say that I have never really worked a day in my life...)

Cheers

STOL

Anybody get hired in their 40's flying corporate

Anybody get hired in their 40's flying corporate

Re: Anybody get hired in their 40's flying corporate

corporate at 40

Anybody get hired in their 40's flying