Career first officer.

[justwanttofly]

Hi,

Has anyone every heard of someone being a career first officer? I'm wondering what kind of draw backs there would be aside from not making as much money as a captain. I mean would companies frown upon this, even though it would allow them to pair the career first officers with lower time captains?

Thanks for your input,

justwanttofly

[ant_321]

If you would consider being a life time FO then you have too small an ego for this business. haha. In all seriousness though I am pretty sure some schools in Canada offer a multi-crew license that would only allow you to be a FO. Someone can feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

[Les Habitants]

Never heard of a multi crew license in Canada.

Yeah, I suppose it's not unheard of for people with families at airlines such as AC to stay FO once they are making 100 000 +. They get the days off they want, good pay, and they have the best job security of all the companies. Why would they want to risk taking a 50% pay cut to be a captain, sacrificing schedule and security?

Someone who's single...well, that's a different story.

Cheers

[Big Pistons Forever]

All the major airlines have career FO's. A few are F*uck ups that are not upgradeable, but most are just victims of age and and an unlucky date of hire and thus lost the seniority lottery. They have decided that the life style benefits of being a senior FO is a better deal than being a 55 year old junior junior Captain with a shit schedule.

If your personal emotional net worth is only measured by whether or not you are sitting in the left seat of a high speed people moving conveyance then I feel sorry for you.

Personally I would rather work to live than to live to work..........

[W5]

@ Les Habitants:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/s ... u-2278.htm

Like BPF over my career I have run into a few 'career F/O's '. Some by choice, and some not by their own choice.

[Changes in Latitudes]

There are plenty of lifetime First Officers out there. I know people who refuse to bid captain seats just because the pay increase isn't worth moving to the bottom of the pecking order for seniority and losing their cushy schedule. Now having said that, these are typically large 705 or solid corporate operators where guys don't mind sitting on the right for eternity. Most large companies allow you the freedom to bid whatever you want, so there is no pressure from them to upgrade unless their captain's pools run completely dry. Being a junior captain is often a tough transition from being a senior first officer as schedule, stress, route preference aren't often worth losing for a slight financial gain. Often enough, that slight financial gain pushes you into a new tax bracket that makes the rewards minimal.

However...
If you're thinking of going from fresh CPL to career first officer, you're going to be rather limited in your career advancement options. At some point you're going to need to take the helm, even just to get your ATPL. Not saying it can't be done, its just limiting. Remember, lifestyle first. If you can get that, seat and type are irrelevant.

I typed all of that as BPF made his reply. All of which I agree with

[justwanttofly]

My ego is fine, and I was just simply wondering what the general consensuses was on the topic. I've met people who have only ever flown in the right seat right up to where they are now flying at AC or WJ. They seem to be doing pretty good and not upgrading for the above reasons. For me its more about lifestyle than it is seat, and type. Put me in a KA, 1900 or PC12 flying the right seat at a charter/medevac company making a decent wage and you'd never hear me complain.

Thanks for the replies

justwanttofly

[ahramin]

It depends on the company as well. Somewhere like AC where you can hide in the right seat as long as you want and then move over and get the same paycheck as if you were Captain the whole time encourages long term f/os. At Westjet on the other hand where seniority goes strictly by seat and there's no seniority bid for schedules anyway I would suspect that only those who can't upgrade stay in the right seat.

[iflyforpie]

The same sort of thing doesn't make me want to go F/O. I like single-pilot, it's a pay and lifestyle cut, all to eventually wind up making not much more than I am now. Maybe I'll get my As, maybe not.