Dear Helicopter Pilots

A few months ago, a TPN Hangar Fly in Tampa included an awesome discussion with a pair of Army aviators. Both are reservists, and both have enough fixed-wing turbine time to be competitive for a major airline job. They’re working on their applications, but mentioned something about many of their coworkers that shocked me.

Apparently, there are numerous Army Guard/Reserve helicopter pilots, with day jobs at regional airlines, who are delaying their application to major airlines. These pilots are highly competitive for major airline jobs right now and are more competitive every day. I asked why the reluctance and the answer in many cases seems to be that they’re intimidated by the application/interview process at the majors.

So, let me get this straight.

1. You fly aircraft for which the only source of lift involves hundreds of moving parts and a 90+ degree turn from engine to rotor, through a transmission.
2. You operate said aircraft in ecological disaster areas equivalent to a 1930s-era American Dustbowl (and allow that dust to continuously infect the aforementioned conglomeration of moving parts.)
3. You fly these aircraft, in that dust, from hot & high locations with mountains that reach well above your service ceiling.
4. These locations are swarming with RPG- and small arms-toting maniacs that can easily kill your fragile chariots with a single lucky shot…

…and you’re scared of filling out an application or doing a little interview?

I have a few more spears to lob lovingly in your general direction, but I also want to address some additional TPN members. I have buddies from some of my former lives in the Air Force who are also highly competitive for a job at a major airline and have no remaining obligation to the military. Most of them are smarter and better looking than me, so they should have every expectation that a direct entry to a major is realistic. Despite this fact, they’re delaying major airline applications to work full time for the military. Some are within a few years of retirement, while others are just “troughing” as Traditional Reservists.

From one standpoint, I can’t blame these pilots. Some are flying the T-6 – quite possibly the best combination of fun, simplicity, safety, and fulfillment in the professional flying world today. (As long as you don’t care about breathing…uh…too soon?) Others have achieved positions of importance and respect in their Major Weapons System and Major Command. Their professional gratification must be through the roof. I feel like these decisions might be woefully short-sighted though.

I mention two specific groups of military aviators here, but you may fall into the same trap if you’re a long-time regional airline pilot. Maybe you’re a senior captain and line check airman. Maybe you have control over your schedule and you’ve figured out how to maximize your company’s contract to your benefit. You’re comfortable and it’s easy, so why leave, right?

My dear friends and Networkers…for your own good…would you care to join me for a brief reality check?

When you work for a major airline, you get more free time than you could possibly imagine. You can spend that time with your family, golfing, watching Game of Thrones straight through for the 8th time…whatever floats your boat…including floating in a boat…which you can absolutely afford now! When you go to work, all you do is fly. (Well, there’s also staying in nice hotels and sampling the best food and drink the country/world have to offer.) At this point in your life, you have enough flight experience that this flying is easy…or at least routine. When you’re done with work, there is nothing to do! No performance reports, no Christmas party, no commander’s calls…nothing! You get to live where you want and never have to move against your will again.

The regional airline captains reading this may be making $100K-$150K per year. That’s a great salary! How hard do you have to work to make that each year though? I made the top-end of that scale blocking just over 500 hours on second-year FO pay. That included 149 days of work, of which only 105 nights were spent away from home. If I’d worked as much as you probably do, my pay would have been even higher. My Air Force peers may have earned $10K-20K more than me last year, but they spent a lot more days working than I did. If I worked as much as them I’d have made more than $200K last year.

None of this is news to any of us though. You know what you’re passing up. The argument that really surprised me was that people are afraid of the application/interview process. There are plenty of trip reports out there to read, but I realize that I haven’t necessarily given many details about my own application and interview experience. In hopes of assuaging the fears of at least a few of you, here goes:

Application

The application isn’t that hard to fill out, it just take some time and attention. If you’re a regional airline pilot you’ve already done this successfully. I referenced The Pilot Network heavily for advice on filling out my application. This was back in 2014 before the existence of great resources like TPNQ, or the brain-trust being 22,000 strong and growing. I did pay a pro for an application review. He did a great job, though I think I could have gotten equally valuable feedback by trading beers for reviews from a couple of friends…but if you haven’t worked with Charlie Venema and his team at Checkedandset (https://checkedandset.net) you are missing out.

I had several instances in my application where it would have been extremely difficult to try and get exact names, dates, or phone numbers. I put notes saying something like “data estimated due to records unavailability” more than once in my application and nobody complained.

Interview

My interview was terrifying, but all terror was self-induced. Overall it was a very positive experience. My company did a great job of explaining exactly what they expected from me before I showed up. (Dress code, dates/times/locations, logbook as loose sheets of paper…no staples, binding, or cover pages, etc.) They were receptive to phone calls with questions. Travel arrangements were easy.

I arranged to fly out a day early to give myself time to settle in. When I arrived at San Antonio International Airport, there were lines all over the place. Weather in NYC was causing trouble. My tickets had routed me through NYC (I don’t know why,) and when I got to the ticket counter I asked the agent if it’d help her if I took a direct flight to Atlanta. She gave me a smile and a “yes” and I ended up with a shorter trip that day. Score.

I had an ulterior motive in asking this. I’ve heard stories of some airlines tracking your every move and interaction on the way to your interview…and the notes playing into their hiring decision. I didn’t get the feeling that my company had such a system in place that day, but why not try to help just in case, especially when it made my life easier anyway, right?

On the day of my interview, I showed up at the appointed time and place wearing the non-uniform uniform…blue suit, white shirt, red tie. Everyone in the hiring department was friendly and happy to see me. I’d followed directions, so it was easy to hand them a stack of papers and go sit in the waiting room.

I was there with 11 other people interviewing with me that day…we were all nervous but excited. We made small talk throughout the day, doing a pretty good job overall of reducing each other’s stress. Everyone was qualified and acted professionally. Nothing felt competitive…we all knew we’d stand on our own merits here.