FedEx and UPS are among the most sought after companies for pilots to work for... Add United, Continental, Southwest and American to the list.

With the United and Continental merger both companies are pretty "fat" on pilots right now and "reviewing their staffing needs for pilots, and are not hiring at this time."

see here > http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...eer/pilot.aspx and here > http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,51564,00.html

additionally Southwest airlines has acquired AirTran - and their staffing needs are being evaluated even though they will collect resumes and hold them for the future if you send them one.

Dont get me started on American Airlines - They have not hired a single "new" pilot in 10 years relying instead on their list of over 2,000 furloughed pilots being recalled one by one to fill staffing needs.

FedEx fortunately is hiring... they are planning on hiring about 100 more pilots in 2011 - but, being one of the only major carriers - and probably the highest paying carrier out there that is actively hiring pilots means that things are very very competitive right now.

FedEx has published hiring minimums of:

1,500 hours flight time as pilot in command of a turbine powere aircraft (turboprop or Jet) this is the minimum they will require in order to accept your resume.

The actual competitive flight time minimums are statistically closer to 5,000 hours total time with 2,000 hours as Captain of a turbine powered aircraft and prior part 121 airline experience. (I really started flying regularly in late 1999... I have been flight instructing, charter flying and spent about 3 years at a part 121 airline and i just NOW after 12 years have just over 4,000 hours flight time. so building that type if time takes years and commitment)

of course to meet those competitive flight time minimums for FedEX you will have to slug it out working at a smaller regional airline as captain of a turbine powered airplane until you have reached 2,000 hours of flight time as a captain at some FAR Part 121 airline somewhere.

to get that much coveted captain time will require you to work for anywhere from 5-8 years as a first officer (depending on the company you hire into) before you can qualify by seniority for an upgrade to a captain seat.

of course... to qualify for a job as a first officer, you will have to meet the minimums of the regional you seek to be employed by which often required anywhere from 500-1,000 hours total time with 100-200 multi engine flight time to consider you for a first officer position.

to get that time, most guys flight instruct to build hours.

therefore the logical course of your career is as follows:

1. Graduate school with the degree and the necessary licenses and ratings.

2. Find work as a flight instructor to build hours in Cessnas and Pipers etc.

3. Once you have collected up about 500 hours of flight time (assuming you have the multi engine experience as well) start sending resumes to places like Colgan Air, American Eagle, Skywest, etc. and continue to build time. Send them resumes at 200 hour intervals until you get a response this may take you quite some time until you have close to their competitive hiring minimums. (Collecting the required time as a flight instructor to get a regional FO job can take anywhere from 1 to 3 years depending on how busy flight training is where you live and how many other flight instructors you have to share the airport with) in the mean time you will probably want to get a part time job delivering pizza, working at best buy or wal mart etc because flight instructing alone - unless you shack up with your folks - will NOT cover your living expenses.

4. Once you are hired by a regional carrier like the ones listed above, you will enter training as a first officer on a CRJ, ERJ, SAAB, Dash-8 or some other similar equipment. Do not count on the airline basing you in the town where you live - bases and equipment are picked by YOU based on seniority from a list of what aircraft and bases are available, and seniority is granted by several methods to new hires but if you are low man on the totem pole - you get last pick of base and aircraft.

5. Fly for the regional carrier for as long as it takes to get the upgrade. The lowest upgrade time i have heard of in a part 121 air carrier lately is about 4 years. This can increase or decrease overnight... so anyone reading this article in 4 years might say "yeah... more like 8 years" or "Wow... its 2 years now" you just dont know. on average though, this will take about 4-5 years for most carriers. (because upgrades are done by seniority, you wont get a captain seat by brown nosing the chief pilot, knowing a "higher up" or flying the airplane REALLY well... you will get it because it was your turn to get it and thats it). unfortunately - all that time you fly as an FO you will make almost no money and will almost certainly have to live with your folks or marry a wealthy woman or get a second job because you will average slightly less than $2,000 per month. This is not adjusted for location... which is why in LAX for example, where the cost of living is outrageous, it may be to your advantage to get a "Crash Pad" which is the cheapest apartment available shared with up to 10 other pilots at a time, bring a sleeping bag. (yes really)

6. Once you upgrade to the captain seat at Skywest (or wherever) you will basically be starting over at step 3 here. Fly as much as possible until you get enough hours to compete with other applicant's at FedEx, this will be at least 2,000 hours captain time which will realistically take 2 or 3 years to accumulate. Most of your competition at FedEx or UPS will have 5,000 hours total flight time and most of that will be turbine captain flight time at some airline somewhere. assuming you nail the interview and simulator evaluation, and the captain's board approves your application - you will be given a date of hire at FedEx.

keep in mind that during all of this process, nobody is safe from furlough or termination if the airline you work for is in a bad state of economic health. If you get a job for Skywest and they go tits up - you get to apply at another regional and - even if you were a captain - you have to start over at the very bottom of the new company's seniority list as a first officer.

it sucks but thats how it is.

so in short, be aware that nobody "starts" at FedEx... it takes years of building hours and experience to be considered for a job there, even if you have a man on the inside. The hiring process is set up so that no one man can hook another up with work... about the most anyone on the inside can do for you is write you a recommendation letter and put in a good word with a chief pilot etc. While this tends to increase your odds of getting hired, there are never guarantees.

we always joked about a lot of these major carriers hiring minimums... "Oh FedEx? yeah, you have to have 5,000 hours total time, 2,000 hours jet captain experience and like 3 logged lunar landings in the last 6 months before they will look at you."

lots of truth to that sarcasm.

It can be done, just be aware of what you are getting yourself into. It is a long hard competitive road to try and follow, you never know how it will work out until you try, but the journey - i assure you - is perilous.

think of it like this: getting a job at FedEx or some other major carrier is like building a sky scraper.

when you graduate from your flight program you are only just then barely starting to pour the foundation.


EDIT:

check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQJx3L_CDQ

This is awesome information - I'm documenting this thread so I'm not lost when the time comes

Too many passions and so little time, started out as a poor dirt farmer, loved running machinery, then got into the trucking industry didn't care much about the driving, seen to many sad stories so, I turned wrenches. Got involved in a little bit of railroading, then worked the docks in Port Canaveral and others, been to sea, loved working around, and on the ships, learned how too run the gantery cranes and all the other monster lifts, maybe some day I'll get some flight lessons in, alway wanted to be a pilot, I sure fly the hell out of the computer.

All of this makes me want to start up my flight sim with FSPassengers and try to 'roleplay' a flight career on, say, a 1:20 or 1:50 flight time scale.

I've always loved aviation, but my life took me into another pursuit that's close to my heart (teaching/academia), which turned out to be as difficult and heartbreaking as a career. It's like a lot of these things - you get into it for the love of it, but then get there and realize that you have to wade through a pile of political bull, customer service (yes, education is all about that these days too!) and nasty economics, and still have to somehow pay the bills - all while trying to be honest to what you actually do. I still have the pipe dreams of flying and I still have the inane amount I spend on my ultra-modified flight simulator, but the further I go the more I realize that I can't have everything. Maybe someday I'll have had enough of it and drop everything and radically change my career, but I fear that even now I've already passed the age where I could easily start something like aviation from scratch.

Awesome thread, though :yeah:

Here are some other good sources of information.

Go to http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/ and register. Talk to the guys there, there are plenty of pilots at every conceivable stage of a pilot career who can give you advice, and im sure many of them will 100% verify most of if not all of the information i have given you here.

Tell them what your current flight experience is, what your plans for an education are, tell them what your career plan is and be honest about what you expect out of your aviation career.

they will cut the BS out of the equation and tell you whether or not your goals are realistic, and offer tips and advice as to what you should focus on to make those career goals a reality.

Also:

You can look up pilot salaries here > http://www.willflyforfood.com/airline-pilot-salary/ to find out what you will likely be paid to fly. keep in mind - after flight instructing for a few years you will be starting out in the "National airline" AKA "regional airline level" so to be realistic, you should probably take a look at the hourly pay rate and multiply it times the "guarantee"

the guarantee is the guaranteed number of hours you will be paid for minimum. the average guarantee is between 70-75 hours per month of flying time. Once you are a more senior pilot you can bid a schedule flying perhaps as much as 85 - 90 hours per month. This will increase your pay, but not by a great deal.

so the equation is: hourly rate X guarantee = approximate pre tax monthly pay

be realistic when calculating pay, understand that this is pre-tax, also look down the road 3 or 4 years to find out the highest dollar figure you will earn in your course to a captain seat.

using skywest airlines as an example $22.00 x 75 = $1,650 per month before taxes will be your average income. (compare this to a 19 year old kid working at taco bell 40 hours per week at $8.50 per hour.... you are literally out earning a fast food worker by a scant 200-300 bucks a month.)

When you begin to close in on an airline interview you will want to look at what is called a "Gouge". a gouge is where other pilots have interviewed and posted a description of their interview process for others to "practice" or know what to expect when the time comes for them to interview.

most airline interviews consist of an HR interview, a Technical Interview, a Written Exam, a simulator evaluation and some include a medical evaluation.

You must pass all of those interviews to be recommended for hiring to the "Captain's board" not all airlines use a captains board, but those that do - usually one of the people interviewing you is on the board, and is prepared to give the other captains on the board a briefing on their opinion of you.

if you pass this myriad of tests, you get a phone call asking you to report to class.

Interview gouges are arranged by company and can be found here > http://www.willflyforfood.com/pilot-interviews/

when reading the gouges - take note of the experience level the poster has (be it 5,000 hours or whatever) and pay attention to whether or not they were offered a position with the company they interviewed with.

this way you can formulate a pattern and draw the conclusion that nobody with less than X hours has been hired by Y company.

So - side jobs if you have time aren't a bad idea?

And - thats about enough to rent a 1 room apartment and go on maybe 1 or 2 dates per month... Team up with another person and that + side jobs is maybe a 2 room apartment?

I should take a course in tax law - I hate the feds with all my heart. Requiring small block engines, "environmentally friendly" emissions requirement, social security (which it doesn't look like will be around when I retire), that socialist health plan, taking about 60% of my income... Ugg