Expectations of Contracting

What Does Life Flying As A Contract Pilot Look Like?

Flying contract has a lot to do with who you know and what type ratings you hold. Contract flying involves, as it sounds, flying on a contract basis per flight/job accepted, where you are working for yourself, flying for whoever will pay you, and you fly when you want to fly. This is the expert level of flying (read last section below). It’s a tough world to be a part of at times but a very lucrative one if you are successful.

You’re also running a business. You need to have some experience as an entrepreneur and run your contracting as a business.

Training

Contract pilots use their previous experience and skills to market themselves to clients. They are responsible for their own training and currency requirements, unless they have someone willing to pay for that training and currency. Many contract pilots do it as a second income and their primary employer, potentially a Part 135 operation, pays to keep them qualified in that aircraft for their own purposes. If they do not have this benefit, then they have to save up and pay for their own annual training out of their own pockets typically $15K or more.

Beware, do not go out and pay for a type rating out of your own pocket without a consistent job already lined up. Many agencies / owners want to see experience in the Type you are flying, which would make this idea a bad one. This would be an expensive gamble you would be taking.

Networking

Initially, it may be difficult to break into contracting until you start to get your name out there and people continue hiring you. You are totally dependent on others calling you for jobs and if you are not meshing well in the community, you may not get many offers. Once you make a good name for yourself, you can keep a steady stream of income with continuous calls for work. On the other hand, if you’re not ready and you get a reputation as an ineffective crewmember, it’ll be very difficult to shake that. It’s a very small world.

Using a staffing company is probably one of the best ways to find jobs initially and to ensure you are paid for those jobs. You will hear time and again of examples where a contract pilot was not paid, or not paid fully for a job they were hired for. This is a hassle no one wants to deal with, so having a staffing agency to handle these things can take that burden off you. If a staffing agency is not involved, then you want to have a signed agreement between you and the client before proceeding with any business contract flight. After you fly a few times with an agency, you could start to create your own network of pilots to fly with or owners to fly for (scheduled outside the agencies).

Flying & QoL

Expert level flying!! As a contractor, you have to show up to an airplane you’ve never seen before. Be able to determine its airworthiness. Know how to effectively gauge the current status of condition and inspections. Get into a cockpit with someone you’ve never met before and operate as a crew even if they don’t use standard procedures. Be able to work within whatever framework they use, using their checklists and SOPs. And even occasionally know how and when to correct the person you’re flying with, or worst case be able to take over the flight. The other pilot needs to be able to rely on you to do all of these things, even if they don’t realize it.

Quality-of-Life (QoL) is what you make of it. You control the schedule and when you want to fly. You will need to determine what your minimum number of days to fly might be for your budget and then anything over that is extra. Typically you will earn anywhere from $600-$3,500 a day depending on the type aircraft you fly and it could be more. You can go Here to see a listing of current contract rates for many different type ratings but we cannot guarantee how up to date the websites are.

There are many things about contracting that make it a tough job. The Captain is completely responsible for every part of the operation from the schedule, fuel, coordination, dealing with the passengers/owners, aircraft maintenance, and anything else you can think of. You more then likely will be flying under Part 91 rules which is the least restrictive and carries NO crew rest limits. So you will need to set your own limits, include them in your contract, and live by them.

You will want to make sure your pay covers all expenses for your trip or ensure that you will be paid back for those expenses on top of the daily rate (normal ops). You will also need to determine your ”rate” that you will accept jobs for and have plans for how to deal with new job offers. This is not something you should just jump into right out of the military until you get some experience as an SIC and see how the professionals run things. This is a different kind of flying but a very VERY profitable one.

An important aspect of this kind of flying is to know what the industry standard is for pay rate in your aircraft and to stick close to that rate. Severely undercutting the industry by offering your services for cheap only hurts the community of pilots and gives you a bad name.

PROS

You get to make your schedule and fly when you feel like it.
You can fly as a side gig while working another job part time.
You get to set your daily rate and you can make a lot of money. For example, A G-VII make an average of $2,000+ a day.
The rules are less restrictive.
You don’t have any company to micromanage you as you control all aspects of the operation beyond the wishes of the client.
If you find a great owner, you could become his go-to pilot and life is good.

CONS

You may have to pay for your own annual training and checkride $$.
You have no company planning department to lean on, so all aspects of the preflight planning is on your shoulders.
Flight equipment and software is a personal cost for you (Foreflight, Stratus pucks, etc)
You don’t have regulated crew rest limitations so be ready to fly when they ask (create your own limits and stick to them).
You may have trouble getting paid if you take a gig for a shady owner without a contract.
You don’t know who you may be flying with and what kind of training they have received. They may be great or they may have poor CRM and push the safety limits, you won’t know until it happens.
If turned into your primary job, finding flights can become a hassle. This can cause a lot of anxiety.
If your primary job, you have to treat it as a business and operate it as such.