Commercial Pilot Certificate?

Question

Is it possible to get a job with a commercial pilot's license locally so you don't have to be away most of the time? In other words, no 5 days away and 2 days home....More like 2 days away or none at all.....................

What is the longest you have been away?????

Answer 1

Thirteen months and two days. Bien Hoa, Republic of South Vietnam. First of all, you're going to have several jobs in aviation. Secondly, the big bucks go to the pilots that fly long distances and that means travel so if you don't like being away from home don't plan on making more than a flight instructor. Crop duster would work if you live near crops I suppose.

Answer 2

Yes...if you live in a city that an airline has a base in.  You could do out-and-back trips, or two and three day trips where you would be gone for one night or two nights.  Or you could work for an air ambulance company flying sick folks or picking up organs for transplant.  Or you could work for a corporate flight department like Home Depot, The Limited or WalMart.  

Of course that does not include the two months of training at the company's training facility...or the checkrides once or twice a year or the once a year recurrent ground school.

Usually at the end/beginning of the month something airlines call the transition you could get stuck working 6 days in a row followed by one day off followed by 6 more days on.  So not including two months of training the longest time I was away from home was just like I said above: 6 on-1 off-6 on of course add a day on each end to commute and you have 15 days!  Fun!

Answer 3

Yes, but they usually aren't high paying jobs and they generally are not jet jobs.  If you're talking about being an airline pilot (major or regional), the answer is pretty much no. You'll spend 1/3 to 1/2 the month in a hotel or motel bed somewhere with all of them. I'm a corporate pilot and my trips can vary from a day trip and home again that night to 10 days on the road at a time. Sometimes I'm home two weeks between trips, and sometimes only two days. EMS pilots don't usually spend a lot of time on overnight trips, nor do some of your smaller freight haulers or local charter operators. And flight instructors are home every night.  I flew as an air taxi pilot in Alaska for 8 years and I was home almost every night too. It depends what you mean by "commercial pilot", and where it is you want to live.