Career Spotlight: Corner office
Corporate pilots roll with the business
Qualifications
Varies by company, depending on what aircraft the company has. Clif Bar hired Johnston with a multiengine rating and CFII. She had about 600 hours, but the company was originally looking for someone with 5,000 hours—this was during the most recent pilot hiring boom, so that might have affected its decision to reduce the required number of hours.
Benefits: Flexible schedule, usually with days off during the week. Schedules are known well in advance; holiday trips rare to nonexistent.
Drawbacks: You might miss a friend’s birthday party, but nothing compared to what airline pilots experience.
Pay: Starting at $90,000 to $110,000 per year for Northern California.
Yes, and it’s called corporate flying. Corporate pilots fly aircraft for businesses, frequently acting as a sort of aerial car service for executives and other employees, transporting them to business functions at far-flung locations. Corporate pilots can work for a huge corporation that has its own fleet, such as Walmart, or a regional construction company whose owner has one airplane but sees the value of being able to travel to one state for a morning client meeting and to another state for an afternoon meeting with a supplier.
Erin Johnston (inset) flies for California-based Clif Bar & Co., maker of the eponymous energy bars. Clif Bar’s fleet includes a Dassault Falcon jet and a Beechcraft King Air 350 turboprop, which Johnston flies primarily to bakeries located in California and Oregon. Johnston joined the company as a part-time contract employee, flying about four to five days a month for a prorated day rate of $450. To supplement her income, she took Part 91 and Part 135 jobs until offered full-time employment with Clif Bar. She now receives an annual salary and employee benefits.
Johnston enjoys the flexibility that a corporate schedule provides. Days off during the week allow her to pursue outside interests such as a yoga training certificate. She enjoys the ability to visit friends for lunch in Los Angeles when her schedule takes her there for the day. Unlike an airline pilot, Johnston doesn’t have to work holidays because her company doesn’t work them, either. She also praises Clif Bar because, in addition to carbon offsetting, the company plants a tree for each mile flown in the King Air.
As someone who originally planned to go to medical school, Johnston enjoys working for Clif Bar and doesn’t think she’ll make that drastic career switch. She’s especially thankful that Clif Bar paid for her to receive a type rating in the King Air—not all employers are so generous—and will do the same when it’s time to learn how to fly the Falcon. FT
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