>> Hi. I'm Brian Head.
I'm a corporate pilot based
in Nashville, Tennessee.
I love my job.
>> Brian, what does a corporate pilot do?
What's the schedule like?
>> You know, it's, it changed from
job to job or company to company.
That could be work calling now.
[Laughter] We're on, typically
a corporate pilot versus a,
like an airline pilot, you're
on call most of the time.
Mine is sort of blend of being a
corporate pilot, where I fly the airplane
for the corporation, their executives
and people involved with the company.
And then when they're not using
the airplane, I fly the airplane --
we charter the airplane to businesses,
musicians, and folks in Nashville
that need an airplane, but don't own one.
>> The schedule.
How often do you fly?
Do you fly every day?
What is, you know, I catch you now here at
a down time, you know, in between flights.
What is the schedule like?
>> You know, it changes from week to week.
There's nothing set.
We basically fly when our
passengers need us to fly.
Since there's a group of us and we have, you
know, several people in our flight department --
some flight departments are just two people, so
you're on when the company needs to go somewhere
and you don't really have set days off.
At my company, we're able to work with the
operations department and negotiate days out,
you know, maybe a month or so
in advance if we have a birthday
or holiday or just want a weekend.
And then the in between time,
it's really on demand.
It changes from week to week.
I could work four or five days a
week or maybe just one day a week.
>> How about for young folks out there --
they think this is something
they might want to pursue.
Advice for them in terms of best way to get
into it, steps that they might have to take,
things to expect -- anything like that.
>> You know, I get that question a lot,
you know what, tell me about flying.
How did you get into it?
How could I get into flying and
how could I do it for a living?
You know the first step is to, if you think
you want to learn to fly, is to go out
and get your private pilot's license.
You can do that at any local airport, just
about, and there's thousands and thousands
of small, local airports in
towns across the country.
That's the first step.
Get your private pilot's license.
It takes about 40 hours,
and a little bit of money.
And then if you like it and you think it's
something you'll have fun at, should be good at,
then you can take the steps beyond that.
You can continue and get all the
ratings that you'll need to fly
at that local airport, typically.
Or you can go to an organized school, a
professional school out of town somewhere.
Those are, that's kind of the difference going
to a community college of flying or going to,
you know, a four year university of flying.
And the cost is definitely reflective of that.
>> Brian, any experiences stand out in
your mind as kind of being, you know,
on the top of your list -- people you've met,
people you've flown, places you've gone --
anything sort of jump out at you?
>> You know, being based in
Nashville, Tennessee, we fly a lot of,
when our corporation isn't flying
the airplane -- when we charter it --
we fly a lot of musicians, a
lot of country music stars,
so you know I could name off a bunch
of those and really as far as people,
I wouldn't say necessarily any stand out,
but for me personally, the trips that,
the trips or the destinations that stand out are
places we don't get to go very often, you know,
when we go west coast, California, or
when we go out of the country, you know,
we'll get a three, four day trip in Mexico.
We have some down time to sightsee.
And the Caribbean's always nice.
So, and I really chose corporate flying as
opposed to the commercial flying because,
because it kept me home more
than the commercial flying did.
Or airlines.
I'm gone maybe two or three nights
a month, four nights a month
and sometimes I'm not gone
at all -- overnight, that is.
You know, we go out, we come
back in the same day.
And, you know, that to me is why
I stuck with corporate flying, so.
>> In terms of compensation,
obviously it's a big factor for kids
to consider as they're coming out of school.
Not needing to give specifics, but, you
know, how does the pay process work?
Is it a salary sort of deal, and, you know,
can you earn a good living doing this?
Can you kind of touch on that just a little bit?
>> Yeah, you know, in the long run, the airlines
can be a better, you know, better pay, you know.
That's the bottom line.
You know, but you can still make a
great living in corporate flying.
The reason that I didn't choose to chase the
high salary was it would take, you know, 15,
20 years to get to that, you
know, that sort of golden ticket
or high paying job with the airlines.
And it's not quite what it
used to be there either.
You know, there's a lot of
volatility, a lot of airlines merging
and they've taken their own pay
cuts, where in the corporate side,
we haven't seen a lot of that, so.
So typically the pay is very low in flying when
you first start out, whether it's in commercial,
you know, airlines or you're getting your
first job as a corporate pilot, co-pilot.
It's pretty low, but stick with it.
You know, you can make a good living.
I'm very happy with, you know, the balance of
my pay and my time off, you know, time at home.
It's definitely worthwhile.
>> Brian, thank you for talking to us.
Thank you for doing what you're doing.
Keep delivering people safely
to their destinations.
>> You're welcome.
>> Take care.