Joining PAL - later stages of career

[Orion's Fannypack]

I'm heading towards 50 very quickly, live on the east coast, around 10,000 hours corporate, 705, + bush/specialty flying, plus a fair bit of management/safety exeperience. Currently flying international, long distance corporate. My wife is having some health issues and the idea of bombing off to an exotic locale for weeks at a time may not be in the cards moving forward.

Wondering if PAL Airlines or PAL Aerospace would be worth a look to keep me going as the late stages of my career draw clsoer. I just don't want to be gone for weeks at a time anymore, but don't mind a few nights at a time plus I am willing to fly a desk as needed as well. I'm not really into the commuting lifestyle at this point. We're debt free, no child dependants and we're okay to live in any decent sized area like YYT or YHZ without any issue. I welcome your insights!

[TurkeyFarmYQX]

If you go on the Classic Dash 8 with PAL Airlines you'll be home almost every night, maybe 2-3 nights away a month at most. That's only available out of YYT or YUL. The YHZ base is only the Q400 and you'll be doing Jazz routes, which involves more nights away.

[NovaBoy]

In YHZ we only have one overnight in YOW, rest are all day pairings.

[Monocularpilot]

if I were you especially with the current hours you have and the age that you are, I would apply as a DEC for jazz. Pay starts up at about 110k a year for a captain and you would be doing regional routes only. The pay is better than PAL and there is a little more variety in the destinations/ aircraft types.

[Inverted2]

if I were you especially with the current hours you have and the age that you are, I would apply as a DEC for jazz. Pay starts up at about 110k a year for a captain and you would be doing regional routes only. The pay is better than PAL and there is a little more variety in the destinations/ aircraft types.

He says he lives on the east coast. Jazz has no flying out east and commuting is a miserable existence. Plus you’d be on reserve for a long time and would have to spend a lot of time away from home.

[Monocularpilot]

What are you talking about jazz have no flying out east??? They literally have bases in YUL and YYZ. Living in YUL is also not that expensive compared to the two other major cities.

[Orion's Fannypack]

What are you talking about jazz have no flying out east??? They literally have bases in YUL and YYZ. Living in YUL is also not that expensive compared to the two other major cities.

Montreal is out west for us I was specifically looking at the east coast. I do appreciate everyone's input!

[mtruchon]

PAL is still looking for captains on the Q in YHZ last I know.
Pay is good, similar to porter on the Q. 106.5K a year is minimum guaranteed (at 78MMG and 2 training credits per month). Most make way more, typically 120-130 a year, more if you pick up lost of day off pay. Lots of it to be had on the Q-400. Classic DEC is not really a possibility anymore for DEC, they are downsizing in YYT and moving people to the Q, in YUL is all staffed. PAL is becoming mostly a Q-400 company at this time. Good place to be if the goal is not to go at the mainlines. Like the other person said, YHZ has mostly 1 day pairings. YYT has a mix of one day pairings and 3 day pairings. The single day pairing usually go to the more senior people. Family work life balance can be excellent to a little more challenging for those only having multi day pairings in YYT and YUL.

New contract starting to be negotiated this summer, current contract expires in October.

Jazz is supposed to have some announcement soon, looks like they are starting to move away from the Q-400 and going to focus mostly on jets, those are the last est rumours. Not sure what it means for the east coast bases at Jazz.