Ask A Cargo Pilot

You know the drill: your first flying job is a time-builder -- such as flying a traffic reporter around town every morning and every afternoon. Then you move up to the small freight company. Then a bigger freight company. Then you hire on at a regional airline. Then flying regionals for a bigger airline. Finally, you're in -- a full-blown, grown-up, big-iron airline pilot.

That's the way a career should progress, right? Well, perhaps not, says Kit Darby. He's the founder of Aviation Information Resources, based in Atlanta. He's tracking aviation jobs these days and what he's found might stun you.

"Historically, we've seen a lot of pilots go from cargo to passenger airlines," he told Cox News Service. "Now, for the first time, it's going the other way. And it may be a permanent change."

Why is that? Darby, who counsels prospective pilots, has one simple explanation: "Boxes aren't afraid to get on an airplane because of terrorism."

Sure, only about ten percent of the commercial pilot workforce flies freight. But then, how many of them have been laid off lately? Answer: Not many.

Don't be disillusioned -- this isn't glamorous work. The hours are long and quite varied. There are many of the same pay and benefit issues that plague commercial passenger carriers.

"One thing I miss about passenger flying is seeing the same faces, the same gate agents, the same passengers on certain trips," said former Allegheny pilot Chuck Patterson, who now flies for UPS. "We work on the freight side of the airport. It's dark, it's dirty, and it's not a pleasant place to be."

But then, at some point, working anywhere is a good thing, right?

FMI: www.jet-jobs.com