Rich Harris is an entrepreneur, too
"The equipment is 10 to 15 years old - it's not the latest and greatest, but it's fine with me," Harris says. "I'm happy flying a simpler light jet and a medium-size swept-wing jet. I like the variety. The airplanes are professionally maintained, and I enjoy travelling. The pay is respectable, and I'm doing what I wanted to do."
In Harris's case, "doing what I wanted to do" means flying and operating a related business on the side. He's a self-described entrepreneur who used his own experiences trying to build a career as a professional pilot to design and launch an online business-aviation pilot-employment service known as AvCrew.
Harris was hired by the flight department about four years ago. Before that, he was just another pilot with a lot more ambition than experience. He has been enthralled with airplanes for as long as he can remember, but he didn't decide to become a professional pilot until after he graduated from college.
In high school he convinced his father, a former Air Force maintenance crew chief, to let him take flying lessons at Showalter Flying Service, and he earned his private pilot certificate. In college he flew just enough to stay current while studying for a business administration degree. A career as an airline pilot never seemed to be an option, partly because Harris thought his vision was too poor and partly because job prospects for aspiring airline pilots were not very good at the time.
Passion overcame practicality, however, and upon graduating from college in Texas Harris decided that, yes, he did want to fly professionally as a corporate pilot. "My vision was below airline standards," he explains, "and besides, I enjoyed flying people around, the more personal touch."
He moved back to Florida to earn the required ratings and certificates and began instructing at Orlando Executive Airport. Teaching appealed to him. He spent about 18 months at the flight school, then another year to 18 months as a freelance instructor.
He eventually amassed about 1,200 hours but still didn't have a multiengine rating, much less any attractive job offers. So he moved closer to his family in Tennessee and sought full-time work in another field. That diversion lasted a few years until Harris realized he was not going anywhere professionally, and he needed to get back in the air. He returned to Florida to enroll at FlightSafety International in Lakeland and earn a commercial multiengine certificate with a high-altitude endorsement. He got back into instructing and also began to seek contract work.
Harris prospected for jobs by sending letters to a few dozen local airplane owners offering his services as a copilot. One day he got a call from the captain of a King Air C90 who had received and kept Harris's r�sum�. Although the twin turboprop is certified for single-pilot operations, the captain was looking for a safety pilot. "You betcha!" Harris said.
He showed up for his first flight, a short deadhead hop to the Miami area, and the captain promptly put Harris in the left seat. "I was grinning ear to ear," Harris says. "He talked me to Miami."
The prospecting letters continued to pay dividends long after he had mailed them. Harris found part-time contract work flying a Cessna 414, a Beech A36 Bonanza, and a Cessna Conquest turboprop.
When he moved back to Florida from Tennessee to become a professional pilot, Harris spent time online looking for corporate flying opportunities. "But there was nothing for me," he says. "And I couldn't pick up a magazine to find corporate pilot jobs" because employers typically don't advertise for pilots in magazines.
That experience awoke Harris's entrepreneurial spirit. In early 1997 - even before he had his commercial multiengine certificate - he started www.AvCrew. com and slowly began building the business. Two years later both the Web site and his flying were picking up. That summer an intriguing ad came across for posting on the AvCrew site. A business jet flight department in Cincinnati had an entry-level position to fill. Harris, who had 2,070 hours total time and about 160 in multiengine aircraft, responded. Two telephone calls later he was invited to a personal interview and offered the job.
Harris survived his initiation as the junior member of the department, and also a downsizing - soon after he was hired the flight department went from 22 people and seven airplanes to 13 people and four airplanes. Since then things have been more stable.
His Web site also is going well. AvCrew has earned a reputation in the corporate aviation world as a productive clearinghouse for pilots looking for jobs and flight departments offering them. A recent snapshot showed about 50 pilots who had posted r�sum�s, plus about 80 contract pilots who were advertising their services. A handful of flight attendants and maintenance technicians also were shopping for work.
But according to Harris, those numbers don't tell the big picture. "I have a large number of corporate pilots - employed or recently employed in corporate aviation - registered who receive job listings and other information. The exact number I prefer to keep confidential, but it is over a thousand.
"Most important of all, however, are the thousands of pilots and other crewmembers who view the jobs page each and every day," Harris adds. "Most of these are pilots in the United States, but amazingly people all over the world find the Web site."
Harris's dual professions keep him busy. The flying comes first, but Harris has help that allows him to keep the business. His wife, Theresea, is employed by AvCrew to handle the day-to-day operations and administration of the Web site and handle customer relations. Harris does the planning and advertising and keeps the books.
Harris concedes that corporate flying has its challenges. "I'm not as fond of staying in hotels as I once was," he says. "And a 5 a.m. departure means an - ouch - oh-three-hundred wakeup call. Occasionally the weather stinks. Also, staying proficient can be a challenge in a multiaircraft operation - you may go for weeks without flying one of the aircraft." Compatibility with coworkers - who are, after all, crewmembers - is essential.
For most corporate pilots, however, including Harris, the plusses far outweigh the minuses. Make that a double bunch of plusses for Harris, corporate pilot and aviation entrepreneur.
Mark Twombly is a writer and editor who has been flying for 35 years. He is a commercial and multiengine-rated pilot and co-owner of a Piper Twin Comanche.
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