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A common theme of Gerszewski’s career success can be credited to networking. He doesn’t classify his tactics as such, as the phrase “networking” can often be seen as stuffy and disingenuous.
“Networking is a tough word because it sounds like you’re passing business cards. Instead, I’ve maintained relation- ships at all these shows and really had a blast with it,” he began before offering his sage advice.
“My simple tip for any individual starting out in avia- tion is just to say ‘hi.’ That’s my motto now because of the experiences I’ve had – it makes a difference. [When fly- ing corporate], we were based three hangars down from a university flight school. Our operations were always there, with the hangar doors open and pilots working. It was interesting seeing the number of students, many of them aspiring corporate pilots, who would walk by and never say anything.”
“The students who simply said ‘hi’ to us had the most success. They didn’t query and say, ‘Hey, do you have a job for me? or, ‘Hey, can I do this or that?’ They just came over and simply said ‘hi’ and then built a great relation- ship. This led to some incredible flying opportunities for them and opened so many doors that wouldn’t have been opened otherwise.”
Similarly, building and maintaining relationships led Gerszewski to his first flying job behind the yoke of a Pilatus PC-12. Briefly highlighting his corporate experience, he explained that when he joined this flight department – it only consisted of one aircraft. When he left in mid-2022 to pursue his airline career, he had become the chief pi- lot of the Part 91 flight department, which had grown by several aircraft and included a Pilatus PC-12, an Embraer Legacy 500, a Pilatus PC-24, and a Citation Latitude. The de-
partment will also be adding a Gulfstream G650 in the near term, he stated.
Regardless of the cool aircraft he was flying and the unique destinations he was visiting, Gerszewski always had in his mind that he would one day transition to the airlines.
“Like I mentioned in my original article, airline flying has al- ways been my goal, and so I knew I would be making that tran- sition at some point. I aspired to fly cor- porate aircraft, but I assumed I would not get the opportunity
to do so until I had gained extensive turbine experience after an airline career. Fortunately for me, I was able to go through the process in reverse. Corporate flying was the best learning environment for my aviation career. It made me a well-rounded pilot and employee. I really enjoyed the galvanizing process there.”
“With the cyclical nature of the airline industry, however, I had to make the difficult decision of ‘now or never’ and
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