avanti

I've heard that the US Customs & Border Patrol offers limited employment for pilots, but I can't find anything on their web site about this. Does anyone know if these jobs really exist, what kind of background/experience an applicant would need, and how to apply?

Fly4Pay

I know they fly P-3s doing counterdrug stuff out of Curacao and Ecuador. A lot of the guys are former Navy P-3 guys, but I don't THINK that ALL of them are--I never really asked. Those guys are gone a lot--used to see them down there in Curacao about one week on, one week off, or something like that.

1Seat 1Engine

The jobs do exist. How you get into them is a mystery to me.

My SWA interview class had a pilot from "Homeland Security". Double typed in the Blackhawk and the Citation (If I remember correctly).

avanti

Slice, & everybody else that replied to this- thank you. That answers a lot of questions. So, did *anyone* without prior military experience make the cut at all?

TankerBob

My buddy got a job offer from them, and they have tons of non mil guys there.

L'il J.Seinfeld

When I looked into it a few years ago I came to the conclusion that it was not that different from being in the military. They tell you where to live and what to fly. It's a govt job and the pay is pretty good.

SikPilot

You will have to become a border patrol agent first and that requires classes in law and spanish. You will have to speak fluent spanish. I also thought you had to be dual rated but I could be wrong on that.

flybynuts

Avanti,

Slice is correct. I had five friends just get hired with Homeland Defense. 100% pilot job. If you a Helo guy, then you will fly helos for a while and then fixed-wing. If you are both, then you can fly both. Every location is different and some are a little more customs and some are a little more border patrol. www.usajobs.gov has a posting for you to apply until April 14th. All of the new hires took about 4 months to get the call to get the "your hired." Hope this helps.

Dutch71

Just got a call from the Customs and Border Patrol for a pilot interview. Is there any gouge available regarding the interview process.

Thanks.

Ftrooppilot

Customs and Border Protection - Surveillance Branch - West

Flying five P-3 Orion Command and Control aircraft and five Surveillance and Intercept aircraft out of NAS Corpus Christi, CBP Surveillance Branch - West is responsible for detecting, identifying and tracking aircraft used to smuggle drugs into the United States. It also provides the Department of Homeland Security aerial protection for critical national infrastructures, and helps protect the President and Vice President when they are airborne.

Its area of responsibility includes the entire Western Hemisphere with P-3 aircraft routinely operating from regions of Alaska and Canada, south through the continental United States to the equatorial and Andean ridge latitudes. The aircraft have been re-positioned as far south as Paraguay, as far west as Hawaii, and as far east as Europe.

With a staff of only 129 people, this organization has been responsible for making a considerable dent in the drug trafficking trade. Since June 1987, Surveillance Branch-West has been responsible for the seizure of cocaine with an estimated wholesale value of well more than $4.8 billion at current market value.

Customs and Border Protection counter-drug air and marine detection, surveillance and intelligence operations have resulted in the arrest of 888 individuals suspected of involvement in smuggling activities; and the seizure of 200 aircraft, 213 vehicles, 126 vessels, and one million pounds of marijuana and 555,000 pounds of cocaine.

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