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Old 09-10-2013 | 07:17 AM
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Cubdriver
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From: ATP, CFI etc.
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Jeep, assuming you made a typo in your post and what you really meant to say is "after I get my Commercial license, what are my options for jobs?". The answer is there aren't many jobs for a 250 hour pilot. You will have around 250 hours at the completion of your COM certificate. You will not see few opportunities for paid flying jobs until you get to at least 500 hours. However, newly minted flight instructors can often find work with less than that. Give priority to earning your instructor certificate.

When I had my COM license and about 250 hours I went running around looking for work thinking I was just about there. It had been along struggle to pay for every flight hour up to that point. I thought the Twin Otter at the drop zone was definitely a possibility and "turbine time here I come". I remember making myself look silly to several turbine drop zones at the time. After several rebukes, I realized I was nearly unhirable with only 250 hours. So I kept adding time through various things like ferry flights, banner towing, instrument currency, and pleasure flights. At some point I got a drop zone to train me to fly the 182, but this involved a lot of time sitting around at the field waiting for training to meet insurance requirements. That went slowly for sure, and two years after getting my COM license I finally got a job flying a drop zone 182 as the main guy.

So, you can see how slowly it goes without your CFI. When I finally got my CFI I already had enough other gigs worked out not to need it very much. By that time I was into glider towing, aerial surveys, sightseeing flights and other things. It was more for window dressing at that point. The lesson is, get your CFI and use it as an early as you can.
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