Greetings,
I work for the USFS in CA.

Are you looking to getting into being a tanker pilot? Or a cheap and quick way to build multi time?

If you are looking for the later, right seating on a tanker is not the way to go. For a few reasons:

1. You are flying as SIC, and even though you are qualified in the aircraft, very little of the time flying is spent as you being the sole manipulator of the controls aka PIC time.

2. You don't fly all that much, only 6 to 8 months a year and maybe only 50 hours a month. You spend a majority of the time sitting around waiting for fires to happen.

3. Most airline pilots, and almost all profefsional pilots have a home base. As a tanker pilot your home base is the USA, as fires burn you move from base to base living your entire summer out of suitcase and a motel. Depending on which contractor you work for you either get 1 or 2 days off a week and you end up in whatever city you were last flying a fire out of.

If you are looking to be a tanker pilot, then right seating according to all the Cal Fire S-2 and OV-10 pilots it is the best way to get into aerial fire fighting.

The pay of a right seater on a Fed tanker is more per season then you would make in a year working as a regional FO. hour reqs. are only like 800 TT and 100 Multi. The trick is getting in. Usually to get a job at one of the three major tanker contrats. Aero Union in Chico, CA, Neptune aviation in Misoula MT, and Minden Aviation in Minden, NV you gotta have an inside reference.

Another route to take is to fly air attack (Observer) for a USFS contractor. According to the pilots at my base, they say the minimums are nothing more then Part 135 1500 TT etc.

The pilots I have talked to love their job. But it takes a special person to live their entire life out of a suitcase and spend a majority of their time waiting for fires. If you have any other question's hit me up on AIM tjm83ths02