Originally Posted by
Mjm8710
I'm not sure which mapping company you're talking about, but my best friend just got out for a mapping company and he likes the regionals much more so far.
From what you described, it sounds like the same deal...he flew all over the country in a 172 doing aerial surveying/mapping and it really wore him out. He would usually be living out of hotels for 2-3 weeks at a time, and as soon as his "project" was completed he would have maybe a week (usually a lot less) off before his next project. Usually the flying must be done in VFR weather with high ceiling (above 3000-4000 feet) so the pictures come out right so at times a one week project turned into three weeks with him sitting around a hotel due to weather, or he was putting in 12 hour days in the plane to get the job done on time. All in all, I think he was only home once or twice in about a two or three (possibly four) month span before he decided to give it up and go to a regional. He did rack up the hours quickly though if that's your goal. I would do your research-if its anything like his job, you won't have a life besides flying airplanes. I would pick a regional if it was me for QOL- I wouldn't have been able to do what he did....but that's just me.
Good luck.
Yeah unfortunately I think it might well be similar. I will have to try and get a few more details on it. If I could arrange more of say a 14/14 or something, that'd be awesome. Like you said though, I think you have to hammer out the job when able, since wx plays a big part in it.
At least their is some resemblance of a schedule with a regional, even if its only 3 days off..and hopefully my RW time coupled with what I could fly in a year or so at a regional would mean it'd be a relatively short term deal...but who really knows huh lol!