Originally Posted by
buzzsherwood
Thanks Rama, that is what I was wondering, is skydiving or maybe banner towing etc worth more because of the hours though? from what I hear I would maybe do 500 hours a year, more like 300 so 1/3 of that would count as like 100 hundred total time from what I understand.
So I am trying to figure out if I should try to get another skydive, banner tow etc at low pay but build hours faster would be more helpful.
If I stick out the FE for a year and do get into the Falcons the flight hours would not be as many, but it would be multi and jet time,plus a little experience of flying international(mexico, Canada, central america etc)
Where as if I did the skydive or banner tows I would build hours MUCH faster, but I would not get the instrument,night or cross country hours which would be a big downside. Ideally I would love to get a job flying SIC, however all the places that take low timers seem to be word of mouth and I have always been bad at making contacts and networking.
IF you got another skydive job, make sure it is turbine... yeah I know most people will tell you that you will have to be closer to 1000 hrs but if you have decent connections you can get flying caravans at least. I have flown KA 90s and otters for skydive ops, its not bad. Also with your time, you could look at something like Plane Sense flying PC-12s. They are hiring FOs at 500 hrs now.
Just think that getting trained as a FE when not many aircraft going forward use them isn't the best route to stay in the pilots seat per se.