Originally Posted by SrfNFly227

I have gotten a few more questions about Keystone, so I thought I would post back up. First, I want to disclaim this by saying that I left the company in May 2007. I have talked to a few of the pilots since then, but my information is probably a bit out of date. This is my experience from what had happened historically, and I can't see a reason for them to change since it worked very well for them.

I also want to say that there is a huge difference between aerial survey and aerial photography. While there are cameras used in both, survey work involves a 300 pound camera that is worth somewhere from $500k to $1 million. The camera is mounted to the airplane and takes pictures through a hole cut out of the bottom of the fuselage. This is not taking pretty pictures out the window.

My total time at hire was around 560. I had 27 hours of multi. This was not unheard of. The reason they could do this was that they hired people as photographers. You were responsible for the camera and photos. Pay was not great, but better than starting pay at the regionals. In the 8 months that I was a photographer, I logged around 80 hours of flight time. I would fly on the way to and from jobs, but would hop in the back when it came time to fly the job. Being a photographer first helps greatly when it came time to fly the jobs. Later, as a pilot, I could understand what the photographer was going through and help when problems came up. I also learned the plane by talking with our mechanics and other pilots. I got the upgrade to pilot after 2 pilots left for other opportunities. This was based on time spent at the company, and there was another pilot who had been a photographer longer than me.

Day to day operations are out of Northeast Philadelphia. You were at home every night from September until May, although this was changing as I left. Crews were spending more time on the road as the digital camera was being used more. Office hours started at 7, but as flight crew, you were responsible for being at the job site when the photo window open. If that meant you came in at 6, so be it. From May 30 till sometime in September, you were traveling. One pilot, one photographer, one plane, a suitcase each for 3 months.

Time to fly. Will post up more later.