henrystache

Hi,
My name is Henry and I am a student pilot out of KADS working on my PPL. As you guys know I can't get paid with that license, but once I have it, I will be looking for ways to gain hours. My goal is to be an airline pilot but that's still far off. This would be a part-time job mostly weekends or summer. Does anyone have suggestions on ways that I can build flight hours at little or no cost without being paid in the Dallas area? Or is this a far-fetched idea? I saw that I could get jobs as pipeline inspectors or traffic report flying, but I think I need to have a different license. I also forgot to mention that once I have I will just barely be 17? Is that problem?
Thanks a lot!
Henry

rickair7777

You cannot do any flying for hire or compensation without having a commercial pilots license (need to be age 18) and meeting certain other requirements depending on the type of flying.

The word "compensation" is critical here, since the FAA can and will consider flight time itself to be a form of compensation for low-time pilots who are building time and you can be violated for doing flying where it even appears that you were flying for free in exchange for flight time.

Also most commercial type operations will have insurance requirements which you won't meet.

The best way to get free flight time in your position is to borrow a friend's airplane, or find someone with an airplane to go flying with who will let you fly and log it.

henrystache

Ok, Thanks a lot!

TiredSoul

Join the Civil Air Patrol

http://hosted.where2getit.com/civilairpatrol/index.html?form=locator_search&addressline=+++7500 1&postalcode=75001&city=&state=+&search=

Great way to further your development.
And there's no such thing as a free lunch. So offer to wash/fuel airplanes.

JohnBurke

In addition, whether you advertise in writing or by word of mouth, simply advertising yourself as being willing to provide pilot services (with or without an airplane) for any compensation or hire is called "holding out," and is also a big problem for the private pilot.

I was in the same boat, seeking ways to get flying experience as a 15, 16, and 17 year old in high school. I thought I'd come up with a surefire way to get others to cover the cost of the airplane. I knew I'd have to pay my share of the costs, so I put out flyers at high school advertising scenic rides and a unique experience for proms and dates. Take your date to see the lights. I broke down the costs, making sure that I'd accounted for my share of the expenses. It seemed reasonable to me. Imagine my surprise when I was hauled into the office of the manager of the local flying club (where I worked, scrubbing airplanes, pumping fuel, turning wrenches, etc), and chewed out from one end of the office to the other.

Where he caught wind of those flyers I don't know, but he knew all about them, and had a copy in hand. I was holding out, he said, advertising pilot services, which I couldn't do even if I split the costs. I then learned that if I were to take passengers or cargo and split costs, it had to be a flight I'd have already made without the other people. Catering to them, making a special flight for them to take advantage of their money or compensation, still ran afoul of the rules.

I washed airplanes and detailed them in exchange for flight time. I worked for flight instructors, even tending their mother's gardens in some cases, to help offset instruction costs. I worked two jobs, and focused all my money on flying. I bicycled, instead of drove.

I was a civil air patrol cadet. I was later a senior member, and flew every chance I could. I begged and caught rides, split time with others. I had a friend that scrimped and saved and bought an inexpensive homebuilt (experimental) airplane. He flew it and wore it out, had it recovered and flew it some more, then sold it for more than he paid to buy it.

The hardest part of flying is paying for it, to be sure.

Don't ever offer to fly for free. It lowers the bar for everyone, and you'll find yourself with a bad reputation.