buzzsherwood

Hi there, I am a low time pilot with commercial single and multi engine, instrument rated, with high performance and tail wheel endorsements.
I have 620 TT, close to 400 of that is in a 182 as a jump pilot from a grass strip.

Due to taking and then not making it through a flight engineer course, I sadly am now looking for a new job but since I have missed the opening of the summer season this year,I am not seeing many openings for jump pilots or VFR ops.

I figure at this point it will be me working at Walmart or whatever while I look for another pilot job, or even just a part time flying gig.

So If I am going to be broke while looking for a pilot job or flying part time, I might as well live someplace I would like to live and build residency, and maybe go back to school on the GI bill.

I was looking at TN(by Chattanooga) but also looking at FL,GA,Carolinas etc
I think they might be a good place to live and with the warmer weather they should have more low hour pilot jobs and not shut down half the year due to winter. However I would like to narrow it down, if one area is better than another, I dont want to move and find out I picked the wrong spot and should have moved to another area with a lot more aviation jobs.

The problem is I dont see the low time jobs listed on any of the hiring sites, and I have next to no contacts or networking in aviation,so its hard to figure out what area to move to that might have a lot of smaller aviation jobs I could get.

Any suggestions or recommendations? Any ideas how to narrow down where to look besides driving to all the little airports a state has and asking around? I know people seem to get jobs by doing it, but its from airports near where they live not trying to hit all the little airports in a state or 2.

dera

If you have 135.243(b) mins, there's be a job for you in AZ.

buzzsherwood

I will have to pull out my log books tomorrow as I am in the process of moving so they are packed up right now.if I remember correctly I want like a night hour short and maybe like an hour x country.

In the process of trying to find someone to do my bi annual review and IFR refresh so that would take care if it though.

Is the place in page AZ doing tours? Cuz I have heard bad things about that guy from many posts here and other sources.

I would love to do some vfr tours, but I have not seen many of those advertised except for helicopter and bi plane rides, I guess those jobs are all word of mouth or something.

i know some people who got on with north country to fly like standbye sic. Sure it pays horrible and you need another job or 2 so you can pay bills but it gets you cross country and some turbine multy time. I would love something like that, but I don't know how to find those jobs unless you luck out and know a guy.

dera

The guy who people have badmouthed isn't really part of the day-to-day operation. He doesn't even live here. They also have a new CP etc.
Everything is legit, they used to stretch a few rules I understand, but those things have been changed. It's not a glamorous job by any means, but a flying job is a flying job.

buzzsherwood

So do you fly for them? if so how is the flying? what is the training or check ride like? How is the quality of life there?

I dont expect glamor and it probably is better than doing the sky dive hours I did last year, driving 1.5 hours each way and sometimes sitting half the day when the wind picked up or the clouds were under 10,000 ft.

I just heard at least in the past things about people not being paid, airplanes not being airworthy but flying and FAA violations.

dera

Yes, I'm here, planes are airworthy, no FAA violations that I can see (and as a plane owner myself, I know how to spot them).

Training is what the approved training program specifies, Part 135 has a lot of "irrelevant" crap such as number of hours of alcohol misuse program stuff, but it is all done according to the FAR's. No-one wants you to fail. If you can fly a plane, you'll be fine.

QOL is what you make of it - the people working here are great, housing is average (but cheap, and you can live elsewhere if you want).

I get paid $500/month more than promised (they increased it between my "interview" and my training, and $500 for training that wasn't mentioned.

I'm not vouching for them, but so far I'm OK with what they do.

Packrat

OP...check your PMs.

buzzsherwood

Thanks dera, it sounds like they provide housing then? What is a typical schedule? Is it all single pilot vfr or do they have any sic positions for charter type stuff in bigger planes? What plane are you flying? What is the pay? Is per flight hour or salary?

dera

They provide housing, it's free during training and cheap when employed. It's salaried. All single pilot VFR on Turbo 207s. You need good stick and rudder skills to get through training. High standards and not the easiest SEP plane to fly. Typical schedule varies, season is still quiet. (if you don't fly, you can hang around at the house or do whatever you want as long as you are sort of available with short notice - they follow 135 duty rules and don't mess you with the "we didn't call, you weren't on duty" nonsense). They don't make you sit at the office or anything like that if there's no flying. It gets busy in August and apparently September will be very busy with a lot of flying for everyone.