Yeah, I may be able to push american flyers for my cfi/i if it is only 3K. everywhere else is saying 6k or 7k. it appears my flight school I go to may be closing.

 

You're in south central michigan? I was able to get my CFI at Solo Aviation (KARB) for about 2 grand. If you're interested, I can hook you up with my old skydiving gig. It's a bit of a drive (Angola, IN, on I69 about 5 miles south of the indiana border), the pay sucks, but you'll build high performance time and experience.

 

2 grand at solo huh? I'll give them a call. They dont list an prices on their website. I'll call em'.

 

The Arrow is about $115 an hour, and I did about 12 hours in it. The rest was spent on ground training, the more you self study, the cheaper it will be. Good luck. I'd recommend getting in touch with Don.

 

Pretty much all the ondemad freight operators are hiring low time co-pilots for 135. There's 2 operators out of PTK that hire low times, and at least 3 out of YIP. Most 135 isn't single pilot, most require 2 pilots and with the regionals lowering their requirements the on-demand operators have also been forced to hire low timers. Though both companies out of PTK have been hiring low timers for years. An internal rec goes ALONG way though.

 

I know some of the guys flying out of PTK and their recent F/O class had one guy with a total time of only 207 or something and another guy with only 4.5h of multi. The bad part is the company isn't looking to hire any new guys for a while. But the possibilities are out there, don't give up and be PERSISTENT! Desire goes a long way and so does knowing somebody on the inside. Good luck!

Check out Compass Airlines out of DTW, they're a new start up and need pilots. I know Mesaba has hired pilots as low as 270tt and 70multi, too.

As for Solo Aviation... haven't heard good things. Anyplace will get you out quick and cheap if you do your own studying, and that's a lot of dedication for a check ride that almost everyone fails on the 1st try and 70% of them fail on their 2nd try also. Don't most applications ask if you've ever failed a check ride? Food for thought...

 

Fill out an application with airnet and update it monthly. They'll pay you to build your time but it might be a while before you get a look. In the meantime flight instructing isn't too bad and I don't think that everyone fails their checkride but I'm not gonna lie it does happen more often than any other. Theres also aerial mapping. Try Northern States Aviation or Rochester Aerial Mapping. Flying jumpers is ok I did it for a while. The airplanes are usually pretty marginal and the jumpers tend not to care much for pilots or the law but maybe others have different experiences. The best advice is just keep flying whenever you can and don't pay for anything that isn't going to get you a rating.

 

Air Cargo Carriers might hire you with those times.

 

I know a company in NW Ohio that is putting on a ground school Mar 3. Your times, as long as you have comm IFR Multi will do.

 

Traffic watch !! I had a student that I took private through commercial multi, and then he took a traffic watch job. He flew 6 to 8 hours per day, and got his ATP about 14 months later. He never got a CFI rating. He's an airline captain now. Hope this helps. Good luck.