Jones14

As I get closer to obtaining my commercial ticket, I keep going back and forth on which direction I would like to try and begin my flying career. I saw this posting and it caught my interest. I meet all of the requirements at this time, besides the actual CPL and TT. It seems that they get you in the left seat pretty quick so turbine PIC could begin accumulating. If I had to say right now, a corporate or heavy cargo gig would be a long term goal.

Can anyone comment on this type of operation?

Dynamic Aviation :: Oil Spill Response Pilot, A&P - ID639871

Jones14

Disregard. I failed to use search function.

Herb Flemmming

Only way that would be a good gig is if your home based. That "place" in Bridgewater is pretty depressing where you could possibly be working in the "shop" 80% of the year. In the company of LeTourneau's finest.

thomasw

Upgrade as a low-time FO in OSR will be slow, very slow. You can figure on a guaranteed 52 hours a year (1 hour of flying a week). Unless a spill does occur, then you will pickup some extra time.
Bases will be in one of the following:
Concord, CA
Salisbury, MD
Puerto Rico
Stennis (gulfport), MS

You are on call 24/7, 365. Typical call-out is about 2 or 3 hours before having to be airborne per contract. Pay is around $40-45k a year. You work maybe 5-10 hours a week, 15-20 tops on a "busy" week. It would be perfect for someone who has another gig they could do for making extra $$$ like building websites or retired that just wants a flying gig.

Jones14

So this really isn't an alternative to a regional, cargo, etc., as far as building time for a career. They do have some other flying operations like pest control, but that would also be very seasonal. I guess the A&P part is what caught my attention. It would be nice to land a gig that required an A&P as well as CPL, because it seems we are rare.

So far my degree has done zero for me in the working world. I work next to 20 year old guys who got out of high school and did a 12 month A&P program. Same pay, same hours, same everything. I can't get ahead of myself though, all of the jobs that do require a degree also require a few years experience... so I'm just at a stepping stone right now I suppose.

If you know of any of those "rare" A&P/Pilot jobs let me know, I'm trying to narrow down the field.

Edit: thomasw - I guess this is a salary position? Do you still make the $40k working an average of, say, 15 hours per week? Kind of nice, but what would a guy do with all of that "free" time sitting around on call every day of the year?

thomasw

Its definitely not a time building gig.. Its not really a salary, you get paid hourly, but your guaranteed 40 hours a week weather you work 2 or 40. Anything over 40 you get an overtime pay. I know of a few that have side jobs doing local flight instructing and another is supposedly flying a jump plane.