Hi all,

looking for a second pilot to help me ferry a Piper Cherokee from Stafford regional airport (outside of DC) to Southern California.

if you need to time build, this is a great opportunity as I need hours as well to reach ATPL mins.

The plane just completed its annual last week and IFR avionics upgrades (Garmin 430).

you’re expected to contribute with fuel expenses too.

if you’re based in SoCal, even better! We can continue to time built until we hit 1500 hrs.

Looking at the end of the week or early next week flying out of Stafford.


text Chan 909-802-eight four niner four if you’re serious, thanks!

 

Usually, you hit 250 hours, then grind it out with a real job until you reach 1500.

Flying the line, instructing, towing banners, dropping skydivers, that’s the stuff that actually matters, way more than joyriding in your own plane chasing some bull**** scenic detour.


In a hiring boom, maybe it slides, but when standards tighten, those resumes hit the trash.


The whole point of 1500 was turning a fresh commercial ticket into a solid ATP through real work on someone else’s clock, someone else’s airplane, being a professional on the payroll.


Nobody figured guys would just circle around in their own bird racking up useless hours to check the box.


It’s technically legal, but it misses the ******* point.


Those hours are only half the story, the other half is learning the job while getting paid for it, not burning cash pretending.


Back when I got to 250, building time like this was almost unheard of. Sure, some owned planes, but that personal flying was maybe 10-20% of the grind to 1500, tops.


This way? It’s just legal gamesmanship. You’re paying to fly instead of getting paid, skipping the real experience, and in the end, you’re screwing yourself.

 

Or…toss a pair of tiger twin surfboards on the back seat, docudrama your grand adventure, pitch it to travel network. Make a name in show biz and forget the airline grind altogether? There is no one way to do almost anything.

 

If a pilot gets paid to fly 1000 hours, or 1,500 hours, that elevates him to an exalted status that paying for it himself, in his own airplane, could never do?

Howzzat again?

If I go spray my own crops for 1000 hours, I'm a lesser human being than if I flew someone else's airplane, and they paid me?

If I go land on a sand beach or in a river and fish, vs. fly some yuppie there to do the fishing, there's an inherent difference? Do the air molecules passing over or under the wing know? Does the wing? Does the runway, or the water, or the crop? Does the FAA care? Does that next employer particularly care if a minimally-qualified pilot who meets the bare minimums shows up with 135 time, 141 time, 137 time, or just plain old 91 time?

I'd certainly say that if someone plans to "time build," they make full use of the time, as opposed to a thousand hours of gazing at the changing fall leaves...what if that person takes aerial photographs and sells them. Is their time less valuable than if they worked for a 135 operator? What if they worked for an operator who does the same thing? Enquiring minds wanna know. Enquiring for a friend.

 

sometimes I wonder the experience of pilots on here, were they all ATP / ERAU 172 zero to hero - regional - bigger airline types?

It’s very different flying for a living vs doing the flying the OP mentioned

Where did the OP say he was spraying crops or playing bush pilot?

 

The original poster isn't doing any of those things, or at least, didn't mention it. What does it matter what he's doing? 135? Spraying crops? Towing banners? Instructing? Playing freight dog? Taking pictures from the air? Dropping jumpers? Flying around in his own airplane?

What's the difference, if he flies his own airplane around and logs it, or someone pays him and he logs it? Would there be a difference if he did X (insert your own special kind of flying, as apparently you don't like the example of ag or back country flying) flying, if he got paid, vs. simply did the flying himself? Pick a kind of flying. He pays. An employer pays. The flying doesn't change. The location doesn't change. The weather doesn't change. He doesn't change. The only difference is who pays...does one make him a lesser human, and the other, an exalted being? Hardly.

Why does it trouble you, so?

When he arrives at his first job, will they care?

He will show up a minimally-qualified applicant with the hours necessary to apply, and that's all they'll really care about. They'll train him from there. Just like everybody else.

 

^^^correct

Is it possible to run up a Hobbs while tied off on a pine, sure. Will the 1st days of flight training on a paid gig reveal that, probably. Pro pilots work for a living, duh. Show up as assigned and make best effort to keep their rig moving. If the job isn’t done right for some reason, someone will explain that to you in detail. Which is good. Because if they don’t, you’re for sure in deeper than you’d figured.

 

I’ve flown for a living most of my days, owned my own planes too, guess you can’t wrap your head around that divide.


Look, there’s a world of separation between joyriding your own rig and punching the clock in the sky, pressure mounts, different types of decisions, pax ain’t just friends and family, and no one cares about YOUR way of flying.
Employers sniff that out, they don’t want to babysit your debut act when stacks of resumes scream “working pilot” with turbine hours, ice ops, dealing with pax, etc etc. Stack the deck with paid gigs early, or watch doors slam, get some dirt under your nails when you hit 250, otherwise the most logical reason is you couldn’t manage to get a job at 250 and thought you could buy your way in.

 

I've been flying for for a few decades now (four of them); a few types of flying from government in and out of combat areas, airlines, charter, ambulance, jumpers, banners, gliders, fire, law enforcement agriculture, corporate, fractional, passengers, cargo, yada, yada...and I've flown with folks from every background imaginable, at every level of experience to be had...and at those entry level places, where the original poster will be seeking his first job, nobody really cares what he did before he showed up. This is particularly true if he's aiming for a regional airline, which is very much an entry-level job, where a new-hire will be trained in every jot and tittle and iota of what's to be done, said, and when.. I've seen people show up with nothing but biplane experience, military experience, jump experience, etc...and most of them did quite well, including those who bought an experimental airplane, flew the wings off it, and then sold it for what they paid, before moving on.

I suppose I might see something in the next few years that will surprise me. But I really doubt it.

It's really important that you put him down, though; I can see it's really grinding on you, so have at it. Go ahead and ruin his day. You know you want to.

 

Ruin his day?

I’m trying to help him.

There are stores of folks who did their own thing, putted around for 1500 and who got into a regional (NOT an entry job as you can’t get it at 250) and had huge issues with flight directors, learning the airline call outs, etc.

He’s putting himself at a disadvantage, if you have the experience you claim you should know this