N1737E is a Keystone bird, right? I heard them today doing some work near BWI.

 

That is correct. It's a Cessna 310R. I actually flew that plane from Philly down to Waco, TX to get new engines from RAM. The flight back was great. Two brand new engines with 335 HP each. Extra 50 HP a side was noticeable

 

landvue.com

my alma mater years ago. Best bunch of guys.....

 

Lou any chance you could get me some pull? It sounds like someone named Bob is running things? I have wanted to do this for years, but of course the year I finish college and hit the job market it has gone to crap, I even took summer classes to be done early, so I could be around this fall to do surveyin FML

 

All I can say is good luck, last I checked they had over 100 applicants.

 

I did some aerial survey work in Chicago. LIDAR mapping of some ground southwest of Chicago. IT WAS BRUTAL. 8 HOURS of flying a GPS line withing a 1/10 of a degree for 20 miles at a time without rocking your wings more than 2 degrees. Back and Forth for hours. I thank the guy for giving me the chance to do something while I was furloughed but good god I don't know how he does it for a living.

 

Flying jumpers is similar

 

If you want to know more about aerial survey check this link out:

Air America Flight Center, LLC - The Leading Flight School and Aircraft Rental Center in Daytona Beach, Florida

I worked for them for over a year and they are easily the best of the Pictometry vendors to work for. The pay and equipment are top notch and the other pilots are very good to work with. The owner Melissa is probably my favorite of all the people I've worked for in my career.

Unfortunately last I heard was they have tons of pilots waiting in the wings for open spots. It never hurts to contact them and get a resume on file but unless they add a bunch of planes or lose a bunch of guys, this season is out.

Pictometry vendors are great for low time pilots as an entry level job but there are other companies out there. The best thing to do is google "mapping, lidar, aerial mapping, aerial imaging... etc" and to figure out the names of the major players and also anyone operating in your local area.

If you want more info PM me and let me know. I've been mapping for 3 years now and have about 1700 hours of "mapping" time.

It's challenging flying and I've seen flight instructors, low time, high time and even some 20,000 hour airline pilots that couldn't do it. When pilots ask I usually tell them it's like hand flying the last 1/4 mile of the ILS all day long and if the needles get out of the ball you have to start over.

Capt you should also mention that they want the turns between the lines to be as short (time) as possible with no more than 20 degrees of bank. My company record still stands with a 42 second (coordinated for all you naysayers) turn in a partenavia with a good stiff wind (maybe 30-35 knots) perpendicular and the lines were 200 meters apart.

 

Also check out Mar-Tech Engineering out of CRG. Not sure if they are still around but it was a good company.

 

I'd be willing to bet money that all the survey companies have already hired all of their pilots for the season. With these hard times in aviation and little to no movement many pilots are doing 2-3 seasons of survey work before being able to move on to better things.

Bradslvr is right on. There are many different vendors and they all have different pay scales for the same exact job. I have done this work in the past and am going back to doing it again this season. Beats being a CFI if you can handle being on the road for so long. It's not for everyone though, you'd better be good at flying a plane with no autopilot.