Cruz5350

My cousin did this pre 9/11 and was hired by Eagle, and I plan on doing the exact same. He bought a 150 put about 600 hours on it and sold it the day before 9/11 for exactly what he bought it. My current job pays enough for me to afford an airplane so I'll dump resumes everywhere and if I get hired great! If not well then I guess I'll stick to making more money than I would flying and enjoy my own plane. Either way its a win win situation.

McMahon

Hey Clipper,

Back in Sept. I purchased a 1960 310D that had a nose gear failure. I got a really good deal on the plane for just under 20K the total cost with parts to repair it was under 5K. Airframe and Engine times were every good. I am attending A&P school, so the plane became a class project, so that helped with the labor cost. Start to finish, repairs and rebuilding the entire landing gear, the project took six weeks. The paint was original and in pretty bad shape on top. After weight the odds I decided to strip off all the paint above the stripes and on the top side of the wings and polish the metal. It was either that or pay over 10K for a basic paint job. I under estimated the time and elbow grease required, but it was all worth it in the end. I have racked up over a hundred and fifty hours in past three months. Mainly, I flew my family up to Tahoe to go skiing and snowboarding. Occasionally, I will split time with friend of mine that need to get their "magic" 100 Multi. When we do operate in a split environment, we have a flying pilot (under the hood) and a non flying pilot. The entire time we are flying we try to work on CRM and go over potential interview questions. I also try to fly to as many challenging airports as possible. (South Lake Tahoe, Catalina, Sedona, Telluride, and Class B and C airports). Not to mention flying to destinations for great food. The operating cost is pretty good, its get a true 20 GPH with a lower power setting of 2200 and 18, you can even go lower to say 2100 and as low as 15 (according to the Cessna POH for a lower GPH, as low as 16 GPH) Even with the lower power setting we cruise along around 160 Kts. Its make getting anywhere that much quicker. And man, it is such a sweet flying plane, with 260 hp per side. The IO-470 has a very good track record. So depending on where you live and fuel prices.....it can easily run you between $85 to over a hundred dollars and hour plus gas for your immediate costs. I save as much as I can for future maintenance and overhauls. (I estimate around $200 an hour with everything) I have had to replace or repair a few items so far but nothing major.

There are quite a few different planes out there to purchase. I have found many 310's for under 40K in pretty good condition. Last time I looked a Twin Comanche was over 50 closer to the 70's. A few inexpensive Apaches are to be found out there also.

As Far as the applying, I am trying to make myself as diverse as possible. When I do cross countries I like to across two or three states at a time and the 310 make that feat very obtainable. I try my best to take as many pictures as possible for future references. Will my flight experience count towards a job one day? I hope so. Out of my 800TT, 560 is cross country time (most between two states), 200 hour of night and 225 Tail wheel. I do have a part time job flying skydivers on the weekends in a 182. My A&P classes with be done at the end of the year, so until then......I am going to fly as much as possible.

McMahon

One more thing.....The main reason I started looking to purchase a plane in the first place. I was told by a senior captain at Skywest to follow his foot steps and buy a cheap light twin. He and his buddies flew together at times and built the time they needed. This was back in the late 80's when the minimums were quite a bit higher then they are now. It worked out in his favor.

FlyJSH

Keep your fuel receipts (especially from your destinations), and have the FBO folks stamp your logbook. Doing so will add credence to your logged hours.

Bellanca

I have a friend who's dad owns an Archer that be built a lot of his time in. When he got to college he had private, instrument and a couple hundred hours. Once he got his CFI he taught like one student per semester or something, but a majority of his time was built in his dad's Archer. Last summer he bought a block of multi time, and did the safety pilot time split thing. He graduated this last December and then he got hired on as an FO doing 135 cargo ops in January. I'm guessing he built 400-500 or so hours in his dad's plane plus like the 50 hours he got splitting time. I doubt the 75-100ish hours he got as a part-time instructor gave him that much of an edge. His family would go on long cross countries several times a year, like flying from St Louis to California, Florida, etc, and so I know he had quite a bit of cross country and actual instrument for being a pilot with like 800 hours TT. Maybe the cargo place thought he had a quite a bit of 'quality' time compared to other applicants with similar times.

I know someone else who bought a 150 to do his training in and build hours. He got his commercial last summer and is still in the phase of building time, but he was able to get a traffic watch job for a few hours a week because he met their TT minimum. The last time I talked to him he was around 650 hours and applying at grand canyon tour companies trying to get a tour gig for this spring/summer since he now meets the 135 VFR mins and is hoping to go to the airlines after a summer of doing tours (or a similar job).

I know this doesn't quite answer your question, but the time built in their own planes put them on the fast-track to getting a flying job. Both of them ended up with their part-time jobs just because they were in the right place at the right time, with the right amount of hours, not really because they were looking. I would think once they hit the 1000-1500 TT and 100 multi mark (less if hiring picks up) they will have no trouble getting hired at an airline.

If anything, buying your own time will put you ahead of all of the other wet commercials/CFIs sitting at 250ish hours when applying for traditional time-building jobs, and you can fly in your off-time to build time even faster. When most people are low time CFI's scraping by to find students and get a few hours here and there, you'll be racking up hours in your own plane. Also, if you're looking to skip flight instructing altogether, this would likely allow you to do that.

IMO, there will always be some people that look down on building your own time. But there are people that look down on certain other types of time too, like banner towing, flying jumpers, etc. If worse comes to worse, you should be able to find a job doing something that will act as a stepping stone to the airlines, and having the hours that you bought will help you get that.

dn_wisconsin

Twin commander without the turbo chargers. You can buy a nice one for about 70,000 and combined fuel burn will be 10-12 gallons an hour. Plus the engine reserve will be very low. I'd guess about 30,000 per engine, divide that by how many hours you have left until TBO and thats your engine reserve per hour. You could probably operate the plane for $120-$130 an hour including MX reserve, insurance, fuel and anything else you can think of. Find a safety pilot who wants to split time and your down to $60-$70 and hour.

clipperstall

So a person with just a commercial, multi, instrument ticket who bought their hours would be just as qualified to go the airlines (or 135) as a person who has their CFI/II/MEI and instructed as a stepping stone?

Interesting..

Why don't more people take out a loan, purchase an airplane, conduct their flight training, build their hours in their own airplane, and then sell it and go to the airlines. I would think that would save so much more money than going through an aviation school and then making low wages as a CFI. Not to mention the potential time savings.

SkyHigh

A lot of people do just that. I would consider buying a piper apache. I owned one and it was very cheap to fly.

Sometimes aircraft ownership is an advantage when it comes to getting a job. Pilots who own their planes know a lot more about maintenance and care than a guy who plugged away in company owned planes. They tend to be more careful and have an owners mentality when it comes to looking out for the company plane. In addition it can show an employer that you indeed love aviation and are not just a pilot mill graduate looking for a paycheck.

Skyhigh

Coto Pilot

If you don't have your MEI get it and find another MEI and then you can alternate giving each other dual and have one of you logging PIC Dual Given and the other logging dual received, both going toward your total time.

clipperstall

That doesn't seem legal.

What are you instructing another MEI on (subject wise) if they already have all their ratings?