mercenary pilots
Moderators: sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, North Shore, Rudder Bug
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Cat Driver
- Top Poster
- Posts: 18921
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
If you have to ask.You have already failed the pre-employment intelligence test 
Do not worry .If you have the skills they need they will find you .
Just keep in mind that it is cheaper to use a Fifty cent bullet than pay you for your services.Do not expect any less from that kind of work
Do not worry .If you have the skills they need they will find you .
Just keep in mind that it is cheaper to use a Fifty cent bullet than pay you for your services.Do not expect any less from that kind of work
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frontside_air
- Rank 2
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:34 am
- Location: on someone else's vacation
Niek du Toit, who was flying a Antonov was sentenced to 34 years in Equatorial Guinea. The six Armenians with him were sentenced to between 14 and 24 years in jail, but were mysteriously pardoned a year later and flown home. Four other South Africans were given 17 year sentences.frontside_air wrote:what happened to the pilots of the 727s after thatcher's failed coup in eq. guinea?
The 727 crew were sentenced to 16 months in Harare, but released early. Neil Steyl was charged again in South Africa (after his release) and paid a $25000 fine and agreed in his plea bargain to assist in the investigation.
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Boss Hawg
- Rank 4
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- Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 2:38 pm
- Location: North of somewhere and south of everything to the north
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I don't know if this is of interest to anybody but I got this email the other day.
[/quote]I am in touch with the Light Hawk coordinator for Central America (who I met
during my trip to Costa Rica) who tells me that they have a need for
volunteer pilots who would be interested in coming down to fly their Cessna
206 for various conservation projects. They have a hard time finding
qualified people who have experience flying this type of plane, but
apparently lots of Canadian bush pilots are more experienced in this realm.
I volunteered to put the word out up here to people with experience who
might be interested in getting involved with Light Hawk.
Can you tell me who would be good to get in touch with around here to pass
on this request to? To be a LH volunteer pilot they require 1000 hours pilot
in command and to fly the 206 they need at least 25 hours in make and model
and an instrument rating (I don't know what all that means but I'm sure you
do). They like pilots to come for 2 weeks minimum. They could also use
pilots who are willing to fly their own planes down, far as it is.
If you have any ideas and you could give me some contacts that would be
great.
Lynn
Lynn Palmer
Inspiration North Community Dialogue Project Facilitator
CPAWS Wildlands League
Boreal Conservation Office
c/o Confederation College Forestry Centre
P.O. Box 398
2400 Nipigon Rd.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
P7C 4W1
(807) 474-2286
http://www.wildlandsleague.org
As Cat Driver alludes to. be prepared to lose your life. People in war zones tend to play for keeps...1000 HP wrote:If you get caught flying as a merc, be prepared to lose your citizenship. Of course, so what?
On topic, most of the guys who fly for outfits like Blackwater are by and large all ex-military. Hard biz to crack into if you don't have the right background. Chances are if you have the right stuff for them, they'll basically recruit you through word of mouth.
You would have more success as a previous poster pointed out, if you brought your own equipment. These days Merc flying is pretty much sewn up by the former satellite states of the former Soviet union. The aircrew largely comes with the aircraft in places like Africa. Bylorussians and their Hinds are the backbone of air superiority in some places. Unless you are typed on Com Bloc equipment and can read cyrillic I'd say you are under qualified.
South America might be a possibility though. I've heard of contract spray work in Columbia. Coca interdiction pays well as you basically have a price on your head. The locals survive on growing coca and are not too receptive to those who kill it. Neither are the cartels who buy it from them for peanuts. Get in and get out would seem to be the rule there. Good luck.
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Cat Driver
- Top Poster
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
Jim N, you have summed it up exactly like it is.
Most of the mercenary pilots I met in Africa were Soviet block ex airforce with a sprinkling of Air America survivors still plying their trade.
Mercenary flying tends to become a life style and you can not or do not want to go back to a normal life, few really ever fit back into normal society.
Some of the South African mercenaries died horrible deaths in places like Angola when they were shot down or captured on the ground...you wouldn't want to even know what they went through at the hands of the savages that captured them.
I was in a unique position to see first hand how these war zones really were flying all over Africa for French TF1...it was not pretty.
I came home after my stay in the desert living like a Tuareg so sick and traumitized it took my doctor here in Canada four months to get me well again.
There are diseases in Africa that we have zero tolerences for and I was one sick animal when I got back home, my doctor told me a higher form of life would have died.
Most of the mercenary pilots I met in Africa were Soviet block ex airforce with a sprinkling of Air America survivors still plying their trade.
Mercenary flying tends to become a life style and you can not or do not want to go back to a normal life, few really ever fit back into normal society.
Some of the South African mercenaries died horrible deaths in places like Angola when they were shot down or captured on the ground...you wouldn't want to even know what they went through at the hands of the savages that captured them.
I was in a unique position to see first hand how these war zones really were flying all over Africa for French TF1...it was not pretty.
I came home after my stay in the desert living like a Tuareg so sick and traumitized it took my doctor here in Canada four months to get me well again.
There are diseases in Africa that we have zero tolerences for and I was one sick animal when I got back home, my doctor told me a higher form of life would have died.
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Epitaph to an army of mercenaries
These, in the day when heaven was falling.
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
followed their mercenary calling
and took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended:
they stood, and earths foundations stay;
what God abandoned, thease defended,
and saved the sum of things for pay.
A. E. Housman
These, in the day when heaven was falling.
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
followed their mercenary calling
and took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended:
they stood, and earths foundations stay;
what God abandoned, thease defended,
and saved the sum of things for pay.
A. E. Housman
"WHAT DO WE WANT !!!!"
"PROCRASTINATION !!!!"
"WHEN DO WE WANT IT !!!!"
"Ah.........whenever I guess......"
"PROCRASTINATION !!!!"
"WHEN DO WE WANT IT !!!!"
"Ah.........whenever I guess......"
