Seaplane Time

[SuperchargedRS]

Your ethics? More like stupidity. All it proves to the employer is you will fall for the good old carrot and the stick.

If you have managed to stay in business more than a couple years, you should be able to size a applicant up rather easily over a interview or two.

I never worked the dock, nor have any of my friends, after earning our CPLs we all have been hired as pilots, not unskilled workers. YMMV

Honestly, when I was looking for a job and told employers who offered ramp and dock jobs that I was looking only for a flying job I got more respect from them. I could tell. And it led to them pointing me to the right people to get that flying job. Funny how that works... had I been willing to work the ground I would probably be working for them. But since I said no, and only interested in flying they sent me to the places that had that available for a low time guy.

People. Give yourselves some credit. You have a TRADE now. A book with a stamp in it saying you're qualified to do a job. Don't let an operator tell you you're not qualified. You might be green, but still able to do the job and you learn quickly.

Exactly.

I'd almost rather work on the dock for an air operator in a decent town with a nice fleet of planes to move up on, good maintenance and a variety of different customers, than fly right away for some guy with two planes and a bunch of camps. Make sure there's some kind of a plan for you to start flying soon, not just a "carrot on a stick" and there's nothing wrong with working on the dock.

Scoring a flying job right away is a cool goal, but don't go around acting like you're too good for a stint on the dock. Your pilot's license is hardly a precious commodity to these guys, and you don't want to broadcast a sense of entitlement. In other words, take North Shore's advice, but don't look like the kind of guy who listens to guys like North Shore. I could tell you some stories about him. He could have benefitted from a month or two on the dock.

I'd rather spend 2 years flying then move on up and get that job at the nicer operation in your decent town.


Lol, and after a year or two of you working the dock, I'll have a year or two worth of flight experience, who gets that better job first, someone with two years of experience as a working PILOT, or someone with two years "experience" of chucking bags and washing airplanes?

Scoring a flight job right away is the whole point of getting a CPL.

[Cessna 180]

Hey thanks for the tips guys. I'm going to go on a road trip right after school, keep driving until I find the right job (after making a load of calls and emails). I feel far more optimistic about finding a flying job after school now. I'm going to try and get that float experience too if I can. It's getting late in the year.

[Meatservo]

My point was, there are lots of excellent exciting careers that started with a job on the dock. Getting to fly a plane right off the mark is a very exciting proposition, but just don't be disappointed if you end up working a dock job. If you get on with a good company your efforts won't go unnoticed and it's not unreasonable to hope for a check-out during your first year.

It's a gamble. You can turn down offers of employment in the hopes of finding a "direct entry" job and wind up not finding one. Just make sure you don't turn down the dock jobs in so haughty a manner that they aren't still available if you change your mind after not finding that flying job you are holding out for.

Personally, a couple of decades ago, I took a direct flying job and worked for a complete asshole. I quit after a month and went to work on the dock at another bigger company on the recommendation of an older friend who was a CL 215 pilot and I looked up to. That job turned into a flying job before the end of the winter (it was a year-round operation-rare nowadays) and I went from Cessna to Beaver to Otter to Chief pilot and so on. Maybe I could have stayed with the first company-but I never heard of anyone working for that guy for more than a couple of years and have never heard anything good about him.

Just keep your options open, is all I'm trying to recommend. Obviously a flying job right away is the standard to which we all aspired. Back when I was starting out, there was never anything other than whispered tales of "some guy" that didn't have to work on the dock. Starting on the dock was the norm.