1000 Hour Pilot Looking for Advice

[bearitus]

Hello All,

I am a 1000+ hour pilot who is currently flying a C206 doing Lidar aerial survey all over North America. I have tons of PIC time but barley any multi time and no turbine time. My end goal is to make it to the airlines.

Anyhow I have been emailing my resume to 703 and 704 operators for FO positions over the past few months with little luck. I tried cold calling too but that didn't lead to interviews as I would have hoped. I am now considering leaving my survey job to undertake a long road trip in order to hand out resumes in person.

My current employer doesn't provide vacation (I'm always on call or away) so I wouldn't be able to keep my current job and do the road trip. Any advice from someone who went through a similar situation would be much appreciated!

[Meatservo]

You're not going to like this, but I've known a few fellas over the years in your situation who bit the bullet and signed on as ground-crew at air services where new F.O.s were promoted from the ramp. The difference between them and the other guys however, was that because of their P.I.C. time already accumulated, they both performed better and got upgraded much more quickly than their peers. I have seen this happen several times. After a period of being underutilized in a position that is (let's face it) "beneath" them, these guys caught up with their career goals in a very short amount of time.

[Adam Oke]

My advice is to NOT quit your current job. It is always easier to find a job WITH a job. You will get picked up eventually, and this could mean years. Keep sending those resumes out and try your best with internal references. Internal references are what you want to target. My buddy was slagging away doing pipeline patrol applying "everywhere" for almost 2 years. He now is now with a good company right seat in a King Air...and he made some good money keeping his job while he searched.

Also, coming from a guy that worked the ground many years ago -- don't work the ground if you are currently flying and have 1k hours. If your goal is airlines, target companies with a PC12 or a King Air or better. The busy airspace, FMS, and IFR experience will help tremendously when you make the jump.

Best of luck.

[jpilot77]

Don't leave a flying job for a ground job with both a 1000 hours and with the industry on fire.

[FighterPilot]

My advice would be to try and get on as a King Air FO or some kind of pressurized turbine bird. With the way things are moving, upgrade time could be within months.

[Cat Driver]

Pilot in command time is king.

Another bit of advice.

Flying for an airline may not be everything you think it will be, so enjoy what you have as you build time.

Two horses were talking across the fence, one horse said to the other you sure have greener grass than I have.

The other horse said yes, but it's astro turf.

[Meatservo]

My experiences come from many years ago. If the industry is actually "on fire", and you can get a flying job, then these other guys are right. But if all else fails, I guess...

[anofly]

Chase PC 12 and Caravan stuff to get you started on Turbines. the King air will come quick after that. You have and IFR rating? That might be needed for the PC12 or Caravan..

[bearitus]

Wow glad to see so many responses! One of the main reasons that I wanted to move on to bigger aircraft was that flying survey isn't giving me the pay and lifestyle I desire which I assume will eventually come with an airline job. My previous career was software engineering where I was well paid and treated and I just want a similar quality of life in aviation eventually down the road.

The reason I am considering leaving my job to do a road trip is due to the lack of internal references in 703/704 operators which has been hurting my chances of getting an interview. I think that by going in person I will have a better shot of landing an interview with all this hiring going on these days.

[SuperchargedRS]

If you take that idiotic advice of signing on as ground crew, please PM me your address so I can drive over and slap some sense into you lol

[valleyboy]

You my friend are in one of strange oxymorons of this industry. You have a 1000 hours experience but not good experience in the eyes of most employers. It's right up there with low time instrutors who are doing that just to try and build time. Why you ask? Well being in the position of seeing resumes and faces pass by, most companies look at young pilots knowing once they hit that magical number of 1500 hours and able to hold an ATP there are gone. Taking a new commercial for most mom and pop operations and have the progression from F/O to Captain gives them most bang for the buck invested. So, back to your case, when your CV crosses a desk in 703 they look at you and first reaction is, no IFR time but still a 1000 hours, a 500 hr pilot with 300 hours right seat is a far better investment and ironically far easier to train. Companies with no slavery bond will not hire you. You only option is to go somewhere which will offset you experience by a 2 year bond and at the end of that time you run the chance of still only having single engine time, all be it would likely be turbine.

As mentioned before, don't quit your day job. Maybe there is progression in the survey world to that multi time. Survey is an area where it is difficult to find experienced pilots. Go after one of the bigger survey companies. Chase after someone like Borek or one of the other companies operating larger multi engine aircraft in your discipline.

This is just my opinion but I know one company where this is what it is

[x15]

I am chief pilot at a small company, which operates 703 and 704 aircraft. As someone that looks at hiring people often, and pays attention to who is hiring and for what seat, I would say stay right where you are and keep applying for King Air FO jobs and such.

Air Canada turned on the biggest vacuum in Canadian aviation history this year. Hiring a huge number each month. Jazz, GGN, Skyregional, WJE, Porter are all feeling the pinch. 703 operators are next. If I were you, I would sit tight. Apply to a place you want to go, somewhere you are going to have fun. It is not a race to get to AC. Once you do get there, you will find that it is almost like every other operator, just with big gets with fancy paint.

[final28]

Vey interesting thread.
I've got similar hours, lots of PIC but currently not working in aviation.
I have several years of professional work experience (dealing with people, making decisions and taking responsibility) which I hoped would be valued by employers, but not getting any calls either.Quitting to go on a road trip is not really an option. I am not aiming for big iron, something local or regional would be great.

[wallypilot]

Have you considered applying to a larger survey company? Operators like CCG in Ottawa would likely take you if they are hiring. likely on the caravan. Sander Geophysics? Haute Monte? Would be a good interim job for a couple years to hopefully improve your lifestyle, until your king air job comes along.

[HiFlyChick]

Even if you can't do face to face time, try calling places after you send them your resume. I know that when we get a resume via e-mail we generally don't pay it too much attention.

Also, please please PLEASE vet your cover letter and don't write a piece of BS saying how much you've heard about the company and want to work there (unless in the very rare cases that it's true). The number of times we got that and then the person went on to talk about things that clearly indicated they knew absolutely nothing about the company irritated me so much that even if we were desperate I still wouldn't have looked at the resume. For a small 703 operator, it's okay to not know much about them other than what's on their web site. Talking about how you've heard so much about them (especially if you live 1000 miles away) not only makes you sound like a brown-nosing liar, but is pretty insulting to the intelligence if you actually think someone will fall for that.

And typos! I know a lot of people are no where near as anal as I am about those kinds of errors in a resume, but to me if you are too lazy to even run it through a spell checker and have a friend check it for grammatical or other mistakes, it shows a certain lack of attention to detail.

Good luck, and I think I'll echo others sentiments about not quitting your job just yet. Quitting for a job that doesn't pay well but gets you twin or turbine hours - sure, but not without something lined up.

[BE20 Driver]

First: Dont' give up.

Second. Stay where you are and keep applying. Like people have said, the industry is on fire right now at least at the top end. It makes me wonder where 703 companies are getting their pilots from these days. Right seat with a quick upgrade on a king air might be your best bet. Try Keewatin, SkyNorth, Fast Air out of Winnipeg. Perimeter too. Perhaps WestWind out of Saskatoon. I know Encore is hollowing out Perimeter at a rather rapid pace. There should be jobs out there. Once you get into one of these jobs, things will start moving for you.

Like others have said though, the airlines can be a rather boring monotonous job. Lifestyle and pay don't get good until after 4-5 years at an airline. There may be jobs out there that you stumble across and enjoy enough to make a career of.

[final28]

I have been making calls to follow up on applications and been pleasantly surprised by how easy it has generally been to get to speak to the chief pilot or HR person.
Resume and cover letter checked by several knowledgeable people, no BS included.
Good references, which I generally include with the application.

Yes, for a twin/turbine job I'd accept the lower pay.
Doesn't have to be airline, I'm open to medevac, charter, corporate . . .

[JBI]

Hi,

Lots of good advice on this thread. A couple more thoughts:

1- I like the idea of applying to larger surveying companies. Similarly, applying to operators that have a 206 AND something larger might be a good way to go as well. They get a well qualified 206 pilot, and you get the opportunity to move up to something larger eventually.

2- If your issue is that you don't have many contacts at 703/704 operators - make them. Sounds weird, but if you're going to lots of different airports, there will be opportunities to meet lots of different pilots. Doesn't mean you'll be best friends, but if you're in a smaller northern centre where there are lots of operations - asking guys and girls where a good place to go for dinner/drinks and they seeing if they want to join you could never hurt. Just like dating, you'll probably get a bunch of polite declines, but if I have the time, it never hurts to grab a meal with people in the industry I don't know. The networking tip "everybody has a story, find out about it"

3- Related to the point above - if you're at an airport where there is an operator, stop in and say "Hi" to the CP if you can, or at least the Admin staff. Being able to put a face to the name makes a huge difference.

4- Also consider a Navajo position - the operators that usually operate them 2 crew would probably like you. You've got lots of PIC time and operation experience. An upgrade to Captain probably wouldn't take too long.

I also suggest to, for now, keep flying. I don't necessarily think going to a ground job is the right thing to do right now.

[bearitus]

I like the idea of meeting people and networking at the airports I fly for survey. My only issue is that 90% of my survey work is in the US and I don't have a green card. Does anyone have experience with flying for an American company by getting sponsored with only a Canadian citizenship? I heard that due to the pilot shortage they may be accepting Canadians soon...

[billgeno]

I certainly echo a lot of the ideas proposed here - the best is stay where you are until you find something else.

I know the pay isn't the greatest there, but you are working with great people and you get to do some really awesome flying.

What about the Navajo? I know it doesn't fly as much as the 206 and 172's, but it's great experience and you would get to learn from an amazing pilot. When I was there, the plan was to have multiple crews so he didn't have to travel as much. The two previous pilots who flew it are now on 1900s.

Get as much out of it as you can because there will be days when you are flying to the same places in the flight levels wishing you were at 1000'.

Bill

[Rupert_Pupkin]

I'm pretty sure any operator with a King Air, 1900's, Navajo's and Metros are getting picked apart by the regional's so you should have no issues getting a job at any one of those places. Show up, dress well and you'll get a job.