Before I was a pilot...

[fly911]

What kind of jobs did you hold before you were a pilot?

[fly911]

OK, I'll start. Before I was a pilot, I was a factory maintenance worker. Electrical, plumbing etc. Before that, a television director. Before that, a Bell Hop.

[John Eacott]

Apart from being a pilot while still at school (1965), I had three months as a clerk in a stockbrokers in Threadneedle Street, plus the usual evening paper round, petrol station attendant and veneer factory work whilst at school, of course!

That was the only time I've ever worked in my life: the rest I have been paid to play at my hobby :ok:

[robin303]

Worked hard to be a pilot. Soloed in 8.4 hrs in 1974. No jobs because of thousands of pilots out of Nam. Joined the US Army anyway. Nothing was going to deter my dream to fly helos. Had pilots tell me I was not a pilot that pissed me off. I had to think about that one. Damn I never had to go through the stuff you had to go through is my guess, Well guess what my right to passage,

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w83/robin303/Army%20Aviation/5-2.jpg

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[Fun Police]

rock nerd (geologist) in the north of Canada

[tu154]

Data network and security bod, ended up in process contol systems. Then I lost my mind. :-)

[Sleeve Wing]

Paperboy.
Self employed for two years (aged 13 to 14) at weekends and evenings. Bought old railway sleepers and then sawing/splitting/chopping/bundling them up for kindling; then delivered them.
Worked a couple of summers, during the Sixth form, as a general labourer at a market garden.
Drove a tractor for a friend who'd bought a 60 ton heap of horse sh*t !! Took 3 weeks to deliver it all when he sold it.
Brickies' labourer/dumper driver for a summer, waiting to get into the RAF.
Lab assistant at a Rubber works for two years. (1957 on !) :ugh:

Then sensibly the Fleet Air Arm took me on………………. :ok:

Thought flying would be easier…………..from the age of about seven !

[Freewheel]

OK, OK, I'll do it.



Piano player in a brothel.

Could never tell mum I'd moved on to aviation. :}

[Geoffersincornwall]

The very last job I had before joining the Fleet Air Arm of the RN (age 19) was a refuse disposal officer (dustman ;)) at Sunbury Urban District Council. I have emptied the bins of some of the rich and famous who lived around that area of north Surrey.... but it was done with a serious motive for the Navy told me I would have to pass a pre joining medical and show that I had lost 3 stone.

By the time I got to Dartmouth I was a fit as a fiddle and 3.5 stone lighter :)

G.

[Devil 49]

High school student.
I've had real jobs in various intervals since I started flying.

edit:
Most posts are more specific than this... In high school I worked even less than as a pilot- I was a lifeguard and camp counselor.

[griffothefog]

5 years with Bristow in Sumburgh, baggage handler, check-in clerk, radio operator and operations controller...
It all went south from there :cool:

[Lonewolf_50]

First job was sweeping and mopping floors.(age 13)
Second job was stocking shelves and unloading trucks at a food store.
Third job was unloading trucks at a beer and beverage store. (Better job!)
Fourth Job: Short order cook
Fifth Job: Stock shelves, unload trucks, watch out for shoplifters, run cash register, audit end of day receipts at a chain drug store. (High school job)
Sixth job was of and on while earning an Engineering Degree: most summers spend working for a moving company (pianos are a :mad: no matter what size) when I wasn't doing summer training with the Navy.
One fine spring day I flew my first solo, a landing pattern solo, in a civil fixed wing. Lived to tell the tale! :ok:
Commissioned Ensign.
Pilot Training was second assignment as a Naval Officer.
Finally got my wings! Was finally a pilot! Worth every step taken.

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Control Equipment Technician (glorified electrician) British Army. Got lucky and did the Army Pilot course (at the good old British taxpayers expense), four years time bar then Bristow ever since.

Never felt like a real job, always felt like I was being paid to have fun until all the rules and regulations took over. I wonder if accident stats have improved since the industry became so constrained ?

Desk jockey recently, especially since cancer and chemotherapy made it impossible to pass an aircrew medical. :(

Still get a buzz when I smell burning aviation fuel though ! :ok:

NEO

[500guy]

My first actual job at 15 was a dishwasher, then cashier, then cook at a local steak house. At the same time I did computer repair at night, (as well as highschool)


I quit both of those jobs at 17 and started working at a car dealership changing oils and worked at radio shack part time for a year or two while attending an automobile tech school. Meanwhile I did side work customizing cars.


At 18 I got a job at Sears in the tool department to get a discount on my tools. One of my employees hired me part time to install swimming pools on my days off (an odd arrangement). Meanwhile I realized I didn't want to turn wrenches all my life and started attending university online.


I did that for 5 years, but made store manager at Sears after 4, At age 23 I quit to follow my dreams and fly and never looked back.


I worked at 2 different hardware stores while getting my ratings. Finished my ratings at 25 and my degree at 27.


Dave

[Gomer Pylot]

Cottonpicker, ratskinner, truck driver, Army officer. Then I got to flight school and never looked back.

[heliduck]

Heavy Diesel Fitter in the mining industry progressing to Maintenance Superintendent. Spent most of what I've earned to allow me to fly.

[choppertop]

BBC Radio 4 announcer (newsreader)

[430EMSpilot]

Parked cars at an amusement park (14)
Dishwasher (15)
Soldier (Truck driver) (18)
Off to US Army flight school (20)

I haven't worked a day since then to include a career in th Army, EMS and finally corporate flying. We get paid to do this stuff!!!

[Helilog56]

Framed houses....residential construction for a while, then ran heavy equipment (excavators) and saved enough cash to go to flight school.

[BOBAKAT]

Before to be a helicopter pilot...Nobody have a real job ! :=

[Gordy]

Summer jobs during school included: chicken catcher and inoculator on a chicken farm, factory worker making pork pies, boxing bulbs for a garden distributor.

Then worked as a laborer for the military in Germany for year and half waiting to join the RAF. AEoP on Nimrods for 8 years, then left to train civilian for helicopters.

[Impress to inflate]

Ok, I'll play them as well

Picking stones out of fields and general farm duties(14-17)
Lifeguard, part time(18)
Outdoor education, bush craft instructor and estate maintenance(18-19)
Life support technician and gasman in north sea dive industry(20-25)
Dustman and truck driver (20-25) when not offshore
Borrowed a sh&t load and then learnt to fly (25 to today !)

[inmate]

Paper boy
Buchers Helper in a Plymouth market.
RAF BE Airframes
Airwork Plymouth Airport Airframe/Engine mech.
RAF Bassingbourne "
BAC Filton/Fairford Concorde101 Flt Test Insp.

BAC had an agreement with Bristol and Wessex flying club which included 60% off flying lesson for a PPL (A)
45 yrs later and the rest is history.

[topendtorque]

my mum insisted I learn the piano, after the fifth year of that i quit, now flat out playing god save the queen with one hand so no need to purchase brothel sneakers in later life.
Farm duties, pulling cows tits, picking up sticks, round and round dragging ploughs and dreaming of flying etc until after school then cut down many trees, logging, splitting posts to spend it all on learning to fly f/w. Headed further and further north and west. Ended up with a rather exiting job of running a large stock camp in the NT for Bryce killen of Airfast fame where i saw my first helicopter. that was it.
PHL in Adelaide with Buck Ryan in 1974, couldn't even afford a taxi fare off the plane home (I suspect buck's mentoring in drinking activities had a bit to do with that) a few years heli-mustering, then, CHL Long Beach late '79 only cost six grand but - say again the taxi bit as above - been low level and low on cash ever since.

[Soave_Pilot]

Busboy
Waiter
Bartender
Roofer
Painter
Car salesman

Had 2 jobs most of the time in order to pay for training

[Bertie Thruster]

By age 23 I had completed my training as a graduate microbiologist.

Could not bring myself to apply for any related jobs.

I signed up as a private soldier in the British Army.

5 years later (35 years ago) I climbed into a Bell 47 for my first lesson on the Army Pilots Course..........

[Fortyodd2]

First paid job while still at school was planting lettuces at a local market garden. From there, moved onto a building site as a general gofer and then delivering cakes to shops in the days before they became supermarkets.
Joined the Army as an Armourer in '76 and saw the half the world before applying for pilot training with the AAC in the hope of seeing a bit more of it from a different view. Aircrewman from '88 and started the pilot's course in '91.

[Thorond0r]

Pizza delivery then post man, both with italian scooters. Now I deliver humans with an Italian bird so I guess it's all about having a machine in my hands and keeping true to my pizza loving habits. Never thought about this pattern before :)

[FYR]

Navigator on containerships

[Flying Foxhunter]

Petroleum Geologist ....... desperate to sit at the front rather than the back on those long trips out to the rigs in the North sea, UK, Danish and Dutch Sectors, offshore Italy, onshore Sudan


Then a consulting Engineering Geologists


Five helicopters later FI(H) CPL (H) etc etc

[21lefthand]

If only someone had told me about helicopters earlier then I wouldn't be still doing my before being a pilot job

[soggyboxers]

I worked part time as a laboratory technician at Wandsworth gas works, then became an analytical chemist for Brett Yarsley Services in Leatherhead. I was in the TA and wanted to join the army, but then my father showed me an advertisement in the Sunday Times colour supplement for people to join the Royal Marines and learn to fly. 2 months later I swore my oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth at Deal and began the path to becoming a helicopter pilot - best thing I ever did.
Sadly under EASA I am deemed to old to fly commercially any more but am lucky enough to still be involved in aviation in Tanzania.