Gotta love India, eh Jib?
I.N.D.I.A.
I'm
Not
Doing
It
Again
Took bureaucracy from the Brits and made it twice as bad. You think caucasians are racist? Pfffttt.....:
Well, I have to confess, my interest was mainly on the hour and skills build side. I am not seeking full time employment in this business but I consider it rather a part-time lifestyle choice.
I didn't start ferrying until I had 3000+ hrs. It is a specialised and dangerous line of work. Anyone who tells you anything less hasn't done it or has had a very lucky run....of the one they have done.
Example, you are given a 30% overweight allowance on your ferry permit. You have two 160 gal bags of fuel in the fuselage and a 40 gal bag in the nose, giving over 20 hrs endurance. You are allowed a 1.5" range on the CofG while the aircraft is above MTOW. Your longest leg is 2300nm and you don't trust the autopilot. You have solid IFR forecast over the entire route. The owner, who you wouldn't trust to fly a synthetic trainer by himself, wants to come along because he thinks it will be "fun". You have spent the last two weeks replacing fuel taps that are suspect (even thouh the owner thinks they worked fine six months ago when he last flew it), sorting pressure switch troubles (owner again thinks super cheap auto is an approved supplier by continental) and to top it off, even though you quoted for four weeks, after ten weeks working on this numpty's aircraft, he thinks another $500 should cover it.
On top of all this, remember the aircraft may have been built in 1968 and even if it is a two year old multi-engine, if you have an engine problem within the first
seven or eight hours, until you burn off enough extra weight, you are going to be swimming. Pretty sure there was a new PAC750 several years ago where the pilot broke his back when it ditched. He didn't get out. Mooney out of Hollister a year or two ago had the bag shift on takeoff. CG rearward, dead pilot.
It is a serious endeavour in many cases and there are plenty of aircraft on the bottom of the Pacific or left on a strip in Turkmenistan because the pilot was not prepared.
Trust me, it isn't a good feeling when you smell a burning hydraulic pump two hours out of Muscat over the Arabic Sea and look back at the 400 litre bag of avgas sitting in the back.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is definitely NOT for hour building.