Efficient? Not sure there is an efficient way to a flying job! It’s more like picking the euromilions lottery numbers! It’s a combination of persistence, determination, with a large dash of stubbornness and bloodymindedness, and don’t forget having the right hours and experience, and a reputation/work ethic and a face that fits. Oh and the right place/time combination too.
Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to it. I went from being a no one who couldn’t get a call back, to 3 interviews in a week!
In the early days once I had my foot in the door, I would show up even if I had no work booked. Was better than sitting at home, and I made myself useful, and if something cropped up I got the work.
A bare bones CPL is probably not enough to get taken on as a freelance pilot at the minute in the UK onshore job market. You need to at least be an instructor as 90% of the entry level work is training. If you demonstrate that you have what it takes in that world, then a company will usually base and line you, and use you for charter work. Instructors who also do charter, generally like the charter side as it’s a change from the student attempting to kill them in new and interesting ways on a daily basis.
The only way around that is to have enough turbine time that a charter operator might use you (unlikely), or have an IR and get taken on by either Bond or CHC. Big push on for that at the minute, how long will it last?
So the answer as always in the helicopter world is, it depends.
