200 Hour Pilot Possibly Being Rolled By Potential Employer. Need Advice!
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200 Hour Pilot Possibly Being Rolled By Potential Employer. Need Advice!
Hello everyone,
I'm posting this on behalf of a very close friend who doesn't use forums. We grew up together in Dubai, where he completed his PPL and 200 hours of flying time. He has citizenship of a certain East African country and has returned there to try and gain employment with one of the three or four smaller aviation companies (using bush/safari type stuff in Cessna 208).
After a few months of applying at various companies, one of them approached him and offered him 1500 hours of flying time over two years, with zero salary, and he must pay them $7500 (in installments, under the table), and he will be in the "right seat" of the aircraft.
As I understand, he can't legally log hours as the pilot in the right seat, but the company is question has told him that they will stamp his logbook.
The civil aviation authorities in said country are very lax/lackadaisical. But the company told my friend if they ever do any inspections of the airline or the logbooks, my friend has to carry all the risk (with the fraud, if that's what its called)
My question is: my friend's East African citizenship isn't helping open any employment doors, he's desperate to fly and start racking up hours, but is all the above too much of a gamble?
We'd really, really appreciate any thoughts or insight.
Looking forward to hearing from you guys.
I'm posting this on behalf of a very close friend who doesn't use forums. We grew up together in Dubai, where he completed his PPL and 200 hours of flying time. He has citizenship of a certain East African country and has returned there to try and gain employment with one of the three or four smaller aviation companies (using bush/safari type stuff in Cessna 208).
After a few months of applying at various companies, one of them approached him and offered him 1500 hours of flying time over two years, with zero salary, and he must pay them $7500 (in installments, under the table), and he will be in the "right seat" of the aircraft.
As I understand, he can't legally log hours as the pilot in the right seat, but the company is question has told him that they will stamp his logbook.
The civil aviation authorities in said country are very lax/lackadaisical. But the company told my friend if they ever do any inspections of the airline or the logbooks, my friend has to carry all the risk (with the fraud, if that's what its called)
My question is: my friend's East African citizenship isn't helping open any employment doors, he's desperate to fly and start racking up hours, but is all the above too much of a gamble?
We'd really, really appreciate any thoughts or insight.
Looking forward to hearing from you guys.
Racking up hours to what end?
Any potential employer will check the validity of his claimed experience, and if it is as you describe, he has very little chance that this "experience" will translate to employment elsewhere.
Stay away!!
Any potential employer will check the validity of his claimed experience, and if it is as you describe, he has very little chance that this "experience" will translate to employment elsewhere.
Stay away!!
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That is saddening beyond believe. I think despite his desperation he can answer that question for himself with a bit of common sense. There shouldn't even be a moment of hesitation to simply turn around on his heels and flip the bird to those guys.
There is other ways to build hours, he just needs to look around and talk to people. Those hours are harder to obtain, probably not well paid in the beginning and certainly not on a Caravan, but at least they are paid jobs and will get him much better experience than tagging along RH seat for legally un-loggable hours and paying (wtf?!) the company for it.
There is other ways to build hours, he just needs to look around and talk to people. Those hours are harder to obtain, probably not well paid in the beginning and certainly not on a Caravan, but at least they are paid jobs and will get him much better experience than tagging along RH seat for legally un-loggable hours and paying (wtf?!) the company for it.
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Not sure where in EAfrica you're talking about, but locally it seems to be a fairly standard procedure for contract and operational reasons to have two crew in a C208 even though its certified as single pilot ops. The confusion comes when BOTH crew are logging equal flight hours in the aircraft regardless of which seat they are occupying. In theory only the left seat should log anything, but then an 'almost' rated right seat pilot (as against the 'sandbag' type) is actually advised by the authority that they can't log time p2 or p1 u/s, so are told to log it P1. Voila - everyone logs and everyone wins.
The only bit of your message that was unusual/news was that your friend is being asked to PAY for the privilege of these 'logged hours'. Normally C208 co-pilots get minimum wage or nothing much - but your case could be first one I've heard off that is bold enough to demand payment for these 'hours'.
Frankly, however desperate someone is to get on the pilot ladder, there has to be an element of self-preservation and pride too. Right seat C208 time is worth very little - and definitely not $7500. One might be pretending to be a pilot, enjoying the scenery and being in 'aviation', but its not going to make you a real pilot. Most C208 right seat occupants fast track their hours to the airlines, but its not real experience or knowledge unless its with a genuine two crew operation, and a pilot who really will teach you.
Any operation who is taking money off desperate pilots to put them as sandbags in a C208 to fulfil contract obligations has got other issues that would make me look elsewhere.....
The only bit of your message that was unusual/news was that your friend is being asked to PAY for the privilege of these 'logged hours'. Normally C208 co-pilots get minimum wage or nothing much - but your case could be first one I've heard off that is bold enough to demand payment for these 'hours'.
Frankly, however desperate someone is to get on the pilot ladder, there has to be an element of self-preservation and pride too. Right seat C208 time is worth very little - and definitely not $7500. One might be pretending to be a pilot, enjoying the scenery and being in 'aviation', but its not going to make you a real pilot. Most C208 right seat occupants fast track their hours to the airlines, but its not real experience or knowledge unless its with a genuine two crew operation, and a pilot who really will teach you.
Any operation who is taking money off desperate pilots to put them as sandbags in a C208 to fulfil contract obligations has got other issues that would make me look elsewhere.....
