Jobs For Low Hours Pilots

[MikeAlphaBravo]

After recently attending the CCAT seminar at Cranfield, I was a little worried (though not surprised) at the stats, that only 5% of students are getting jobs at the moment. I just wondered what other forms of employment are realistic to the low hours graduate, barring the exclusive job of first officer on the lines. Are there any CCAT graduates out there who can put my mind at rest with tales of success before i part with my 50k??
Many thanks,
MAB

[redsnail]

I would strongly recommend you join BALPA. They have a pretty good section involving recruitment of both experienced and inexperienced pilots. Well worth a look and costs very little for a student pilot.

[K2SkyRider]

redsnail,

I asked BALPA if I could join as a student member, but the reply was that I needed to be enrolled on a course. Hence Catch-22, as you don't have access to their advisors at the time you need them to help you make an informed decision of which course to embark upon.

Cheers,

K2

[MikeAlphaBravo]

I just wondered what the chances are of being offered employment in other sectors of aviation, such as air taxi, instructing, or basically anything to get some hours clocked up! I will look into joining BALPA, thanks for the advice.

[RobertFL]

From all the posts I see all of you guys are very brave for spending all the money and effort. Specially guys over 30 which seems extremely difficult to get into aviation when you over 30

[FlyingForFun]

employment in other sectors of aviation, such as air taxi, instructingAir taxi: under JAR, you need 700 hours before you can fly for an air taxi operation. Very unlikely to be your first job.

Instructing, on the other hand, seems to be picking up, and lots of people (me included) are getting, or historically have got, instructor ratings in order to build up hours. I am always very wary of people who instruct just to build time. Remember that the students you will be teaching are spending lots of their hard-earned cash - they deserve an instructor who is enthusiastic, and who is not going to spend the whole lesson complaining that they deserve to be flying a 737 by now. Not to mention that they are trusting their life to you and your ability and willingness to teach them properly. But that only accounts for a very small number of hour-building instructors - the vast majority of them are dedicated, hard-working and enthusiastic, and don't let the fact that they don't plan on instructing forever deter them from doing the best job they can.

As long as you fit into the second category, go for it!

FFF
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[Phil Brockwell]

quote
Air taxi: under JAR, you need 700 hours before you can fly for an air taxi operation. Very unlikely to be your first job.
unquote

In fact it is possible to operate public transport IFR with 400 hours and in some scenario's VFR with 250 hours.

Phil

[Crosswind Limits]

Phil,

Having checked your profile you obviously know what you are talking about. Can you please explain a little further how this can be done?

Thanks!

[Snigs]

In answer to the first point, Centreline have negociated special dispensation from the CAA for the "Eye in the Sky" flights. A 250 hour pilot can fly the Seneca with the GWR Roadwatch gals aound Bristol, but it must be only VFR, and the pilot must have a current IR.

I don't know what the 400 hour IFR public transport flying is though, freight perhaps?

[Phil Brockwell]

As snigs says, the 250 hr deal is for specific contracts that run from 3 bases around the UK, the 400 rule is accross the board pax and freight. I must admit, generally both the 250 and 400 hr guys we take are normally well known to us, having done their IR's with BFC, who are part of the same group.

Thats it really, the minimum requirement for us to operate is 400 hrs, I'd like to say it's because our training is better, but in reality, its a loop hole in the whole JAR / CAP thing.