Interesting careers in aviation?

[Mikehotel152]

A few other threads on Pprune and conversations with mates have got me thinking about options for enjoying a career in the aviation industry which do not necessarily involve the 'normal job' of flying a 737 to Frankfurt twice a day. It would be very helpful to those who are looking to join the industry to be exposed to the other options for earning a living within aviation. I think it would be excellent if there were a thread on this site where pilots and others involved in aviation could give wannabes a flavour of their job. It would show the breadth of options available.

So, are you flying Air Taxis out of a small airport; towing banners from a grass strip; flying sleek Citations out of Luton; a flying instructor etc etc? The more interesting the better, and please give the wannabes a vague idea of how to get a job like yours.

Alternatively, seeing as this is necessarily being posted on the wannabes thread and may not catch the eye of qualified pilots and people from other areas of the aviation industry, perhaps anyone who has any interesting suggestions might post them as well.

Thanks for any posts. :ok:

Mods - you might like to sticky this thread if it takes off, so to speak! ;)

[the_daddy]

Excellent thread! I'm sitting the ATPL exams at the moment but am really keen to find out what else there is apart from the obvious.

To kick things off, I once knew a flying instructor who was looking into flying for the British Antarctic Survey! Now that's something I never even knew about a year ago!

Lost touch with him so never found out if he got there or not.

Look forward to hearing what else is out there.

[jb2_86_uk]

dont know if this qualifies as different enough or not, but ive been investigating the freight industry as a post-training destination. I think it gets the stereotype as a 'last resort' from FTOs, but it looks pretty good from where Im stood. Good pay, plenty of flying hours, more relaxed flying. Not having to deal with abusive drunks (or niaomi campbell).

Where do I sign-up?? :ok:

JB

Editted to add:

Plus get to see many varied destinations, rather than the usual holiday hotspots, not to mention some of the crazy freight you can read about in the 'strange freight' thread in the Freight Dogs forum

[v6g]

To kick things off, I once knew a flying instructor who was looking into flying for the British Antarctic Survey! Now that's something I never even knew about a year ago!
- I looked at applying for an IT job with the British Antarctic Survey once. It looked quite a fun job until I saw one of the benefits was "Free Parking".

Free Parking? In Antarctica?

(the job was in Cambridge)

[portsharbourflyer]

I believe that BAS require a reasonable amount of previous multi engine experience.

Interesting flying jobs:

FR Aviation: Target towing and low level threat simulation in Falcon Bizjets on subcontract for the RAF and RN. Captains are nearly all ex military, but most of the Co-pilots are civilian, 1000 hours needed to apply alot of instructors employed there in the past.

Bush flying in Africa for companies like Zimex aviation.

There are always the occasional flying job in hostile locations: ie: have seen King Air jobs in Afganistan advertised before now. However significant hours and previous King Air needed to apply for this one.

Afraid JB, night freight does not involve lots of flying, typically 300 hours per year at most night freight ops on average. Again most night freight operators require about a 1000 hours for new FOs to ensure that the ATPL can be unfrozen in a couple years.

Bush flying in Africa you can get a job on a 206 with just the bare minimum 250 hours CPL and when you gain experience it is possible to move onto the Caravan and Kingair.

[redsnail]

Part time flight instructor.

Bush pilot flying scenics, freight and govt charter. Unbelievably fun but hard work.

Coastwatch pilot. Very interesting.

Regionail airlines flying to remote places as well as tropical islands. Bandits and twotters. Awesome flying.

Regionals but bigger. Good mix of non prec and ILS stuff mixed in with big and small airport fun.

Shifted to UK.
Night freight. Challenging and cold.

Now, fly for NetJets Europe, fractional bizjet flying.
By far the most interesting, challenging and entertaining job I've had.

Airlines? For now, no way. Too boring and work too many days.

Posting from Moscow....

[scooby79]

Have had a few interesting flying jobs.

Skydive flying in Alaska and Las Vegas.

Low level magnetic survey in Libya. 450ft over the desert although ferrying out to the location each day was the really low stuff.

Mid altitude photographic survey in Finland, spent the summer moving every few weeks further north in Finland, got to see and spend time in places all over the country.

Photographic flights for the FCO in Afghanistan.

Night magnetic and gravitational survey in Algeria over a lot of the Sahara. Interesting but not much fun flying till 6am over the desert as may as well have been in a cave.

Glad I did it all but am pretty happy that its over, the next plane has a bed in it, something I longed for in Algeria.

[Mikehotel152]

This month's Pilot Magazine has an article about running an airfield. Not an awful option if you love aviation. :)

[Stretch06]

Saw an ad the other day for flying large float planes in the Maldives, that would be a great way to spend some time...

Now where can i get funds for a float endorsement :ugh: ???

Stretch:ok:

[redsnail]

Stretch,
My mates got a float plane rating in the Kimberley. I was just starting the work up to it when I got the coast watch job.

The Antarctic gig looks very interesting, there's a PPRuNer who does that in a variety of aircraft. (Not Twotters). My sis in law's a flying doc. (She does the doc bit, other folks do the flying bit). Never did aerial survey but mates who have really enjoyed it. Got a mate who does laser oceanographic stuff in a Dash 8.

[Mikehotel152]

I found an advert for being a SAR pilot in the Middle East. Salary £65 - £75k per year tax free.

As if flying around the Middle East isn't dangerous enough, being a SAR pilot out there must be a challenge!

[don't_ask_me]

I'm VERY interested. But...

I don't get it...How much experience do these kind of jobs require?

Would they be an option to a low hours CPL pilot, or would they be more suited to an experienced BA 747 captain who wants to settle down abit?


I'm up for a bit of floatplane flying in the maldives...once I get a CPL!

Thanks,
don't_ask

[portsharbourflyer]

They do ask for significant float plane experience in the recent advert; so you will need more than a bare minimum hour CPL/IR and float plane rating.

[Mikehotel152]

It would be great if the mods could somehow link this thread to one of the professional pilot threads so that those already in these interesting careers might give advice on how to start out! :ok:

[redsnail]

The bush flying jobs in Oz just need a bare CPL. Ideally you should have a Night VFR rating. You don't need an IR but they never hurt.

The company I worked for had some float planes. You do one season on the wheels and if you want, next season you can go onto the floats. You start on the closed water and eventually work up to open water.

Oh, there's a big shortage of pilots in Oz now for the regionals etc.

[scooby79]

Aerial survey, you can start with quite low hours, 500 ish. To get onto the twin turboprop stuff it would be about 2000ish as can be pretty challenging and mainly single pilot.

I liked the earlier post about an ex BA747 capt doing these sort of jobs to settle down. I think you will find it is the other way around.

[woskam]

I've always thought that doing sightseeing flights around the Great Barrier Reef and Tropical North Queensland wouldn't be a bad way of paying the bills...maybe even doing Fly-Dives off a float plane...

[don't_ask_me]

mmm...This (http://www.pilotcareercentre.com/APilotsLifeHome.asp#5) is quite interesting. (A day in the life...)

don't_ask

[Teeks]

Mark Beasley, instruments instructor at BCFT flies for the British Antarctic Survey, this summer he was based at Halley - I got to talk to him lots (I'm the comms manager here). He even let me fly a twin otter for an hour or so, it was amazing...

The BAS pilot job is where I'd love to end up, but you'll need 1500 hours of multi engine so it's going to take a while. I'm distance learning with CATS, so the theory should be sorted once I start flying.

Other interesting jobs I've seen while looking around is working for the red cross in Africa dropping supplies and taxing doctors around, geo-surveys over Greenland, pilot for a drug baron in Columbia etc. I'm aiming for a bush job once I get the quals, the pay wont be anything like an airliner pilot, but I'm sure it'll be more fun

[crockroy]

Hi all,
I've recently joined this forum and was quite dismayed to find that most threads lean towards airlines and earning large amounts of money (everyone to their own). However after reading this thread its cheered me up knowing that airlines are not the only way to enjoy flying and earn something at the same time.

I'm just about to leave the British Army after 22 yrs and am really not interested in carrying on working in the IT world. I've always wanted to do my PPL but "other" things got in the way, my wife hinted maybe now would be the time to do my PPL & CPL, move to some where nice (Canada for example) and get a flying job to buffer my pension.

After spending a great deal of time researching whats required to achieve my dream, I have found myself so wrapped up "hours here" and "hours there" that I don't know whether I am coming or going:{

All I want is to fly one of the above mentioned jobs in this thread, I'm not interested in airlines, heavy transport etc and I now get the impression I have to be licenced up to the hilt and fork out a fortune to achieve it.

I would be greatfull if some one could let me know how I go from zero to light tsp, small pax or sight seeing trips etc, how much I'm looking to spend approx and a out lying time frame.

If this has been asked/answered in any other thread, then I appologise, I havn't found it yet.

Many thanks:)

[Mikehotel152]

Morning Crockroy,

There are plenty of ladies and gents on Pprune who will have been down the avenue you talk about. They probably reside on other threads, like Non Airline Transport Stuff and Rest of the World. It may be worth repeating your request there.

I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but I would advise that you'll need to get yourself a CPL and ME/IR, so you're looking at a fair amount of dosh. I would have thought - and again, there will be those who know better - that an FAA licence might be more appropriate for what you intend doing. If only because it's cheaper and a JAA licence is probably only better overall if you plan to fly in Europe. :confused: I guess you could get the licences you need for about £45,000 (JAA) in the UK or $36,000 (FAA) out in the USA.

I once met an interesting guy out in Africa, who had flown in many African countries and had about 8 licences to his name; JAA, FAA, South African, Zimbabwean, Kenyan, Congolese, Tanzanian...you name it, he had one! At the time I met him, he was flying in and out of Baghdad. Rather him than me!

But as a general comment, I think your dream is achievable and commendable. I'd love to do it but will end up in the Airlines simply in order to earn sufficient to support my family. If I didn't have to do that, I'd also look to fly float planes around British Columbia! :)

[Genghis the Engineer]

On the subject of BAS, it is part of NERC (the Natural Environment Research Council) - a UK government funded research body. It operates 7 aircraft for a combination of direct research, and research support - a BAe-146, a Dornier 228, four twin Otters, and a Dash-7. It is safe to assume that none of these are employing entry level pilots but on the other hand they do all employ people in other support roles as well - airborne scientists, ops management, etc.

BAS jobs are advertised here (http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/employment/vacancies/index.php), and there's details of the other two aircraft here (http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/facilities/aircraft.asp). They're part of a much bigger European network of research aircraft which you can read about here (http://www.eufar.net/).

This sort of flying is a long way from airline ops, but (particularly if you have a scientific bent) arguably at-least as enjoyable and worthwhile. It's doubtlful that the salaries will ever be as good as on the airlines, but they're still pretty good.

Another interesting company to look at is Directflight (http://www.directflight.co.uk/index.html) who operate one of the NERC aircraft for them (the BAe-146) along with a couple of fisheries protection aircraft and the Shetlands inter-islands service. Its noticeable that they have very little turnover of pilots, which must say something about what they're like to work for.

It's worth bearing in mind however that most of these non-airline operators are looking for something rather more than just an ATPL. Whether it's faith (MAF), teamwork and low-flying skills (FAAM), intelligent autonomy (BAS) they're going to look at a lot more on your CV than just hours and licence(s).

For myself, I've working in aviation all my life, and have yet to work in the airline industry, nor have I any real desire to. On the other hand, being a pilot whilst an important part of what I am, is only a minority part - science, engineering, management and airworthiness are more at the core of my job.

G

[Okavango]

Thanks for this info - just adding my bit so I can use for reference later.

[Another TD]

You could start you aviation career in aircraft engineering, say with Virgin or BA then move into flying. That way you will know a lot about the airliners that you intend to fly one day.
BA have a LAE training programme which allows those with A Level maths and physics grade C minimum to join the airline and train to be at B1 or B2 LAE on their jets. Alternatively you could join Kingston university on the Aircraft Engineering degree course which also involves training at BA LHR and if you like what you see and BA like you then you could be in job that involves determining just before departure if an Airbus is fit to fly with ''Compressor Vane'' ECAM messages or why the manual operation of the 767 outflow valve has failed prior to an ETOPS trip which means the crew may have to follow the non ETOPS 60 minute route across the Atlantic. A 747 destined for the Far East returns to stand unable to start no 2 engine you are the LAE with 747 B1 CRS and you have to find the cause and maybe replace a component with the technicians and try an engine start whilst 300 pax and crew watch. You could become a B2 LAE and deal with auto pilot faults 30 min prior to push back with no standby aircraft and the local weather is RVR 100 metres, cancel the service? No you have to find a fix and you are the only B2 so you’re on your own.
Some days I cant believe this is my job other days I wish it wasn’t but overall I'm glad I have been given the opportunity to learn how an airliner works. You get staff travel and approx. 50K [after many years] for your efforts.

[youngskywalker]

I believe that you can earn a decent wage by 'crop spraying' in Columbia with the CIA! ;)

[Mikehotel152]

I wonder if that will become a job possibility in Afghanistan in the coming years? :uhoh:

[RAPA Pilot]

What a great thread.
After I qualified I became an instructor. Then went to Germany Para dropping for the British Army(Username) in the Turbine Islander, and what a blast it was. That got me the job flying Trislanders around the Channel Islands on schedualed Pax Ops. Single crew in all weathers. They are the crews who should be earning the big bucks, tough job, the only place I have experienced 40knots of fog, usually right across!!!
Now? Corporate work on the Citation XL. Interesting People, interesting places, lots of time off and a fat pay packet. Love it.
But I still hanker after the romance and adventure of doing something completely different such as BAS.
Not sure I could take the pay cut tho.;)

Col

[MMEMatty]

How about flying 50 year old cargo aircraft around europe? unique experience, great bunch of guys and great fun flying?

[Mikehotel152]

With whom? :)

[EchoKiloEcho]

There's a seaplane company flying twin otters / single otters in Greece. I think it is called ArGo airways. There are others as well.

[Captain_Scooby]

Fantastic thread - has really given me something to think about. Currently jobhunting, and have been limiting myself to certain types of flying, but I realise now that perhaps I'm trying to progress a little too fast, and I should enjoy the 'journey' with some of the jobs listed above.

For those with just a PPL....

Between my PPL and CPL, I built a lot of hours by flying for a gliding club, towing the aircraft up. I found out about the job from a conversation when I was working the desk at a local flight school, so I fired off a CV and a very enthusiastic covering letter (I even put in a photo of the tailwheel aircraft I had flown), got called in for a checkflight, and was later offered the position.

I flew from February to October, starting off on the Piper Cub, then onto the Robins, and finally the mighty Pawnee (which, on my first flight - solo because there's only one seat - was actually off the ground before I had full throttle in!!!). There were two other tuggies working with me, and apart from a few small niggles, we seemed to share the flying quite evenly without trouble.

There was a lot more than just flying - when we were on the ground, we needed to look after the aircraft as well as helping to run the launchpoint. It was unpaid, although there was an offer of a space in a caravan (I turned it down and stayed at the local hostel).

I think I clocked up about 250 hours over the Summer (and well over a thousand flights). It helped me improve my landings tremendously, and also gave me a v good lookout amongst other skills.

I'd recommend ringing around gliding clubs now and asking who deals with their tug pilot recruitment, then get a CV and covering letter sent out asap. It's good experience, it's brilliant for networking (a lot of airline pilots enjoy gliding), and even better its FREE flying and means you won't have to fork out to hourbuild.

Hope that's of use.

[Mikehotel152]

:ok:

Yes, it's an option that I'm seriously thinking about.

[olliew]

Spent some time doing 'bank runs' up to the Namibian/Angolan border. Real boys own stuff and the most enjoyable flying I've done. A few years ago now and still in the business but nothing will ever match it.