What was your first flying job?

[Danger Banglington]

Bout to set out into the big bad world of aviation. trying to get an idea of where to start.
So am wondering how everyone else got started.

what was your first flying job?




(If this post has already been done, feel free to point me in the right direction)

[chimbu warrior]

It was not my first job as such, but a couple of weeks after gaining my CPL I received a call from the flying school where I had done my CPL, asking if I was interested in doing a charter.

"Of course" I replied.

"Okay, it is to take a TV cameraman up to get some footage of floodwaters pouring over a dam.............you will be flying a C-152" says operator. The reason for using the 152 was that it was the only aircraft available with a RH hinged window, enabling the cameraman to poke his camera out and record the watery scene.

I submit flight plan at the FSU (remember them?) and turn up to meet my passenger. He arrives on time, but has a camera that is almost as large as the 152 (this was 1978). After settling into our not-so-roomy steed, the camera was passed in to the cameraman who sat it on his lap. Actually it occupied a fair bit of my lap too.

We proceed with not-so-great haste (it is a 152 remember) to the dam, and along the way I determine that my passenger is not such a keen flier. After setting up in an orbit overhead, he opens the RH window and suddenly gets a blast of cool winter air and lots of noise (no headsets way back then). He gets his footage (a bit shaky when broadcast on the news that evening), and I get 2 hours of paid flying. That was the last charter I did in the 152, and I graduated to the Archer for the next adventure!

[Tmbstory]

The Royal Aero Club of New South Wales at Bamkstown.

I had skimped and saved enough to finish my CPL and Initial Instructor Rating at the club and the job came with it.

Tmb

[redsnail]

Part time flying instructor at Liverpool Flying School when they were at Hoxton Park.
First full time flying job was at Alligator Airways.

[anothertwit]

Mustering in 182's. Best way to learn how to "really fly":E and by far the most fun I've ever had in a plane! :ok:

[scrufflefish]

First flying job was as a hang gliding instructor in Byron Bay.

First in GA was doing joy flights in a DH82. I created the job by buying the aeroplane, then I had to get a CPL so I could afford to fly it! :ok:

[seavenom]

Meatbombing in a 182. And before you all jump up and down it was a real job because I got PAID, in real aussie dollars :ok: Nice guys to work for too, no pressure over wx, maintenance, fuel load, weight and balance, last light, or jumpers doing stupid things in or outside of the plane.

[Desert Duck]

First job in aviation was as bus driver/hangar rat/gofer but with that I was allowed to fly the Radio 6PR Shark Patrol and got $2 / hour flying pay.

[PA39]

Pax charter/mail contract in a twin comanche and Aztec. :)

[haughtney1]

Dodgy and son charters in the mighty Duchess.....:cool:

[Pinky the pilot]

Cruising around the Cooper Basin Oil/Gas fields in a C206, based at Moomba.

[AvEnthusiast]

The day I finished the training (advance licenses) the next day I flew a charter and when I was offered the money for that charter I refused to take it. I did it as honorary flight and I think I made the big mistake since then it's five months am setting free and no flying job.

[NZFlyingKiwi]

Technically it was parachute dropping for the guy I did my drop rating with but that was a very intermittent weekend thing so I'd consider my first regular flying job was the one I'm doing at the moment - instructing at an aero club and having a bloody good time doing it. :ok:

[Dora-9]

Dog-baiting in a C.172 in WA's Gascoyne district in the middle of summer! A hopper full of rancid meat that probably permanently damaged my sense of smell. Things could only get better after this job....

[boocs]

Part time instructor at Essendon with Skybird.

b.

[zlin77]

Single engine VFR Charter Pilot, Rockhampton QLD, May 1974....award wage was $100.00/ week.....

[Aussie Bob]

Well, back in the '80s I was hitch hiking my way north looking for a gig to kick start my 250 hour career and I got picked up in a black Merc. Turns out the guy had a Baron and was looking for a pilot. We used to run this thing between a bush strip in PNG and some little airstrip in the gulf. He made me divert around Horn Island, I wasn't allowed above 100 feet and he wouldn't let me log the hours but I didn't complain, he was paying me a couple of grand a trip. For some reason we only ever carried baggage.

Never did catch his name, last I saw of him was in a Commonwealth plated Falcon being driven away by a bunch of suits. They didn't look real friendly so I had sort of hidden myself when they arrived. Funnily enough one of his mates then contacted me and offered me a job flying beautiful and professional ladies between a remote island and Cairns. This was pretty cool, lovely ladies and a really neat Chieftan with a bar and all in the back. I figured it must have been a bit more legit than his mates business because he let me log the hours but some of his mates looked a bit Mafia like but I figured what the heck, they were paying me five grand a week so I just played dumb pilot when the heavies were around and in any event most of my pax were ladies.

It got better after that, a pilots strike had just finished, pilots were scarce and the PM at the time reckoned that pilots were only glorified bus drivers. Any idiot with a Cpl could get a job. One of the majors took one look at my log book with Chieftan time and I got a command gig in a 747. Not long after that I got my CIR, married a hostie, won Tatts, retired and brought a Super Cub and a rural spread.

Sure has been good to me this flying caper, I recommend it to all the kids I meet.

[startingout]

Aerial Photography with a small melbourne company using one of the original 177's in Australia... It was a dog but great flying to start off with :ok:

[Ultralights]

Part time Instructor at hoxton, then YSBK and YWOL.

[halas]

Creeping line ahead land survey in a 172 in SE South Australia for OCAS 1983.
Transferred to MGA flying B36 for old Jack. Mainly Stock agent charters but also shearing competition candidates and tractor-pull crew!

halas

[sms777]

Fresh CPL, approached by a friend of a friend wanted me to fly him to BK-PF-BK once a week. He paid my endorsement for a turbo Seneca III. 180 kts cruise, autopilot, GPS....I was on top of the world. Did 7 trips all cash paid, leave empty come home late at night with 4 fat laundry bags. One day he failed to turn up for the trip. Read about him in the paper the next day. :(

[UnaMas]

Fresh CPL and a friend knew of a friend of a friend who needed a friend to fly his friend (mining exec) around to his mines in Central QLD in his private Seneca.
Awesome job, did it for a couple of months and then got a PA31 job back home which im doing now.
Its all about the people you know in this industry it would seem...

[HarleyD]

First job - aerial spraying in a Piper Pawnee..

I turned up on my first day and was pointed at a pristine Pa 25-235 Pawnee B, introduced to my mixer who had a ute load of DDT and MoGas drums and then given a box of matches with the instructions "if ya crash, make sure it burns"

[Slasher]

My firstest was illegal charters in SE aircraft way out in the
mulga yonks ago when one could get away with doing em.
Helped pay for my CPL!

My first real job was charters in SE aircraft way out in the
mulga yonks ago when one could get away with doing VFR.
Helped pay for my twin ratings!

[Danger Banglington]

These posts have been a great read. Thanks

[Jamair]

UnaMas - Wasn't a silver sneaker with individual DVD screens and a Sandel HSI was it?

First aviation job was VFR CHTR in a C172. Progressed to a C182 doing CHTR, then all-hours freight. A lot of private flying in 182 & Bonanza, then up to IFR CHTR in the Sneaker, Baron, Chieftain, Aztec, Cheyenne; then RPT in 404 & B200, then C208 & PC12 airwork.

[jas24zzk]

Does washing the plane count????? :{

[BSD]

Spotting forest fires in WA. Fantastic experience, great mates, brilliant boss(es) (Alex MacDonald. Max and Sue Folks) paid at the then award rate, which they didn't have to do and the right ethos and culture for a real rookie to work in.

Steep learning curve, invaluable experience and an introduction to the most wonderful country I've ever lived in.

Took the job on thinking after my illustrious training course, my RAF flying scholarship (awarded to kids who could do joined-up writing I now realise) and my overall general huge self-belief (arrogance? conceit?) that it was well beneath my status and that well, Qantas would send for me in a week or two and I had nothing better to do whilst I waited.......

Boy did I get a wake-up call.

I fervently hope and even pray that all of you newly-qualified CPLs out there get a break as vsaluable as that one was to me. I owe my former bosses, and colleagues an immense debt of gratitude.

Good luck to you all.

BSD.

p.s. BSD? the rego of the first aeroplane I was ever paid to fly.

[Aerodynamisist]

Loading chem into Braves and Ag waggons out on the cotton, occasional flights in the Cherokee to go and get parts or burgers. was a good start got me from ppl to commercial MECIR and instructor by saving every second pay check.

[morno]

First job was flying mostly the grey haired and foreign over one of our greatest treasures, Kakadu National Park, for Kakadu Bob, with the odd bit of charter thrown in for something different.

Then progressed onto something a bit more exciting, flying bags of mail around Outback NT from Alice Springs and then Darwin, with the odd bit of pax charter thrown in. That was some of the best flying I did and long lasting memories.

Followed that by starting on a twin working with a good friend who has parted many a good bit of knowledge, experience and wise words over the years to help me on my way.

Now I'm lucky enough to be belting around the skies in some nicely equipped B200's.

Would I change anything about the way I've done it all? No way in hell! :ok:

Would I recommend it to others, hell yes! :D

morno

[training wheels]

.. started off instructing on a casual basis, then instructing on a full time basis overseas, followed by another overseas instructing gig, and now flying in a domestic airline ... overseas.

I still remember my first ever flight as a commercial pilot. Got out of the aircraft, went inside the building and it then occurred to me that I no longer needed to pay for the flight I just flew. A great feeling! :ok:

[Anthill]

VFR freight charter and banner towing out of MB in the 80's (C180, C185 and C206).

Although a humble start, it was probably far more personally satisfying than having Mom and Dad buy an aeroplane for me...like that guy who's Dad bought him a B58 and told him to fly to Flinders Island to buy crayfish and then sell them back in Sydney... Dad bought him an Mu2 sometime later so as 'junior' could get the turbine time.

But that's not really a first 'job', is it?

[Fantome]

It got better after that, a pilots strike had just finished, pilots were scarce and the PM at the time reckoned that pilots were only glorified bus drivers. Any idiot with a Cpl could get a job. One of the majors took one look at my log book with Chieftain time and I got a command gig in a 747. Not long after that I got my CIR, married a hostie, won Tatts, retired and brought a Super Cub and a rural spread.

Sure has been good to me this flying caper, I recommend it to all the kids I meet.


Hey Bobby . . . slow down boy . . .. . if you think you had a good start . . .. .you're no match for my mate Merv. Merv did about 2.000hrs chisel charter on a PPL all round the SW Pacific, then in Raratonga was seduced by a billonairess with a Turbo Goose who had Merv fly her back home to the Bahamas where she had him as her toy boy for a year. Fortunately for Merv a bloke with even more cojones than he the trifle exhausted arrived at their base in an R2600 re-engined Cat fitted out like a luxury yacht and suggested to Gladys that she join him on an expedition to the Galapagos I think it was. So Merv packed up his kit and did an aerial hitch-hike to San Diego where the last I heard of him he was polling one of those Fairchild F227 Friendships round the night skies with a lot of serious partying down the back all of it in excess of 5,280 feet AMSL.

[Boeingdream]

My first job was Instructing at YMMB, but my second job was flying 206 & 208 in Africa which I am still doing.

Good luck in your new career.

[poteroo]

Charter flight: Port Moresby to Gurney,(Milne Bay), to Port Moresby in C182 VH-DFQ, (SPAC), on 16th Nov, 1965 - exactly 7 days after my CPL flight test in Brisbane. DCA Examiner was Capt Tom Drury.

happy days,

[Dupre]

Started out in aviation in 2005 running the camera system on aerial survey flights. After well over a year, with still no actual prospects of doing any flying I resigned. Found a part time gig on a Cherokee Six. Up well before dawn and back well after dark, for 1.6hrs in the logbook - twice a week. Nine months later I had cracked 400hrs TT and moved to Botswana. Got lucky there - C206 initially, then C210 and bit of C172 for fun. The C208 followed in due course. After three years headed north to Tanzania and got another C208 job (much better pay and G1000 though!) Started getting a little twin time in 2011 when I got released on the C404 with almost 3000hrs of single time.

Still hunting down the 500 multi that most operators down in oz are looking for :} Maybe in another few years!

I've applied (always in person) to probably 30 companies and have been offered 3 flying jobs out of it. Probably another 30 companies by email and have received a total of one reply.

My best advice is to persist, persist, persist. It can and will happen if you put enough into it. Also try to stay debt free so you can go chasing opportunities wherever they are and however much they pay.

Good luck :ok:

[sixtiesrelic]

I got a few crumbs from the flying school I got my Commercial at, in the way of the very odd charter. I sat in the office all day being the booking clerk and charter quoter, while the boss watched TV in his lounegroom over the road. His wife was happy. He was with her for a change instead of always being at the aerodrome.

Because I was at the aerodrome and could network with the aircraft salesmen I cracked a job flying a brand new Bonanza.
Sold my car... the job supplied one and accommoodation (under the boss's house) and went off on the start of my career.
Four days later I was back home 'Let go/resigned' after I'd had two arguments with the boss.

Me... VIRTUALLY FRESH OUT OF FLYING SCHOOL dreadfully under-qualified to be the 'chief pilot' of a brand new charter company (We could and did that, back then). I was also a product of the time, where older men were to be respected and ALWAYS RIGHT, so I accepted being pushed about that people don't now.

The boss... a self made, bush, businessman who overcame obstacles by bulldozing over them. He'd started out as a fencer with his brother and both had become big men in town in other country industries. He couldn't understand my working within the rules.

We had a bit of an argument about my saying no, to flying over 900 NM from base in centralish Oz to the NW coast with a part for a machine, have a bit of a sleep in the arvo, then fly back night VMC.

Night VMC had just come out and I had it. Told him at the interview I could fly at night ... thinking of a couple of routes east that it was quite legal to fly.
He couldn't understand why I wouldn't fly over two deserts with two NDBs at the only two towns between departure and destination.
I pointed out that if we had an engine failure we'd be dead. He flared up at my insinuating that his brand new Beech could possibly have an engine failure (but we were taking a gene over to an equally iconic machine) and I decided I better get to hell out of it before I died.
He had mentioned a number of laws I'd be breaking in normal ops. He didn't understand the rules and there were blokes around with much more experience than me, who would bust them.
I returned home with my tail between my legs thinking 'I was a bit of a girl really'.
I got a charter to the town a couple of months later (Back at the flying school getting crumbs I was paid for, but unpaid for the days sitting behind the desk) and said hello to a few people I knew.
They told me that the boss had gone through three more pilots before he got the present bloke who was an old bush pilot.

He told the boss he was the pilot and would do what he deemed safe and the boss wouldn't interfere or he'd lose his pilot.
They were about the same age and background, so the operation prospered.

The boss lived a pretty wild, western life, where it was fun to give each other a bit of a scare.
Some one gave him a scare which went wrong and he was killed.
Sad really, he was a good bloke who you had to admire.

I later cracked a job because a man 'knew me' and I was away, landing up with a most lucky 'blessed by bein' in the right place at the right time' career.

[Kharon]

I had that fateful morning, driven to the second rate airport at which I fully expected to pass in one event a Commercial pilot licence (frozen ATPL) and CIR with some witless wonder called an ATO. Lord knows the family had paid enough; so the idiot who 'done' me for speeding simply set the tone for the day, after all, who would be dumb enough to book a Ferrari doing 130 Kph in a school zone; really, you people.

Anyway, I breezed out of the 'joint', now a fully paid up Captain and finally be able to buy my 4 x half inch gold stripes to go with the 'windswept and interesting', shirt open look I had cultivated. There, in the car park was a Shire Goddess (382434) with a flat tyre; her poor little Porsche had a sore paw. I immediately assisted and whipped out my latest version android phone and actually spent 3 minutes explaining to the person answering my call the need for speed and that certain people should not be kept waiting. Meanwhile, I drove the beautiful heiress to an elegant restaurant close by, which just happened to serve her favourite Thai food.

Long story short, her Daddy was so pleased that a person (Captain no less) of my calibre had acted as the 'white knight', he set us up with an AOC a Gulf stream 5 and half a million operating capitol. Since then we have had to struggle a bit (Daddy's company has recently developed a small problem paying the bills) but fearless as I am, I have applied for a position with the CASA as a 'type specialist'. I expect the salary, perks and (mooted) possibility of a consultancy will see 'us' (and probably Daddy) through the next, short term financial crisis.

It is truly this easy, for the right folk. – Selah.