What was your first flying job?
 

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)

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!

My first official Job.
 

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

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

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:

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:

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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:

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....

Part time instructor at Essendon with Skybird.

b.

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

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.

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:

Part time Instructor at hoxton, then YSBK and YWOL.

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