Expert: David A. NewMyer - 12/10/2009

Question
Hi, my friend has a commercial license for a 737 and was flying DHL, but he was out for medical for 1 year and then had non flying job for 18 months, and has been looking for a flying job since. He is not current anymore and that is proving to be difficult for him to find something. What advice can you give, maybe if he could get an internship program or a job where you are not required to be current?

Answer
Hi,

Certainly, this is a difficult time to find a flying job of any kind.  The fact that your friend has had a job flying jets (a 737 in particular, which is a fairly common type of air transport aircraft) makes it a bit easier.

The key things to keep in mind are:

1.  Make sure that the medical issue is taken care of and is properly explained in all of your friend's documentation;

2.  He will have to find out a way to get current on his flying, at least in general (if not in a specific type of jet aircraft).  Without currency, it will be difficult to gain employment anywhere unless a new employer is willing to do that for him;

3.  Is he a high time pilot (over 4000 hours of flying) or less than that?  A high time pilot is, today, going to find it easier to get a job flying for an airline than a lower time pilot.

4.  There are still jobs to be had in some of the Asian airlines (particularly in China) where expatriate pilots with jet time are being hired.  Generally, your friend will have to go through training on whatever type of aircraft that airline is flying, and, will likely have to live in that country or nearby.....

5.  If he is unable to gain currency right now, then, I would advise that he get on with a company that he might want to fly for later--in other words, work in aviation to stay near the aviation industry until such time that he has the funds to gain currency and enter the pilot job market again.  An internship might be one way to do this; however, I am not sure that many airlines are offering internships right now due to the state of the economy.

Best wishes to you both,

David A. NewMyer