Expert: D. Norkus - 10/5/2006

Question
hi,
i am in texas. i recently completed my instrument and commercial license with multi. i am looking for a job in flying for time building.. i only have 300 hours. my only requirement is lot of flying and in texas. if worst comes and i have to move out of texas i will do that tooo...but anyting except instruction. guide me!

Answer
The jobs you can try applying for will be skydive pilot, traffic watch or banner towing. Banner tow & skydive operators can be found in the phonebook or online at www.uspa.org. Most such operators will hire lower time pilots but 300TT may be a bit too low for some. Many now require 500-7500TT just to meet insurance minimums, so you may have to log a bit more to be hireable.

This site provide some good advice for skydive pilots- http://www.DiverDriver.com

This link has an article about banner towing- http://www.studentpilot.net/acf/towpilot.html

Call your local radio station and ask for the contact information for their traffic watch operator. Seek employers out with resume in hand. Even if they aren't hiring at the moment, you will become a familiar face if you check back every month or so and they may consider you at a future date. Many employers will hire a face they know over a faceless resume. Chatting up pilots already doing these sorts of jobs also provides a personal contact for the future.

This link also provides some ideas for building flight time-
http://www.flightinfo.com/buildtime.htm

You might also try sites like
http://www.findapilot.com or http://www.climbtofl350.com

Good Luck