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Traffic watch pilots usually work for television stations, radio stations, or traffic reporting companies. If you are interested in a job like this, look for companies located around beaches, or scan ads in scenic areas like the Grand Canyon.
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Tour flying is often seasonal with pilots usually being paid either a salary or hourly per flight hour. But it is said that there are quite a lot of job opportunities out there, so keep looking for the relevant ads, and you may get lucky! Aerial Tour PilotĪerial tour pilots fly sightseeing passengers over scenic areas. I occasionally managed to get short term work flying aircraft for private owners, but nothing which lasted any length of time, partly because competition for this type of work is quite intense.
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Flying Privately Owned AircraftĮveryone thinks that this would be the perfect career! But whether you can get a job doing this is as much down to luck and who you know as to your flying ability in many instances. Typically, pilots are paid $15.00 to $20.00 per load, which doesn’t sound like that much, but a busy jump center can run two loads per hour in popular periods. Multi-engine time can be useful for this work, depending of course on the aircraft type used. Skydive pilots are usually paid per load carried and can build many hours of flight time quickly during the jump seasons. Skydiving work tends to be seasonal, and it is helpful to have done some skydiving yourself, but it is not absolutely essential. But skydiving is a different matter, and this is a suitable job for a low hours pilot. Glider towing is one of the few jobs which can be done with a PPL, so you may well find that most of these jobs are filled, and that it is hard to get one which pays. Skydive Jump Pilot and Glider Towing Pilot Īircraft ferrying usually pays per job, and is frequently very short term, but there are exceptions to this. These are more suited to experienced pilots who have done this sort of flying before. But sometimes these jobs can be complicated, and involve flying in remote areas or over large expanses of water or forest, for instance. Some ferry pilot jobs are available to new pilots. Sometimes the owner is new to flying or to that particular plane, and does not have the experience needed to get the aircraft home themselves. Aircraft Ferry Pilotįerry pilots move airplanes or helicopters on behalf of owners or operators. So it can be quite competitive.īut for pilots who enjoy low, slow flying, this could be quite a good job. In addition, banner towing can be an additional job for pilots working as flight instructors or doing sight-seeing flights. But the problem is that most agencies know that low hours pilots want to build time, and they will often pay as little as possible. Most banner towing pilots earn between $15 and $50 per hour. However, do bear in mind that the pay for a banner towing pilot is not that high. So some special skills are required for this job, but it is a good way to build basic flying time while earning an income. Picking up the banner at the beginning of the flight and dropping it at the end is an art, and one which you will have to learn.Īlso, since the aim of banner towing is to have people on the ground see and understand the advertising message, banners are usually towed at a slower speed than normal cruising speed. Most banner towing aircraft are single engine planes that have capture hooks to pick up banners, and also release mechanisms to drop the banner at the end of the flight. So let us take a look at the details of some of the low hours pilot jobs which may be available. In fact, there are quite a lot of possible careers for the low time pilot. They include tasks like crop dusting and other agricultural flying, pipeline patrol, banner towing, air charter, sightseeing and ferry flights, aerial photography, traffic watch, and other similar careers. There are jobs you are able to undertake with a CPL, and in fact the FAA lists all of them. So is this idea a complete non-starter? Well, possibly not. In fact, there are not that many jobs which you can get with only a CPL. Instructing, which is one of the most common ways to build hours, requires further qualifications. Most pilot jobs require an ATPL, or at least flying hours well into four figures. I certainly felt this way when I got my CPL. Or maybe you simply want to work as a pilot, and assume that you will now be able to do it. After all, it is now legal for you to be paid to fly, isn’t it? Perhaps you just want to build hours towards an ATPL.
#Low time pilot jobs license#
Many pilots assume that when they get a Commercial Pilot’s License (CPL) they will immediately be able to get a flying job.
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