AERIAL MESSAGES, INC. in Daytona anyone?

[utahpilot]

they say they need 100 pilots for the summer. Anyone fly for them? If I've already got my tailwheel endorsement, do I just call them up and they send me off to fly tons of hours at 20 bucks an hour?

anyone who has worked for this company, your input is appreciated.

thanks

 

[turning2]

Calling Tim a crook isn't enough, he's worse. Stay as far away as possible. He's had a numerous mechanical issuses with his airplanes, I suppose that happens when the pilots turn wrenches, not to mention the countless disgruntaled student's over the years. Needing over 100 pilots is a complete farce, if you've happend to look at his website over the years you'll come to see that no matter what the situation or time of year that statement is always there, that is of course right up until he has your money. Stay away.

 

[ATRdrvr]

I instructed in Daytona while in college and that guy was at the airport near my flight school, and lets just say his totaloperation is a POS. Stay away dangerous

 

[ms6073]

Why would someone need 100-pilots for the summer for a town that rarely has more than 2-3 banner operations being conducted at any given moment? Answer, because he doesnt need 100-pilots, he needs 100-pilot's money! I have never personally worked for the man, but I did take a drive out with some friends one day and listened to him lay it on thick promising everything under the sun. Guess what, several of my friends elected to give him some of their (or their parents) money as a deposit.

One of them changed his mind without ever sitting in one of his aircraft (less than a week later) and Tim said his deposit was good for up to a year which amounted to the same thing as saying that regardless, there would be no refund! Two others paid nearly $3000 for what Tim referred to as a banner tow/tailwheel endorsement but in actuality was nothing more than 5-hours dual on banner ops in a very, very old C-172 as well as 1-2 weeks (40-50 hours) of helping to assemble banners, perform minor maintenance, and clean up the hangar when it was still located at DAB! Oh and about that job that he nedds 100-pilots for? Of the 4 pilots Tim 'trained' in this instance, only one actually conducted any revenue flights and he left after 2-weeks having logged a total of only 4-hours (in addition to the training). I beleive Tim's response was that business was slow (middle of May). He suggested that the other pilots in the class contact some of the operators up and down the east coast in order to find employment for the rest of the season.

So go ahead and forward him a resume, be sure an point out that you already have your tailwheel endorsement! In my opinion, based only on the experiences of others, the man is a no-account, smooth talking, snake-oil salesman and will simply reply with someting to the effect that you need at least xx amount of hours towing banners in his aircraft in order to meet insurance requirements!

They suffered a fatal crash that killed two pilots while 'maneuvering to land' at Flagler Airport in March of this year. You might check the NTSB database for Aerial Messages accident/incident history.

Banner-towing plane crashes

This guy Timothy Walker purportedly worked for the company a few years ago, do yourself a favor an contact him as well as conduct a keyword search of this forum for "Aerial Messages" or "Aerial Messages Flying Club"