CFI or Skydiving?

[AppleG5]

Flyf15,
It is not in Colorado. I am in SF Bay area. Good luck your job hunt.
I think I will try to do both. However, this moment I have 6 students to enjoy cessna with, so it will be next month or so.
He could get to sit right seat on the King Air and when he meets the insurance minimums, he could fly it. Is that right? You mean after I logged more than 250 hours of multi time? I do not think I can log that much multi soon. Is there some ways I can log time unless onwer or pilot have MEI??

 

[PropsForward]

What does a 206 market you for over a "172 or 152"?

If your aspirations are for Flight Express....then I see it. If you are looking for a regional or charter position they both have the same pull....single engine, non-turbine.

Do what you have to in order to fly a twin. That's all that matters for either route.

Flight Express does not require any 206 time!

 

[Benny Hill]

Try to do both, if you can.

You are not going to find a lot of King Air's, that are used for jumping, with more than one seat up front. You might find some, but the majority have the copilot seat removed for a jumper to sit on the floor or on a bench next to the pilot. Adding a second pilot up front removes $15-$20 from that load.

Your best bet is to try and build some time in the Cessna and be at "the right place and the right time" when the King Air pilot moves on and you are in the position to be trained to fly the King Air. It is rare that a jump pilot is hired to fly a turbine jump plane without prior jump experience. Jumpers are not real fond of new faces up front and like to know who is flying them.

You will have a blast flying jumpers, just don't let them talk you into doing anything that you know you should not be doing .

Good Luck.

 

[avbug]

Skydive.

 

[Radiohofo]

I have been a jump pilot in singles and multi a/c. Logging time is great but the jumpers are major egomaniacs and you have to keep them in line. They jump with out of date reserves and guess who pays the price when the FAA shows up. Ouch. It can be very demanding work for little pay. If you instruct and fly jumpers on the weekends, that would be ideal. But if you have to choose, I would earn your time instructing. Good luck.

 

[fly4surf]

having done both at seperate times I'd also recomend doing both if possible. the CFI gig makes you a very knowledgeable, very aware pilot. sitting there watching someone screw up just about everything known to man teaches you in a hurry what not to do and what to look at. and at 80-90 hrs. a month, you might like variety. i did 900 dual given in less than a year, then took a skydive job as a over qualified cessna pilot, but with the king air on site(and broken.) a year later, with 1000hrs in a 182 the king air was flying and all mine. and it is nice to fly barefoot, with alot of happy people. the skydive job and the 2000hrs that went along with it made me much more well rounded, able to handle any situation a airplane or weather might throw at you. then being hired at a regional i heard from many of the check airman, and even the chief pilot(sim inst.) that my skills were unmatched in years.
felt good to hear that. now as a check airman myself i can tell you first hand many of the guys we see as having only instructed are very limited in their ability to fly the airplane. but a bit of sim, and flying again gets them back up to speed, usually.
as someone else said, just enjoy what you're doing, everything will fall into place and you'll end up with that dream job flying heavies, thinking about the cool dream jobs you already had.
best of luck

 

[AppleG5]

Hi all,
I went to the Skydiving company's office this morning. I could not meet onwer because he was interviewing A&P guy. However, I talked with his wife and pilot. There is only one pilot. He fly 206 and King Air. Both aircraft are pretty old but ok. I felt prety comfortable around there. I hope I can get the 206 driver job!!

AppleG5

 

[avbug]

Who jumps an out of date reserve? I don't.

Your DZ doesn't check the packing cards to determine that rigs in use at the DZ are in-date? Any reputable DZ does.

 

[KPTPK]

You'll notice that all dz's have "pretty old" aircraft.

Hi all,
I went to the Skydiving company's office this morning. I could not meet onwer because he was interviewing A&P guy. However, I talked with his wife and pilot. There is only one pilot. He fly 206 and King Air. Both aircraft are pretty old but ok. I felt prety comfortable around there. I hope I can get the 206 driver job!!

AppleG5

 

[FracCapt]

Flyf15,
It is not in Colorado. I am in SF Bay area. Good luck your job hunt.
I think I will try to do both. However, this moment I have 6 students to enjoy cessna with, so it will be next month or so.

I'm guessing your talking about Byron. If so, I say do the skydiving thing. Byron is a kick a$$ DZ, with awesome people. You'll have a great time, and get good experience!

Just watch out for the video guy they call Deuce.....

 

[Nick5600]

Do the DZ

Well as far as QOL is concerned I would do the skydiving gig. Mt first Job was flying a 206 in Greensburg Indiana. After Flying a couple of months I was thrown into a caravan at 500 hours. I'm not sure how they made that work with insurance, but I wasn't complaining. I built some good time that summer. At the end of summer I was hired to fly F/O on a dc-3 on 135 charter. It has been easy ever since. On very good bonus about the job is networking. Another good thing is the people. You will have a lot fun, and hang out with some absolutley crazy people!! The majority of the time I had the company mascot as a copilot. The Mascot being a tamed raccon named DZ. Although not a good pilot he provided entertainment for the 30 min. flight to 14000, even though the little bastard always ate all of my peanuts! Thats just my .2cents. I would live that summer again in a second!!