Cia

[earlthesquirrel]

Hey Roninpilot;

Go to aptap.org and ask the same question. You may get a more informed reply. I imagine that most of your replies are from 18 year old, zit-popping, video game playing, quick hide the Maxim under the bed because mommy is coming, wannabees.

thanks for your service

earl

 

[capnflyright]

Ronin,
Take a look at Dyncorp. They have several government contracts, namely with the State Department spraying coca and poppy fields in Colombia(and throughout the world for that matter). They use "advisers" to help "train" the indigenous pilots flying the helicopters such as the blackhawks they are receiving from the U.S. I am also interested in this line of work, but have found it difficult to arouse any interest in my attempts to gain employment. I have found that as the times change so does the opportunities(i.e. Soldiers of Fortune are no longer called "mercenaries" in the professional world, they are now "Executive Logistics Managers" or "Technical Advisors"). As Avbug has stated above, the CIA no longer buys aircraft or starts airlines like they did in the 1950, 60 and 70's. Your best bet is to do intensive research into aircraft operators which specialize in operations not particularly helpful to the ordinary GA or commercial pilot(i.e. Operator in Arizona with DC-3 offering type ratings and training with NVGs in the aircraft as well). Also look up operators using aircraft with extraordinary abilities. Southern Air Transport used to have the largest fleet of C-130s(L-100s) in the world and some of their ads publicized the fact that they specialized in remote, unimproved airstrip operations. There was a company which used C-130s for wilderness fire suppression. Well, it turns out that they were also used in operations throughout the world as well on a contract basis to government agencies. To make a long story short, these type of jobs aren't going to be published in an outright fashion. With your experience I would start by looking into flying for the UN or other agency that the CIA would pull aircraft and pilots from. I hope this helps and let me know if you find out anything.

 

[avbug]

Three companies operated Herc's doing fire suppression. None were used internationally in remote locations. I took the first one of those aircraft out of the country for a quick job in Mexico, and it took almost three days of negotiations to get it across the border.

SAT was another matter. When they folded, a number of their hercs went to Transafrik, who proceeded to get several shot down and destroyed by landmines within a few months.

Oh, **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**. I have to hide under the bed. Here comes my mommy...

 

[capnflyright]

Hercs were used internationally by contractors who supposedly had them on fire contracts. These Hercs were supposedly at their assigned fire bases and at times called upon, but they were not available because they were "elsewhere". This is information now available to the public because there were some folks in Southern Cal who went on trial for fraud concerning these C-130s.

 

[capnflyright]

My bad,
It wasn't in Southern Cal, it was in Tucson, AZ. This operator was one who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

 

[avbug]

I take that back. You're talking about T&G aviation, and yes, they did send their airplanes to France. However, they had permission to do that, and it was never a matter of claiming to have the airplanes on contract in the US, and then leaving the country. That didn't happen.

The issue was the use of the airplanes after procurement from the military, in exchange for older firefighting airplanes (mostly C-119's) which were traded to military museums.

The entire affair was actually a cover for the people who really brokered the deal, and who are now in prison, who were fronting for a certain agency who was attempting to procure over 100 A-10's in the name of firefighting. Ultimately, those airplanes were to be farmed out to international recipients.

The C-130's and P-3's were just cover for the A-10's. The hype about alternate use of the herc's was nothing more than media misdirection (and very misplaced, as it caused several people a lot of trouble who were doing nothing wrong) to draw attention from the intended illicit use of the A-10's.

It wasn't Tucson, incidentally. It was Phoenix. The brokering of the aircraft was in California, however. The lions share of the controversy about the use of the herc's wasn't the overseas issue, but the use of the airplanes in Alaska to haul fish, during the off season.

The matter is closed now, as the USFS took title of the aircraft, directly from the DoD, three years ago. Indictments are still pending on the origonal use of the aircraft against several key individuals, while we may soon see more aircraft released to the operators for the same purposes. The next year of so shall tell.

 

[flint4xx]

The guys I know are gone over nine months out of the year, fly alot on average equipment. VERY HIGH TURNOVER. It ain't as great as you think it is.

 

[Simon Says]

Avbug, I dont know where you came from, but you are a walking encyclapedia. I hope you are not a Designated Examiner!

Anyways how about Evergreen Aviation out of McMinnville OR. I thought they did quite a bit of work for our "friends" at the CIA. I think most of it is fixed wing though.