Helping out a Friend

[FlierDude]

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Is he too good to instruct? I see lots of ads. He'll be well-heeled in the basics, and get a little humility at the same time.

 

[AcroChik]

Advice for your friend

At 500TT, your friend ought to be teaching. Being an instructor isn't something a pilot does simply to book time. Being an instructor is something a pilot does to become a better pilot.

Every student is like a mirror held up that shows you your own flying skills. Their fears, hesitiations, mistakes and successes, are the very ones we all lived through when first learning to love flying. Helping students through each of these levels of experience makes the instructor a better pilot, and starts them on the way to becoming an aviator.

If your friend doesn't have 500 hours of dual given, he has a long way to go to be a capable and highly skilled instructor. It's a cliche, I know, but a very true one: Until you can teach a thing, you can't really do it. It's how physicians learn surgery!

I think that this is especially true in flying, where at the beginning (and trust me, 500TT is the BEGINNING), you are ever-so-capable of getting yourself and your passengers into situations you don't have the chops to fly out of.

I know that there are long arguments and threads on this board about this very thing. My own view, and my own experience as a pilot is, that at 500TT I imagined that I was a much better pilot than I now realize I was. I simply hadn't flown enough to have had the variety of experiences required to build the depth of judgement required to sit in the seat I so longed to occupy.

I think it is a personality trait amongst pilots to be impatient, to want to move ahead quickly to bigger and more powerful machinery that hurtles ever-faster through the sky. But we owe it to ourselves to take whatever time we need to build the portfolio of skills required to do this complex job.

500TT is an important milestone. I applaud your friend's dedication. But, sincerely, it's just the beginning. At 1500TT he's going to look back and realize he was the victim of arrogance that comes from inexperience. I was.

I hope he keeps plugging away and that he reads this thread. Some heavy hitters have weighed in with good advice. Following their advice has, in fact, been very helpful to the development of my own career (no brown-nosing here, it's just a fact of life on FlightInfo)

 

[pilotmiketx]

He needs a job cleaning the stalls at the adult theater for 6 months. Flight instructing will seem like a pretty good deal after that.

 

[Vastly Underemp]

One more possibility....Colgan air's minimums are pretty low, 500 TT and 100 multi I think. But this guy MUST be ready for that type of training. Even a 1900 can seem like the space shuttle if you're not prepared for "airline style" training. The adage that ground school is like drinking from a firehose was never truer than your first job. Busting your first checkride is like career poison. But it is true that the sooner you get a better job the sooner you'll have your last job (one way or another) so you must applaud his ambition.

 

[TXGold]

Some great advice you've received so far huh! I would suggest he give up trying to live at home and really get out there. I researched the internet and made phone calls for weeks trying to find a job at 500 hours. I finally found one flying freight. Right seat for a hundred or so hours, and then VFR. That was in Texas. I also flew Sky Divers on the side. When I got to 1500 I moved to Florida. I should have moved down there earlier. There is a lot of flying down there. I had some friends that were flying pax out of FXE at 500 hours, VFR. Tell him to get on aircharterguide.com and search light twins in the region he wants to work. Tell him to go down to South Florida for a week, and "grip and grin" around all the airports and try and find work. I had a friend that worked in the hangar at Bimini Island Air with 500 hours. He worked in the hanagar and would help load bags and unload bags all while flying right seat in the Cessna 402. Moved up to the Caravan pretty quick, ended up in the Metro, and eventually made it to the Lear at a reputable charter company at FXE.
Sorry about the grammar, I was up really late.

 

[rice]

Thanks

To everyone who responded thank you!!!!
I appreciate all the input, really.
But I don't think many of you took the time to read my original post or bothered to look at my profile. I have been a professional (and I use the term loosely) pilot for quite some time, which is why these friends came to me for assistance in advising their son. Since I am in the corporate world and have been for quite a while I have lost touch with contacts in the area of entry level type jobs. The purpose of my post was not to invite comment on whether or not this kid was to full of himself to instruct or that he needed a lesson in humility but rather I was just trying to gain some local knowledge about possible opportunities for a fledgeling pilot who was looking to advance through the ranks without having to instruct for a few years. Nothing more, nothing less.
I applaud the kid for having the balls to ask me for his help. As I've posted before, I've counseled him about paying his dues and told him not to expect much with so little time/experience but that doesn't mean I can't ask if anyone has some local insight as to who might be looking for a low time kid willing to work for relatively low wages in a specific geographic area.
All this being said, if any of you out there know of an operator on Long Island who employs low time pilots I'd appreciate hearing about it so I can pass along the info.

Thanks Again!!

PS: Thanks Gumby, now get back to work slacker!!!!!

 

[jagmagic]

Rice I sent you a PM

 

[RichardRambone]

While your at it how about an upper hand to a guy with 800 hours, 100multi. Im paying my dues cleaning airplanes.

 

[dhen]

Checkout Airnet

 

[STREAKS]

cheeeezz! with my time and over 1400 hrs of dual given, 121 time and all, I have problems finding a corp gig. anyone care to cry for me?
________________
People, were all scared and horny!

 

[Lead Sled]

cheeeezz! with my time and over 1400 hrs of dual given, 121 time and all, I have problems finding a corp gig. anyone care to cry for me?

If your time is correct (2k hours), you're still a little "light" for a lot of 91 gigs. There are always exceptions, but an ATP, 4,000 total, 1000 multi and 500 turbine (and some kind of degree) seem to be what a lot of chief pilots look for. You're going to have to have that to be competitive.

'Sled

 

[STREAKS]

Oh, and to make matters worse, I just heard from a buddy of my bout this kid with 1100 hours who just landed a job in a GIV. BRILLIANT!!!
I think im done here...
_________________
People, were all scared and horny!

 

[AA717driver]

STREAKS--Don't give up. There are always some low-timers out there who get jobs the rest don't have access to. He may have been the owner's kid or nephew or paid for the ride.

Just keep plugging away. It'll happen if you keep a good attitude.TC

 

[STREAKS]

STREAKS--Don't give up. There are always some low-timers out there who get jobs the rest don't have access to. He may have been the owner's kid or nephew or paid for the ride.

Just keep plugging away. It'll happen if you keep a good attitude.TC

Yeah I know, just chaps my tail is all. I mean who do you gotta inflate to get a job these days?
________________________
So, we're having a new baby. The gods are on a roll, aren't they? Must've been playing another round of „Can you top this?“ One started off, „We'll make him a shoe salesman.“ Then another said, „We'll give him a red-head.“ Then another one, probably a cruel, hungover god, said, „But let's have him be a mighty athlete in high school first so his fall will be all the greater.“