What's your side job?

[Airline Pilot27]

Just curious what the rest of you pilots do with your off time or when on Reserve. After 3 yrs with a mAAjor regional, I am currently on reserve (AKA house arrest). We have a 1.5 hour reserve callout so my options are limited to staying within close proximity to the DFW airport. I am getting a little bored. You can only drink and snowboard so much! I have even considered jobs at either Home Depot or Bartending/waitering jobs with my 10 scheduled days off. This makes the most amount of sense because my reserve days are basically additional days off. So the question is what types of other side jobs are guys doing?

 

[banned username 2]

I do Web Site design as an additional side business... Brings in some extra $$$ and it is a nice break from Aviation.

 

[A1FlyBoy]

CFI during the day/afternoon hours, Police Dispatcher 2nd watch.


Wanna be flight attendant interviewer!

Anything for a buck!

 

[bobbysamd]

Side jobs

We had a poster on the board last summer who was an L.P.N.

 

[troy]

GSE Mechanic, FSD.
I guess that would be my main job, but just wanted to put in my two cents......

 

[Sppedmode]

Hey Falcon Capt.
Any tips you could share about how to get into designing websites for people or small businesses...how to website or tech school? I find myself getting very bored sitting reserve lately and have always wanted to try my hand at webdesign.

 

[banned username 2]

I taught myself web design over a few years of playing with it... then did a couple web sites for a non-profit company that got great reviews... so decided to make a side business out of it... I incorporated last year... We make a decent supplimental income from it plus we work our own schedule and I can even do work while on the road with my laptop....

I use Front Page 2002 and Paint Shop Pro 7.02....

 

[FamilyMan]

SELL on EBay.

Setup a reseller’s license with your state and get your federal tax paper as well. This is what you need to buy wholesale from companies, and then you turn around and sell it on EBay. Software and computer parts are some of the easiest things to sell. You may be more interested in aviation stuff.

With some of the sophisticated auction software out their, you can make thousands per month. But it will easily become a full time job if you can’t keep track of e-mail and paperwork.

The most difficult part is establishing a relationship with a distributor or manufacturer. The above papers add credibility.

I work about 5 hrs a week, generating about 200 profit per week.

Keep your costs low, and let your bidders compete on how high of a price they will pay.

This is how I am paying for my flight training. My goal is to get all my licenses without any out of pocket expenses. So far so good. If I ever quit my day job, this will be a great supplement for the first few years of flying.

You can always check out me auctions:
CLICK HERE

Good Luck,
FamilyMan

 

[Boeingman]

Sideline

I own a bar that features "Adult Entertainment" (of the female kind). We are about to open a second one in the next several months.

Before anyone thinks how great it may sound (girls + booze), its a royal pain and the hours are very, very long. The money makes it worth it in the long run.

 

[Airline Pilot27]

I have probably considered everyone of those options at some point even the nudie bar idea. I will probably just try to Bartend on the side. Owning my own "adult entertainment" Bar would be a dream come true Boeingman.

 

[Boeingman]

I Owning my own "adult entertainment" Bar would be a dream come true Boeingman.

There are some nights you want to pull your hair out from the problems.

 

[bigD]

Holy crap Boeingman, a professional pilot AND owner of a bar.

You sir, are my hero!

 

[Snoop]

Hey...

How's about porno star????

 

[avbug]

I grease firecrackers, insert them into small field mice, explode them onto canvas, and sell them as brilliant works of art for a small fortune.

That, and I fix airplanes. It's just not as fun or exciting.

 

[flx757]

Forget all about that macho s#% and learn how to play guitar...
PLAY GUITAR

 

[avbug]

I also play the guitar, and fortunately I'm so poor at it that people actually pay me not to play. If I actually tried to play publically, I'd have a front row audience of young women screaming at my heels...and holding their ears in pain as they scream at me to quit and go away.

I'm waiting for the hype on stronger cockpit doors to go away so I can start marketing my Bears in the Cockpit" program again. I've already got half a dozen fitted with epaulettes and bars, and I'm running out of things to feed them. I've had to dig into my mouse reserve, which leaves far less to paint with, ergo, nothing to earn money to feed the bears.

Boeing gets twenty five billion to lease 767's to the USAF (when the USAF didn't even want them) on a congretional mandate...bears are very cheap by comparison...not that there is any comparison, literal or implied, of course. All that money, and nothing of value to spend it on. It's just not fair.

I'm thinking that after each company gets done spending fifteen to twenty five grand to put a closet door in an airbus that will stop a drunk sailor swinging weighted samsonite and semtex, I'm going to market a door sized poster of Bin Ladin without his beard and a punk hair cut. It won't stop attackers, but it will give crews a fighting chance; the attackers will have to shield their eyes in shame and horror at the sight, and it just might buy some time. I figure eight or nine hundred bucks a poster is probably a heck of a bargain, considering the cost of the door. Any investors?

 

[nascarnuts]

Several years as a starving regional F/O I picked up a small route of coin operated photo studios. I could service them at anytime as long as it was 2x @ week and made about $4000 annually.

 

[avbug]

In all seriousness, mice aside, I don't have a side business, but have worked a lot of side jobs while flying, to pay the bills. In past years, I've cleaned supermarket floors, cut logs and trees, built structures and dug ditches, worked in a rubber stamp factory, turned wrenches, packed parachutes, hauled skydivers, towed banners and gliders, worked in a greenhouse, worked in a candy factory (okay for the first week, then you can't stand the smell and begin to think you'll get diabetes just looking at the stuff), was an armed gaurd servicing ATM's for a while, dispatched for a local Sheriff's office, took calls as an EMT, substitute taught high school, sold things on the internet, flight isntructed (still do a little), worked in a gas station, was an unarmed gaurd at an industrial site, taught groundschools, taught martial arts, and a few other things as well. Anything to pay bills.

Probably no different than most (there aren't many full time flight instructors who don't have extra work to make eating possible, I suspect). Always at least two jobs, often three.

There's always that dream of being the guy who invents the automatic egg peeler/slicer with the prewarmer non-stick surface that also doubles as a music box and can opener, but that's farther down the road. So is writing that symphony...

 

[LRplt]

I just started in with a network marketing company this last month. Now I am already making as much as I am flying. It takes a fair amount of work but is well worth it. If you are interested check out my website. www.prepaidlegal.com/go/abergstedt
IF you have any Q's I would be glad to answer them.
281-481-6029

 

[LR25]

Heavy jet mechanic, experimentals and classic cars.

I used to tow banners but I dont want to get in trouble with the airline. You never know when your going to drop one on a road due to a failure or something and make the 6:00 news.