Low Time Pilot, willing to volunteer

O

omkishan

New Member
Hello Everyone,
I am an international student presently doing my commercial licence in MI and I will complete my CPL+IR+Multi+Upset maneuver training by coming April with around 240-250 hours+ 20 hours of level 5 simulator time. I am starting my CFI training in September. So, I want to use my summer time for hour building. Since I am with a student visa I can work only as a "volunteer".
Any job will be a life turning point for me?
 
Inverted25 said:
Don't volunteer. For one you would be taking a paying job away from someone. Secondly the guy your taking the job from would be smart to break your legs
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Yes I agree with you brother because the word volunteer in this field will be frustrating. But I don't have choice due to my student visa, after a long thinking and expert suggestions I took this decision. In fact still there are many people who pay for building hours. In my country there are around 6000 low hour pilots simply sitting at homes without any jobs for years and paying around 500$ loan interest every month. If any thing happens to my visa and if I have to go back to my country with this low hours, I also will be in that unemployed list. Sacrificing couple of months to keep me in safe side will not be a problem for me. :)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
To really nitpick, I'm not sure that it's the FAA's opinion that would matter in this case.

(just being a royal pain here, that's an immigration problem, not necessarily an FAA problem.)
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Yeah I guess he has his CPL so it would be legal in that sense. Just maybe not so great for losing the Visa.
 
Most j-1 and f-1 visas do allow you to work, typically you just need someone where you are studying to say ok.

What type of visa is it?
 
omkishan said:
Yes I agree with you brother because the word volunteer in this field will be frustrating. But I don't have choice due to my student visa, after a long thinking and expert suggestions I took this decision. In fact still there are many people who pay for building hours. In my country there are around 6000 low hour pilots simply sitting at homes without any jobs for years and paying around 500$ loan interest every month. If any thing happens to my visa and if I have to go back to my country with this low hours, I also will be in that unemployed list. Sacrificing couple of months to keep me in safe side will not be a problem for me. :)
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No offense dude, but that doesn't make you special.
 
Your request is going to strike a nerve with a lot of professional pilots on this forum. Entry level pilot jobs are already very low paying, and employers love to take advantage of a pilot's insatiable love to fly to continue lowering that bar ever further. As long as there are people like yourself willing to volunteer or even pay for the privilege of having a job that would normally be a paying position, that represents one less job available for professional commercial pilots and could be viewed as undercutting those professionals and taking away their livelihood. Not only is that position no longer available to them, but maybe now all the other employers in the area will get wind of it and decide that they're not going to pay as much for similar positions because people are willing to do that job for free.

I tried to break this to you as gently as possible, but you are inevitably going to receive a lot of hostility for this thread. I suspect that the offer to "break your legs" was less of a joke than you think it was. :)

I suggest you review your student VISA very carefully and see if there are exceptions to the rule that would allow you to be paid to work (for example with employer sponsorship like drunkenbeagle says). If there's absolutely no way, I suggest you investigate any legitimate volunteer options... like flying for Angel Flight, Civil Air Patrol or some type of humanitarian agency or charity. Something that wouldn't take a paying position away from someone else. Otherwise you are going to open yourself up to a lot of trouble and likely alienate the people who could be sitting across from you at an interview table one day.
 
Agreed- Don't volunteer. There are lots of unemployed pilots looking for work in this country, too. You would be compounding that unemployment rate.
 
inigo88 said:
Your request is going to strike a nerve with a lot of professional pilots on this forum. Entry level pilot jobs are already very low paying, and employers love to take advantage of a pilot's insatiable love to fly to continue lowering that bar ever further. As long as there are people like yourself willing to volunteer or even pay for the privilege of having a job that would normally be a paying position, that represents one less job available for professional commercial pilots and could be viewed as undercutting those professionals and taking away their livelihood. Not only is that position no longer available to them, but maybe now all the other employers in the area will get wind of it and decide that they're not going to pay as much for similar positions because people are willing to do that job for free.

I tried to break this to you as gently as possible, but you are inevitably going to receive a lot of hostility for this thread. I suspect that the offer to "break your legs" was less of a joke than you think it was. :)

I suggest you review your student VISA very carefully and see if there are exceptions to the rule that would allow you to be paid to work (for example with employer sponsorship like drunkenbeagle says). If there's absolutely no way, I suggest you investigate any legitimate volunteer options... like flying for Angel Flight, Civil Air Patrol or some type of humanitarian agency or charity. Something that wouldn't take a paying position away from someone else. Otherwise you are going to open yourself up to a lot of trouble and likely alienate the people who could be sitting across from you at an interview table one day.
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I agree with you Sir and more importantly I dont want to be a enemy of my pilot friends. I will double check my visa.
 
Boris Badenov said:
God yes. Is that even an option?

As to er, "volunteering" as a Commercial Pilot, what do you want to bet that the OP's country of origin has laws preventing me from doing the same over there? Dollars? Donuts? Anyone?
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Can I bet with you, and when we're both right you give me a box of doughnuts?
 
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