Making money with my CPL

Only a lucky few can even get jobs as low-timers these days without a CFI... I was one of them. And let me tell you, I literally went to every airfield in NE FL/SE GA and handed out my résumé and talked to pilots and chief pilots and FBO personnel. I got a job flying sky-divers around which a buddy who was a sky-diving instructor at the operation got me. Then I flew traffic watch a little bit... I finally broke down and got my CFI certificates and I am a much better/safer pilot for it. Plus I really enjoy the work. It pays decent (if you aren't afraid to work hard) and it is gratifying. My suggestion is to go look for a job without your CFI, and you will quickly find that even those low-time jobs that don't require it certainly prefer it, and they often won't hire you without it.
 
FrankieFlyCRQ said:
I doubt it but then again, it wouldn't surprise me!
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Well, either way, the OP needs to research the relevant regulations mentioned in this thread thus far. If it's a Fed, so be it. It can't hurt to do a little refresher for all of us. There could be other commercial pilots in the making who lurk here without making an account, and happen to be clueless about the rights and privileges of commercial pilots....
 
chrisreedrules said:
Only a lucky few can even get jobs as low-timers these days without a CFI... I was one of them. And let me tell you, I literally went to every airfield in NE FL/SE GA and handed out my résumé and talked to pilots and chief pilots and FBO personnel. I got a job flying sky-divers around which a buddy who was a sky-diving instructor at the operation got me. Then I flew traffic watch a little bit... I finally broke down and got my CFI certificates and I am a much better/safer pilot for it. Plus I really enjoy the work. It pays decent (if you aren't afraid to work hard) and it is gratifying. My suggestion is to go look for a job without your CFI, and you will quickly find that even those low-time jobs that don't require it certainly prefer it, and they often won't hire you without it.
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A former instructor of mine who is now flying corporate says his company won't even look at guys who never instructed.
 
My former instructor isn't in charge of who is hired there or not, but apparently it weighs a lot on their decision because it implies that one can do more than just fly a plane--they have some social skills, too, which from what I've gathered is something that corporate operators like, correct?
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
Sure about that?
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Yeah, pretty sure, based on my understanding of how the FAA evaluates charters. That said I know people who've done this, but I would never want to be the one trying to explain how it was legal to the FAA. On top of the legal issues, most insurance policies I've read would be void if someone tried to do this, so the FBO policies would probably be violated and depending upon what was said during the rental process it could potentially be fraud and the liability issues would be a mountain.
 
rframe said:
Yeah, pretty sure, based on my understanding of how the FAA evaluates charters. That said I know people who've done this, but I would never want to be the one trying to explain how it was legal to the FAA. On top of the legal issues, most insurance policies I've read would be void if someone tried to do this, so the FBO policies would probably be violated and depending upon what was said during the rental process it could potentially be fraud and the liability issues would be a mountain.
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I had the link on my laptop, but I'm not at it now. Look up the Ferris LOI from back in the early 90s
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
There is ZERO correlation between instructing and possessing social skills.

Zero.
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Yeah, that's unfortunately true with a lot of CFIs...and that's too bad really, because it's an essential job-requirement of a CFI's makeup to possess interpersonal skills and to be able to relate to people. Nonetheless, there are some airlines and part 91 ops out there that prefer to hire CFIs over aerial survey guys, pipeline patrol folks and jump pilots. It might not be such a big deal at times when staffing is tight, but in a competitive environment it could be a deciding factor for some of these HR folks from what I've gleaned. Some of them want military guys, some of them not, and so forth. Point here being, everyone might have to deal with bias from HR personnel in the hiring process sometimes and it's out of our control. That's just the way that it is....
 
"Making money with my CPL"....

That's what we thought when we were handed that little piece of plastic.

That's what we thought.
 
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