Jon Gandy
Well-Known Member
as an aerial photography pilot in a Navajo. After 10 years of BFRs.
First of all I want to thank everyone that lays eyes on this thread. For one, the JCers have been a great source of great information that I have otherwise been cut off from. And low timers who still keep hope alive. Much like you, I came here to try and find some way of getting my foot in the door of whatever operation I could that would get me at least AROUND an airport. So how did I do it.
Actually about 3 years ago I lost my career job. While I was temping I started to wonder what aviation possibilities (NOT opportunities) were in my neighborhood. I called and visited my local airport and talked to everyone I could find, the airport in the next city 20 minutes east, the next airport 30 minutes south. Visited the drop zone 30 minutes north. Made the all too comon mistake of offering to work to build time or even sit and hold charts just to be on field. Got alot of NOs until I got here and learned about contract work.
I went back to the same phone numbers and people. Rephrased my inquiries with some better phrasology and started to get a few, "Well, send you're resume. We dont have anything now but if something comes up we'll consider you.
Every once in a while I would keep in touch with those who were and found a handfull of very helpfull chief pilots that were very informative, passed along alot of info to me even though I didnt "qualify".
One day I catch whif of the fact that I may be out of a regular day job again and decide that im going to start knocking on hanger doors again just to see who opens. This time I got the owner of a company who passed me on to his CP. CP calls back to tell me that they have two part time guys working at the moment but occasionally things change. We had spoken a few times in the past which he remembered and suggested, "If you ever have some time stop by and I can at least show you the operation and what we do."
I made the time. And honestly didnt think anything of that offer of a tour. Even brought my wife because we were planning to do a breakfast after this tour. The more we talked the more questions he asked. We ended up sitting down after this 30 minute tour and spoke for another hour and a half. He ended up being a very easy going guy, some things were changing in the future.
I was invited back to do a flight with one of the part time guys to see how they did what they did. Which didnt exactly go as planned. There was no work that could be done that day but one of the aircraft did need maintenance at a nearby airport. Another super nice pilot and I flew down. During the almost 6 hour MX work he slept while I was given a free run in the on field flight schools brand new RedBird flight sim. Which was a priceless complex refresher right before jumping in the left seat for the flight back. True to his word the Navajo handled like a big Seminol, after some slowflight and a few steep turns we were back on the ground and I had my fix for a few more months. After BFRs in 172s and Arrows that was heaven.
I know low time pilots hate hearing its who you know. But it truly is who you know and timing. Its also been said here plenty of times before that most of the great Part 91 jobs never get listed and are usually filled with pilots someone at the company knows. So start getting to know people. Stay in touch with them. Give a call every 6 months to a year. Oh and one other thing that I think was pivotal:
One on demand Lear CA I spoke with told me that, as was true with him, every working pilot remembers his first break. He told me that all I had to do was remind them of that. In one of my emails the CA mentioned that he had a former employee that wanted to come back after leaving them for the regionals. I kindly told him that I was sure that would be a great move for her becaues I considered his company a pretty cool and fun place to work. That I had been told that every pilot remembers their first break into the industry and that I hoped mine could be with such a company, but if not I completelyl understood.
Flash forward a few months and here I am headed towards training.
So again, thank you to Doug for getting this ball started. Thanks to the Veteran JCers for being generous with your stories and info. Low time guys, keep up the hard work, never let go of the passion and go annoy some Chief Pilots. Besides, what have you got to loose?
Time for me to get a move on. Dont want to be late for my first day!
First of all I want to thank everyone that lays eyes on this thread. For one, the JCers have been a great source of great information that I have otherwise been cut off from. And low timers who still keep hope alive. Much like you, I came here to try and find some way of getting my foot in the door of whatever operation I could that would get me at least AROUND an airport. So how did I do it.
Actually about 3 years ago I lost my career job. While I was temping I started to wonder what aviation possibilities (NOT opportunities) were in my neighborhood. I called and visited my local airport and talked to everyone I could find, the airport in the next city 20 minutes east, the next airport 30 minutes south. Visited the drop zone 30 minutes north. Made the all too comon mistake of offering to work to build time or even sit and hold charts just to be on field. Got alot of NOs until I got here and learned about contract work.
I went back to the same phone numbers and people. Rephrased my inquiries with some better phrasology and started to get a few, "Well, send you're resume. We dont have anything now but if something comes up we'll consider you.
Every once in a while I would keep in touch with those who were and found a handfull of very helpfull chief pilots that were very informative, passed along alot of info to me even though I didnt "qualify".
One day I catch whif of the fact that I may be out of a regular day job again and decide that im going to start knocking on hanger doors again just to see who opens. This time I got the owner of a company who passed me on to his CP. CP calls back to tell me that they have two part time guys working at the moment but occasionally things change. We had spoken a few times in the past which he remembered and suggested, "If you ever have some time stop by and I can at least show you the operation and what we do."
I made the time. And honestly didnt think anything of that offer of a tour. Even brought my wife because we were planning to do a breakfast after this tour. The more we talked the more questions he asked. We ended up sitting down after this 30 minute tour and spoke for another hour and a half. He ended up being a very easy going guy, some things were changing in the future.
I was invited back to do a flight with one of the part time guys to see how they did what they did. Which didnt exactly go as planned. There was no work that could be done that day but one of the aircraft did need maintenance at a nearby airport. Another super nice pilot and I flew down. During the almost 6 hour MX work he slept while I was given a free run in the on field flight schools brand new RedBird flight sim. Which was a priceless complex refresher right before jumping in the left seat for the flight back. True to his word the Navajo handled like a big Seminol, after some slowflight and a few steep turns we were back on the ground and I had my fix for a few more months. After BFRs in 172s and Arrows that was heaven.
I know low time pilots hate hearing its who you know. But it truly is who you know and timing. Its also been said here plenty of times before that most of the great Part 91 jobs never get listed and are usually filled with pilots someone at the company knows. So start getting to know people. Stay in touch with them. Give a call every 6 months to a year. Oh and one other thing that I think was pivotal:
One on demand Lear CA I spoke with told me that, as was true with him, every working pilot remembers his first break. He told me that all I had to do was remind them of that. In one of my emails the CA mentioned that he had a former employee that wanted to come back after leaving them for the regionals. I kindly told him that I was sure that would be a great move for her becaues I considered his company a pretty cool and fun place to work. That I had been told that every pilot remembers their first break into the industry and that I hoped mine could be with such a company, but if not I completelyl understood.
Flash forward a few months and here I am headed towards training.
So again, thank you to Doug for getting this ball started. Thanks to the Veteran JCers for being generous with your stories and info. Low time guys, keep up the hard work, never let go of the passion and go annoy some Chief Pilots. Besides, what have you got to loose?
Time for me to get a move on. Dont want to be late for my first day!
