Jump Pilot Employment Leads?

les

les

Well-Known Member
Searched threads. Looking for employment this season. New to skydiving. Any leads?


  • PIC - 2300
  • Tail Wheel - 110
  • ME (ATP) - 25
  • Turbine - 15
  • CFI/CFII - 865 given
  • MEI

  • Part 135 - 3 yrs
  • Banner Tow - 75 hrs
Live in Austin, TX but willing to relocate. Hoping to fly Otters (I'm sure I'm the only one)! Thanks in advance.
 
les said:
Searched threads. Looking for employment this season. New to skydiving. Any leads?


  • PIC - 2300
  • Tail Wheel - 110
  • ME (ATP) - 25
  • Turbine - 15
  • CFI/CFII - 865 given
  • MEI
  • Part 135 - 3 yrs
  • Banner Tow - 75 hrs
Live in Austin, TX but willing to relocate. Hoping to fly Otters (I'm sure I'm the only one)! Thanks in advance.
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Did you ever find anything? I used to skydive out of Salado near Austin at Skydive Temple.
 
les said:
Hoping to fly Otters (I'm sure I'm the only one)! Thanks in advance.
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I think with 25 ME you will be hard pressed to land an otter. Insurance, you know....

Have you checked the more active zones web sites, like DeLand, ZHills, SkystheLimit, etc etc? The season is un full swing for a lot of places, but you never know when a relief pilot is needed..
 
goldcoast skydiving out of Lumberton, Mississippi jumps out of an otter. I'd check with them ASAP. I think you have enough time for them to train a little and set you loose considering they were willing to train me few years ago with 30 of Muti and 700TT at that time. I did have about 100 hours of skydive ops but I don't think that would hold you back. I ran into problems with my ears clogging up on the fast descent down. I didn't want to take the risk and neither did they. I couldn't hear out of one ear for about 2 weeks kinda put a damper on the skydive flying for me. I had a very very minor cold when this happen. Don't push it after the first sign of pain call it quits for the day otherwise you may not be flying for weeks. This is from my experience and not saying it will or won't happen to anyone else. Good luck.
 
I work over at Harrison County (KASL) and always hear on the radio jumpers from Vivian. They seem pretty busy from radio traffic, no clue what they fly or how big the operation is.
 
Long Island Skydiving Center, I believe is looking for a 182 pilot. It's a 2200x25' strip they operate - five people in the 182 with 40 gal of fuel... one of the runways is uphill a bit and offers no outs on take off, it can get a little dicey on a hot day... but the flying is really fun and challenging. The chief pilot is a great guy and a very talented pilot. The pay is pretty typically bad, $10/load. They want you to do a lot of extra stuff that you don't get paid for. Pretty nice people overall though.

It's really more of a time building place, they know it as well and treat it accordingly.
 
Just keep in mind that you will almost always be the least paid person on that plane, especially the smaller DZs. Jumpers typically make $30 per jump plus whatever they make for video. You, however, are still held responsible for most things that can go wrong.

Also, there are a lot of shady places out there. I know speaking from experience. They will try to get you to do things that are illegal, especially if the DZ manager or owner is not a pilot. This of course is not a blanket statement as I'm sure there are plenty of good outfits out there.

If you want to get into that industry, make sure you ask around about the DZ and get another pilot's opinion. It's not enough money to be risking your career working for people with little integrity, and let's face it the only time column you're filling is total time. No night, no IFR, no xc.

Take it for what it is and good luck.
 
ryan1234 said:
It's really more of a time building place, they know it as well and treat it accordingly.
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The good have to suffer for the bad. If I had no medal problems with doing this job I'd do this type of flying every season. Time building pilots really cramp my style! ;)
 
Thanks for all the info everyone! Did some flying for a DZ in Texas a couple months ago for awhile. Got a chance to meet some fun people and do some fun flying.
 
[FONT=arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif]SKYDIVE SAN DIEGO (Twin Otter & Caravan Jump Pilot (1000TT) - Califirnia) Web Site: http://www.skydivesandiego.com
NO CALLS.
Caravan, twin otter time a plus.

Base pay is $3000 a month.

Note your twin otter or caravan time in your cover letter.

Good Luck...:beer:
[/FONT]
 
Skydive Cowtown at Caddo Mills, TX is looking for pilots. They only have 182's and a 206. Pay is $10/tach hour. Probably wouldn't be worth the gas if you were driving unless your in the D/FW area already.
 
Aviator_Bakeek said:
Skydive Cowtown at Caddo Mills, TX is looking for pilots. They only have 182's and a 206. Pay is $10/tach hour. Probably wouldn't be worth the gas if you were driving unless your in the D/FW area already.
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Wow, that is seriously terrible. That equates to probably about $2-3 a load in the 182... roughly the same in the 206 if they're filling it up.
 
averettpilot said:
Hehe...not for me...that would be one slow climb:cool:
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You have turbo on your 182? We've got a newly overhauled 0-470 and with gas, and 4 jumpers it's ~15-18 minutes to the top Vy the whole way up depending on density altitude of the day. A couple of minutes down and factor in tach time is slower than real time and you looking at about 4-5 loads per hour of tach time. So about $2-3 is what that comes out to.
 
z987k said:
You have turbo on your 182? We've got a newly overhauled 0-470 and with gas, and 4 jumpers it's ~15-18 minutes to the top Vy the whole way up depending on density altitude of the day. A couple of minutes down and factor in tach time is slower than real time and you looking at about 4-5 loads per hour of tach time. So about $2-3 is what that comes out to.
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How high are ya going? 14k?
 
z987k said:
You have turbo on your 182? We've got a newly overhauled 0-470 and with gas, and 4 jumpers it's ~15-18 minutes to the top Vy the whole way up depending on density altitude of the day. A couple of minutes down and factor in tach time is slower than real time and you looking at about 4-5 loads per hour of tach time. So about $2-3 is what that comes out to.
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No. What I meant was if they are paying by the tach then I have every incentive to take my sweet time to get up and down. But I was always paid by the load so time really didn't matter to me. We flew a non turbo 206 with an IO-520A. Took about .3-.5 depending on the load up to 10k MSL.

Anyhow, drop zones underpay their pilots which is why I'm out. If you can pay a hung over, drugged up hippy $30/jump plus $20 per video you can pay the person who makes the whole operation run a little bit more. It's an a$$ backwards industry if you ask me.
 
averettpilot said:
No. What I meant was if they are paying by the tach then I have every incentive to take my sweet time to get up and down. But I was always paid by the load so time really didn't matter to me. We flew a non turbo 206 with an IO-520A. Took about .3-.5 depending on the load up to 10k MSL.

Anyhow, drop zones underpay their pilots which is why I'm out. If you can pay a hung over, drugged up hippy $30/jump plus $20 per video you can pay the person who makes the whole operation run a little bit more. It's an a$$ backwards industry if you ask me.
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hit the nail right there
 
averettpilot said:
Anyhow, drop zones underpay their pilots which is why I'm out. If you can pay a hung over, drugged up hippy $30/jump plus $20 per video you can pay the person who makes the whole operation run a little bit more. It's an a$$ backwards industry if you ask me.
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AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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