Skydive or Aerial Survey Pilot, what would you do for a first time commercial job?

Skydive or Aerial Surveying?

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Magnus P.IFR

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Worked my arse off over the last year to go from a PPL to IR CPL ASEL, AMEL. Currently working on my CFI ticket and been applying to Part 91 jobs. Today I heard back from two!

I have an offer for aerial surveying/crop photography position in an RV-8 in Yakima, WA.

I also got the invite to do a checkride with a skydive operation in Iowa that uses Cessna 182 and 206.

My future goals are bush flying 135 operations. At this point I want as many hours as I can get in a summer, while continuing to study for CFI, given I will be unelmployed again in the fall. Both say 400+ hours in a 5-7 month period, weather dependent (both are VFR). Neither pay better than $20/flight hour. I’m willing to relocate and live out of my camper.

What would you do?
 
I’m curious how the RV-8 is getting used for commercial operations? Seems like that might be a bit questionable.

Pretty sure I know what drop zone you’re referring to. The guy that runs it is a good guy, I flew for him some a few years ago. The planes are kind of beat but both planes now have newer engines so that’s a good thing.
 
I have had the same concerns with the aerial survey position. It’s for farmmeasurement.com....which sends you to a different, very non-professional, non-descript website.
 
I'd be suspect of anyone doing commercial ops in an experimental. More importantly, there isn't a ton of next jobs that doing crop photography is going to give you a leg up for. Flying jumpers in 182's and 206's is no great shakes. Both are kind of dogs as jump plane IMO. But there are lots of other drop zones out there so doing a year in a 182 could make it easier for you to get a gig flying jumpers in a caravan which gets you turbine time. If you really get lucky, that second job will have a caravan and an otter so you can also transition to twin turbine. Actually if you really get lucky, you get the job flying jumpers in the caravan first. ;-)
 
Magnus P.IFR said:
Worked my arse off over the last year to go from a PPL to IR CPL ASEL, AMEL. Currently working on my CFI ticket and been applying to Part 91 jobs. Today I heard back from two!

I have an offer for aerial surveying/crop photography position in an RV-8 in Yakima, WA.

I also got the invite to do a checkride with a skydive operation in Iowa that uses Cessna 182 and 206.

My future goals are bush flying 135 operations. At this point I want as many hours as I can get in a summer, while continuing to study for CFI, given I will be unelmployed again in the fall. Both say 400+ hours in a 5-7 month period, weather dependent (both are VFR). Neither pay better than $20/flight hour. I’m willing to relocate and live out of my camper.

What would you do?
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Come to Alaska.
Check out ACE

https://www.aceaircargo.com/jobs/?search_keywords=&selected_category=flight-operations

Ravn will get you the bush experience too.

https://www.flyravn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-OCT-RVN-Pilot-Recruit-Display_02.pdf

Both respected outfits up here in AK.

Might be hard to park your camper full time anywhere in ANC without getting it stolen or broken into or towed near the airport. But, there are crash pads abound. Fly up, buy a cheap car, live in crashpad, catch your limit in salmon everyday in the summer (10 a day) and shoot tasty animals. Bring the mountain bike and camping gear. Buy a hand cannon for the bears and wear it on your hip almost anywhere because you can. You'll most likely be too busy for a partner.
 
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@Eric Stoltz i have applied to ACE and RAVN but not heard anything. @Juliet Hotel If I could jump into a Caravan for my first job I would be ecstatic. But I have no problem going the traditional route building time and CFIing in the meantime. My goals are to be well rounded in this career choice and a safe pilot at that. I’m happy to have someone get me an interview ;)!

I did live in Alaska for awhile and my interest in flying came from the spotter aircraft we used in our commercial salmon fishing operation. They made more than me on the boat in less hours and i thought it a much cooler job.

@mondtster is the skydive op in Brooklyn, IA? My brother happened to know some of the people there and that’s how I got the connection.
 
Loved my time as a Diver Driver! I still get to do it on the side, and even ferry aircraft when needed in my spare time. Quite a bit of fun! As said earlier, you'll gain quite a bit of experience with heavier loads (and moving & changing loads) throughout several phases of flight, as well as takeoffs and landings, but you'll also get exposure to a wide array of aircraft. I've been lucky enough to fly a C182, C206, (several versions of the) C208, C90, B99, PAC750, and the DHC6. That's just been really in the last 7 years.

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I’d do the sky diving. It will probably open more doors to more airplanes, especially turbine equipment.
 
Whatever gets you the most hours .
 
weilke said:
Whatever gets you the most hours .
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I would stipulate whatever gets you the most hours legally. The aerial survey job in an RV sounds questionable at best and there are all sorts of bottom end operators that have no problem with putting pilots looking to build time in a position where they are operating outside the regulations.
 
Magnus P.IFR said:
@mondtster is the skydive op in Brooklyn, IA? My brother happened to know some of the people there and that’s how I got the connection.
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Yes, I was referring to skydive Iowa. It isn’t hard to figure out who you were referring to, they’re the only outfit in the state that has both a 182 and 206. Skydive Iowa owns the airport so the only activity going on there is going to be parachute jumping. Like I said before, good guys but rough equipment.

Unless things have changed, they have no formal skydive pilot training course. Show up and figure it out as you go. Some of the main guys there have had at least some flight training so they know what they’re looking at/for and if you suck or don’t put them where they want to be they’ll let you know. Read up on your responsibilities as a pilot in skydive operations and don’t compromise your certificate or put yourself in a position you don’t want to be in. It will be your responsibility, not theirs.
 
mondtster said:
I would stipulate whatever gets you the most hours legally.
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The original post was''...and keeps you out of a federal penitentiary'.

Unless they have some kind of waiver, survey in a RV8 sounds like a no-go.
 
weilke said:
The original post was''...and keeps you out of a federal penitentiary'.
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That is different than the certificate action one might receive from doing something not allowable by the FARs.

My comment was meant more as a broad one not limited to the two options. But if I were in the OP’s shoes I might take a pass on both options presented here.
 
mondtster said:
Yes, I was referring to skydive Iowa. It isn’t hard to figure out who you were referring to, they’re the only outfit in the state that has both a 182 and 206. Skydive Iowa owns the airport so the only activity going on there is going to be parachute jumping. Like I said before, good guys but rough equipment.

Unless things have changed, they have no formal skydive pilot training course. Show up and figure it out as you go. Some of the main guys there have had at least some flight training so they know what they’re looking at/for and if you suck or don’t put them where they want to be they’ll let you know. Read up on your responsibilities as a pilot in skydive operations and don’t compromise your certificate or put yourself in a position you don’t want to be in. It will be your responsibility, not theirs.
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If you go the DZ route readup here

http://diverdriver.com/
(Also has a good jobs section as well as some training and regs stuff)

As well as here
https://www.dropzone.com/dropzones/
Good reviews

https://www.dropzone.com/classifieds/category/8-employment/
Jobs
 
Magnus P.IFR said:
Why so? And it’s verified as an RV8. I officially passed on that job this morning.
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Because it's a good sized modern plane and you would collect plenty of hours and some instrument time (on positioning flights).

A 182 jump job is the same 28 minute VFR flight 1000 times over. No flight planning, no weather assessment, same airport.
 
weilke said:
Because it's a good sized modern plane and you would collect plenty of hours and some instrument time (on positioning flights).

A 182 jump job is the same 28 minute VFR flight 1000 times over. No flight planning, no weather assessment, same airport.
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Not sure anyone is going to care about the age of the plane, and for a greenhorn might not be doing much IFR, I'd just go for the most hours, ideally what's going to get you into a turbine faster and get you more connections. Also depending on your personality DZ culture can be quite fun, I'd wager DZ would get you into a turbine faster if you pick the right DZ, a busy DZ will get you a ton of hours and really dial your control of the aircraft, demographics you can make good connections and have more fun no doubt, only benefit with the farm survey would be that depending on how far you're flying you might get XC time.
 
mondtster said:
Unless things have changed, they have no formal skydive pilot training course. Show up and figure it out as you go.
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I was fortunate enough to have a boss that actually sat us down and did some formal training. Did a few practice runs too.
 
Just one question for you to ponder.

Have you ever seen some of the chicks who skydive?
 
weilke said:
A 182 jump job is the same 28 minute VFR flight 1000 times over. No flight planning, no weather assessment, same airport.
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Not necessarily, although most of the flights would be like that.

There's also the off airport jumps that come up quite often (demos at various places). Weather is ALWAYS a factor that you have to evaluate, sometimes on a minute by minute basis. The jumpers will try to coerce you into taking them up in not so optimal conditions, deciding whether or not the weather, etc. is actually good enough will give judgement experience.
 
As someone in the mapping world... You can't be legally doing it in an RV8 or any experimental AFAIK. Nor an LSA because I looked into that for my own side gig.

But of course, any goon with an RC toy can
 
AG? No thanks, there's too many powerlines to dodge....
 
Magnus P.IFR said:
@Eric Stoltz i have applied to ACE and RAVN but not heard anything. @Juliet Hotel If I could jump into a Caravan for my first job I would be ecstatic. But I have no problem going the traditional route building time and CFIing in the meantime. My goals are to be well rounded in this career choice and a safe pilot at that. I’m happy to have someone get me an interview ;)!

I did live in Alaska for awhile and my interest in flying came from the spotter aircraft we used in our commercial salmon fishing operation. They made more than me on the boat in less hours and i thought it a much cooler job.

@mondtster is the skydive op in Brooklyn, IA? My brother happened to know some of the people there and that’s how I got the connection.
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Did you try calling them to make sure they received your resume? Keep in contact with their pilot recruiters? Build a bullet proof resume? Maybe find out what they are looking for in an applicant? You can even send them a shoe to get your foot in the door, YMMV with that. You will be happy when your someone who gets you an interview is you. :) Sometimes it's like fishing, one can't cast once or twice and expect to hook a King.
 
If you're going to go into flying jumpers, set yourself some hard deadlines for when you'll get out. Say a year or 18 months. The jump culture is fun. But I've known a few who stayed too long and had a tough time getting into more advanced flying. Also since a few have mentioned benefits of all the jump girls in bikinis that you'll meet, its probably a good idea to remember that herpes is the gift that keeps giving for rest of your life and condoms won't protect you from it.
 
@Juliet Hotel thanks for the advice. I’m a married guy in my 30s looking to change careers from a carpenter who tends to build in winter months to aviation. It’ll just have to be eye candy. I’m flexible on where I can live and have a savings to get through my first job. I definitely don’t plan on doing jump work for more than 4-500 hours at this point.
 
Magnus P.IFR said:
Why so? And it’s verified as an RV8. I officially passed on that job this morning.
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Ok, thanks for the verification. Nothing on you, just sometimes proof readers in human resources don't catch everything...:lol::lol:
 
Back in my college days, I did a summer of flying skydivers in a 182 - it was my first commercial gig. I really enjoyed it, and the culture is a ton of fun, but I think one summer was enough for me. The up and down, up and down, etc...got pretty monotonous after awhile. That said, all we had were a couple of 182s - it probably would have been more interesting had there been a bigger variety of equipment.

Still, I had a great time that summer, and made a bunch of good friends.
 
Magnus P.IFR said:
@Juliet Hotel thanks for the advice. I’m a married guy in my 30s looking to change careers from a carpenter who tends to build in winter months to aviation. It’ll just have to be eye candy. I’m flexible on where I can live and have a savings to get through my first job. I definitely don’t plan on doing jump work for more than 4-500 hours at this point.
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Married, in your 30s. Stay away from life on the dropzone ;-)
 
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