I’m assuming they’re not looking for anyone new this season since we haven’t seen a post from them in any of the low-time groups. Or at the very least, not yet.

So, for future reference or should they unexpectedly need a pilot, you’ll know what flying for East Moriches Aerial Ads is like after today’s Deep Dive.

No website, nothing. They only have a barely active facebook page. There might be similar “ghost” operations near you, who knows!

Here’s a screenshot of a previous job post followed by one of their guys’ interview.

Let’s dive in. 🤿

“So, to start off I got the job towing banners with East Moriches Aerial Ads by sending an email to a similar hiring notice to the one you posted. Same as the year prior, one of the pilots hit 1500 TT and was leaving for employment elsewhere. At that time I was finishing up at ATP in Islip, NY and waiting around for a Commercial multi-engine checkride. I believe I was at about 300TT when I reached out and got a call back fairly quickly. This is my first paid job as a pilot. 

The process was fairly straight forward. I went down to the airport and was given a rundown of the expectations of the job and then a briefing on the procedures to pickup and drop banners, how the whole process works… After that I flew about an hour with the pilot who was leaving the company (a CFI). He demonstrated a banner pick up and drop then we switched and I did a pick up and a drop. I know several others also did an interview/tryout but I got an email about 3 days later offering me a job. 

About the “structure” of the job…

There isn’t a contract, but if you’re hired the expectation is you will fly for the entire season (May-October), mostly weekends, because that’s when the beaches are full. The owner allows you to prep for the season by arranging times to take the airplane for familiarization and will work with you to set up banners to pick up and drop for practice. The owner of the company has been doing this since the 80s. He’s a really nice guy, he’ll be honest and fair with you. 

What’s a typical day like?

You will generally fly Saturday and Sunday, sometimes Friday, but also on holiday weekends and essentially any day people are likely to be off-work and at the beach. A normal day starts around 10AM. This is mainly because we’re trying to maximize beach crowd exposure: no point in flying a banner for seagulls and garbage cans in early mornings.

Two types of banners. The primary beach-route banners are called billboards, think beer, food and other advertising. The second type is letter banners, generally with personal messages or sometimes messages about upcoming concerts.

For billboards, the routes are typically either East to Montauk or West to Coney Island.  For personal letter banners (happy birthday, will you marry me…) will be over specific addresses and locations and are usually scheduled late in the afternoon. On a peak summer day with good weather, you’ll fly from 10 until dusk. Sometimes this can be 9-10 hours in the airplane solo at about 3 hours per flight. The flight profile on station will be below 500’ AGL nearly all the time and as slow as possible. That puts you right under the JFK Bravo for the route West to Coney Island.

To be honest I was a bit nervous when I started. First time getting paid to fly, on your own all the time, the stick and rudder skill required is pretty high and the low altitude flying seems weird at first. But once you get used to it all, it’s the best. Not many people get to regularly skim the south shore beaches of Long Island at 300 or 400 feet all summer with the windows open.

One of the main issues is the weather. It can make or break a weekend. Last year wasn’t a great weather summer so we missed out on some flying. There isn’t any minimum guarantee. You don’t fly, you don’t get paid. 

If you think this might be for you… apply!  

I was below the “required hours TT” and I got the job. Honestly if this was year-round and/or something I could solely make a living on I would do it for the rest of my career.

Sorry, I totally forgot the pay rate…

It’s $30 per flight hour. So right, essentially only week-end flying (sometimes a weekday job will pop up) but the pay does add up. You might fly 20 hours on a nice week-end.

It’s basically the only job I’ve found that I can afford to do because I can fly week-ends and work another job or jobs during the week. I’ve looked into some low-time jobs paying way less per flight hour that all required me to make a commitment for it to be my only job. Just not doable financially.”

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