Where did the big idea come from? 💡

If you didn’t know, I was born and raised in Madagascar. I came to South Florida just for flight training, and went back home right after to pursue a career there.

After two years stuck flying private, with our national airline most likely never getting back up, I got the opportunity to move to the US.

I knew the immigration process would take another year, so I decided I’d spend most of it preparing my american adventure. 🦅🇺🇸

Why a focus on low time jobs…

I’m not opposed to the CFI route. I even think I’d enjoy it for the most part. Yet, while doing research on the US pilot job market, I’ve read about the many other opportunities here, that don’t really exist anywhere else. THOSE were what I wanted to pursue.

So, I started googling anything I could do with a commercial multi that required less than 500 hours of experience. I proceeded to join and search every low time pilot facebook group, came across a post where people were sharing names of companies they knew were hiring low time pilots.

I couldn’t apply for these jobs yet at that point, so I figured, hey, I’m sure other low time pilots like me could use this information.

And that’s essentially how this whole newsletter thing started.

Why I share everything for my “competition” to see…

Well, that’s just how things work. Most pilots are glad to help the next generation out, but I couldn’t constantly just be asking, and never give back.

How our list of low time jobs even got built out is through the contribution of pilots who wanted to “pass it on”. This newsletter carries that desire, that community effort.

Now of course, not EVERY conversation is meant to be public, but a centralized distribution was needed for the information to be more accessible.

And if you’ve ever asked why I do this “good deed”, first of all, this newsletter helps me just as much as it helps you, and maybe more as I’m building great relationships through doing “this”. I’m also neither the first or the only one to be doing “this”. Lots of people do something similar to contribute to the aviation community in their own way, as you’ll read below. I guess email is mine!

It’s natural to get discouraged while job hunting.

The “easy” way is now gone—a.k.a survey hiring season. I just heard from one of our subscribers: Optic Air have sent their offers. That ship has sailed.

No news from JAV Imagery, except that they should have started reaching out to candidates they’re interested in two weeks ago. So if they haven’t reached out to you, that ship also probably has sailed.

With how unfruitful the search may have been and how the current market is, does it even make sense to try to get a low time job?

That’s a question you might ask, and it ultimately comes down to this: how bad do you want it?

You now know my why, to explore all the opportunities out there. Jump ops, aerial survey, banner towing, air attack, flight instruction, ag, pipeline, seaplane flying… I want to do it all before heading to the big birds. Unrealistic? yeah, probably.

What’s yours? what motivates you to not stick to the typical CFI route? family? pay? do you just not like it? there’s nothing wrong with any of that.

You and I are going to have to work harder now to find that low time job.

To encourage us, other pilots have been sharing how they got their unicorn low time job theese past weeks!

That’s what I call successful persistent networking. They may have been told no at first, yet are now in the right seat. If that worked for jet jobs, I’m sure it would work for most jobs.

However, something to keep in mind is: that method might take (a lot of) time. If it’s speed you’re after, getting your hours up as quickly as possible, this isn’t necessarily the best way.

The time-cost of figuring it out yourself is real in our profession, especially if you’re geared towards an airline career. I’m dumbing it down, but the less time you spend building your hours, the sooner you’ll be at your dream airline racking up seniority, thus, dollars and benefits.

So, how do pilots accelerate their timeline? They pick a job where they’ll fly a lot (usually that’s CFI)

Or they pay.

If you decide CFI definitely isn’t for you, but want to avoid the hassle of doing it all alone, maybe a paid program like Jumpers Away is what you need.

Before I share how a bunch of their students have successfully been placed at dropzones, with mostly low hours, I figured you should at least know what Jumpers Away even does. Here’s an email I wrote on what I think the benefits of that course is (link).

I’m not affiliated with them whatsoever, but it seems they are effectively helping low time pilots find jobs. If today’s Community Notes. ✍️ are about low time pilot “success stories”, don’t Jumpers Away grads deserve a spot too?

All this to say, low time jobs are out there, just hang on! I hope these stories inspired you. Good luck on your hunt.

The database of low time jobs is back! 🎁

I had a bunch of you email me to say they’d like to get my database to supplement their search, so what a better day to re-open access to it than today.

A quick reminder of what it is…

I’ve been putting all the companies I’ve found into a Notion database, to better organize the information I get. Pretty much anything is in there: hiring minimums, application instructions, pay details, conversations I had with past pilots, hearsay…

The main purpose of the database is to save you the countless hours I personally spent and still spend scouring the ENTIRE internet to figure out what’s out there for us low time pilots.

Most recent example…

My goal is to make it the most detailed source of information about the low time market.

But we’re not there yet. The database still is in its early days. That’s why for now, anyone who gets it gets lifetime access, as a token of my gratitude for supporting the effort.

Now that we’re past the summer hiring spree, and that I didn’t make it this time (🥲), it means I’ll definitely keep building it until next time, for a second shot, while either instructing or any other flying gig I come across. 💪🏽

Some of what’s inside might need to be updated by then. Minimums, pay or whatever, but I expect it to be minor updates, IF any.

What’s more important now is filling out all the sections: banner towing, skydive ops…

I’d say the database is ideal for anyone who’s close to the 500-hour mark, is building hours regularly and is pretty new to the whole job search thing. It’s just informational, so remember the heavy lifting is yours to do (emailing, calling, following up, having a good resume…). But it sure will save you a world of trouble, not knowing where to look.

If that’s something you think would be helpful to your search, check it out.

P.S: the private email list is still closed, but those who get the database will automatically be added as spots open up.