Sunday Deep-dive! 🤿

Hi everyone, we’re almost done with our survey-focused research and we’ll start introducing deep dives of other operations soon.

As I said though, almost.

Today, we’re still on Keystone Aerial Surveys. (click here to apply)

A quick reminder, Aviation News Talk has released Part 2 of 13 Ways to Build Flight Time with Rob Mark. (listen here)

Fun fact!

Today’s contributors have decided not to stay anonymous. They met at Keystone, have become good friends and decided to work together on this deep dive. Pretty cool to see lifelong connections are made on the road to ATP minimums. I guess it’s about the journey too.

Alright, let’s dive in!

POSTED MINIMUMS, plus benefits and pay

Let me do our friends’ introduction!

Both started working at Keystone in fall of 2022. Hector built time with his dad in their Baron and this was his first commercial pilot job. He was hired at around 450 total time. Ben flew skydivers for 6 months before starting at Keystone. He was hired with 800 total time. Classes had a mix of 500+ and wet 250-hour commercial pilots. Hector moved on to a 135 cargo operator at around 1100 hours and Ben went to the airlines at 1100 hours (R-ATP). Neither had referrals and saw the job posting in a Facebook group. Hector plans on moving on to 121 flying at some point too, but is happy with his current role.

about the job

“A typical flying day at Keystone usually starts off with weather checks. Survey flying is all about timing sun angle and having good weather so this would be the first thing we check. Once we were in the air, we had multiple different kinds of projects from city mapper, ultra cam to lidar. Keystone has camera operators so our main priority was coordinating with ATC and making sure the area was clear. Depending on the project you could be up from as little as 45 minutes for a local projects to 10 days on the road for bigger projects. Sun angle is longer in the summer which tends to make for longer days than in the winter. Keystone flies a variety of airplanes consisting of Cessna 206’s, 210’s and 310’s as well as some Piper Aztecs, Navajo’s and even a couple of Conquests.

the Keystone experience

The best part about the job is the amount of cross country time you get. We get to see a lot of the country and deal with all sorts of different airspaces and airports. One day you would be flying in the middle of Kansas and the next your lines cross 3 miles off the approach end of Denver’s active runway.

One of the main drawbacks is the inconsistent schedule. We were basically “on call” all week which made it hard to make outside plans because you were never sure if you were gonna work or a job would pop up. Also the lack of night hours will make it hard to get to the required night for 135/121. There was some micromanaging on bigger projects that had deadlines. Overall the people were all really nice, especially the operators which is who you will spend a lot of time with.

the money talk

When we were here, there was no training contract. You start off by going to a 206 class where they teach you company policies and check you out in the 206. Then you will go to other training classes for whichever aircraft your base has. They do have relocation assistance of $1500 but it has to be paid back if you don't make it through training or you leave before a year. It is prorated. Pay was what you would expect it to be, around 40-45k annually. One perk is that you are guaranteed 40 hours of pay per week regardless how much you fly which is different than many other survey gigs. Per diem was $50 a day for overnights. Depending on what base you get you will most likely average between 50-100 hours a month in the summer and then maybe 25 hours a month in the winter. As mentioned above there is no set schedule however we had weekly meetings where we went over active and potential projects so you could at least plan a little bit around those.

advice for applicants

One of the biggest tips for any low time pilot is to dial in your resume. If you have not had at least one other professional go over your resume I would highly suggest doing this. There is a large number of 250/500-hour commercial pilots and it is incredibly competitive right now. Acting and looking like a professional are part of being a pilot so don’t slack on those things. For Keystone specifically I would suggest trying to have some high performance time. All of their aircraft are high performance and are not like your trainers, they will kill you if you are not careful. If you are not comfortable flying into Bravo airspace I would highly suggest traveling somewhere where a busy Bravo exists. You will have to fly into these airspaces eventually.

Overall, Keystone is a great company to work for and build time. The lead pilot when I was there was fully aware that this is a stepping stone for 90% of us. He knew we were here to get our time and move on. Personally, this made it easier for me to relax and not have any guilt from leaving.

Happy and safe flying everyone!”

About the database…

To all who bought, I promise I haven’t forgotten about you.

More consistent updates are coming, while i’m trying to build up the higher time categories (+750TT). I now think Climbto350 has pretty much no low time job posts other than CFI so I’m going to start sending you those too.

With currently a little over 50 users, we’ll remove the database from the store at the end of the month, so I can focus on what’s most important to active users. It’ll probably be back and better around June, so if you want to get it at this early-stage price, you’re more than welcome.