Sunday Deep-dive! 🤿

Optic Air, ladies and gentlemen. Couldn’t get ahold of a single-engine pilot, so today will be about the Aztec pilot experience. Not really an entry-level job with their 500TT minimum, but still low time, right?

Here’s your link to their career page and application instructions. (click here)

Well, when I find a Cessna pilot (for which the minimums are just a commercial and some time in type), I’ll make a separate post. If you know someone who used to fly their C172s, do let me know. Until then, let’s dive in!

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS, taken from their website

WORDS FROM A FORMER PILOT

I worked for Optic Air from July 2021 to April 2022. I had 1200 hours total time when I was hired. Prior to Optic, I had been working as a CFI for approximately two years. I loved teaching but wanted to gain some other experience before moving on to the airlines. Optic Air presented itself through a mutual connection as an excellent option for just the type of experience I was seeking. It offered multi-engine and cross country time. I was a bit worried about gaining night time, but I was able to accumulate the required hours through ferrying later in the day.

Optic Air has both a Cessna and an Aztec fleet. My experience is limited to the Aztecs which flew at a higher altitude than the Cessnas. Because of this, there were many days I was unable to fly due to clouds beneath the project altitude. A typical day began the night prior with looking at the forecast and planning when the best time to capture images would be. We kept management and the rest of the team updated via a group chat and were expected to check in daily with our plan and updates about the weather. There was a fair bit of sitting and waiting. Also quite a few days of heading over to the airport ready to fly only to have clouds pop up. This was the most frustrating aspect of the job. The cameras needed to be cleaned prior to every flight, but in addition to this, the airplanes were expected to be kept clean. The company takes pride in their work and fleet, so we were all expected to keep our airplanes clean, a task I quite enjoyed.

I grew a lot as a pilot and young adult during my time at Optic. It taught me a lot about responsibility and built on my work ethic. I also gained more confidence in myself as I encountered new, minor, flight and travel related situations. The company expects you to be fairly independent in many regards. This brings to mind two possible downsides: commuting to the projects and hotels. The company did not pay for travel to or from the aircraft. Though hotels were covered by the company, they were also fairly hands off when it came to booking. We booked our own hotels unless we ran into real difficulty finding a reasonable rate. For me, both of these areas were just a part of the experience.

While this was not a fast time builder for me (please keep in mind, the Cessna fleet tended to build time much faster), the downtime was also a major benefit. The company paid for a rental car and if we were unable to capture images, we were free to explore!

This job also took me away from home for the first time for such an extended period. When I was at the company, they did their best to maintain a two-week on, two-week off schedule, though this varied on an as needed basis. I believe the contract had verbiage that would allow them to keep us out for the entire season if needed. To my knowledge, this was not utilized, though a few pilots opted to stay out simply to accumulate time more quickly. There was no additional incentive aside from an increased opportunity to build more hours. It was also only possible because we lost some pilots mid-season. 

You go home on your days off—I suppose you could stay and pay for your own hotels, but I’m not sure why you’d want to do that. Essentially, they weren’t responsible for you at all during your time off. At the start of a trip, you are responsible for getting yourself to the aircraft wherever it is. At arrival, the current pilot will hand off the plane and project to you. Ideally, this includes a brief on the project’s progress and any quirks of the aircraft. From then you’d ferry between projects if required. Sometimes there were many projects in one area and no need to ferry. It happened to work out that I ended up ferrying to distant projects later in the day and was able to meet ATP night minimums. 

Because the Aztec fleet primarily worked solo, meaning one plane and one pilot per project, this meant extended periods alone in a new city. With a little (sometimes a lot) of downtime to explore, sounds great right? I thought so. But it turned out to be the most challenging part of the job. I had not come in contact with such a feeling of isolation in my life and, quite frankly, loneliness. This was a personal struggle for me, but even in this, I grew and learned about myself.

Over my time with the company I accumulated approximately 250 hours. That’s an estimate of how much time I built and I think fairly average for the Aztecs. It was not a fast time builder. The Cessnas flew significantly more from what I understood. We had one pilot move back to the Cessnas after transitioning to the Aztecs because he wasn’t building as much time as he wanted. As far as moving between the fleets, I’m sure that’s not guaranteed and depends on staffing. I think the ideal situation in the eyes of the company is for pilots to start in the Cessnas and then move to the Aztec. Obviously, they do hire directly into the Aztecs. They seemed to try to be flexible and as helpful to their employees as was reasonable for the operation— a symbiotic relationship.

quick look at the numbers…

Pay and contract are fuzzy, but from my memory I believe it was $1k per two weeks and about $500 per diem. I do not remember the timeframe on the contract, but I do know we were expected to stay for the entire season. Training was a great experience. Aircraft training was thorough and nothing felt rushed. The company realizes they are hiring low-time pilots and usually new multi-engine pilots, so they invested time in training. Training on the camera system was lacking a bit at the time, but after a few months I got the hang of it.

if you’re thinking about applying…

The hiring department is looking for applicants with problem-solving skills and work ethic. They recognize this is a time building job and seek to support and nurture the growth of the pilots they hire, but also expect their pilots to work for their hours. It is an excellent opportunity for those willing to take on the challenge.

You are making most of the decisions on your own. Weather briefings and updates on when you are “launching” and after you’ve landed were mandatory. For the most part, the company didn’t want to hear about smaller issues, but the other pilots in the group were very helpful in troubleshooting small operational issues. Of course, if it needed to be addressed and you couldn’t fix it yourself, it should be brought to the larger group chat’s attention. In general, independent problem-solving was highly valued. It does sound like a lot—the lodging and travel—but again, for me it was just part of the experience and contributed to my personal growth. 

That’s it, hope it helped. If it did, don’t hesitate to share our little newsletter. A wider audience helps me produce more and better content for you, because I get to talk to more people. Plus, you only have to refer 5 pilot friends to get a company of your choosing “deep dived”.

Until next time!

🛫