The Road to 1500

03/26/2025

I’m not a fan of the big aviation job boards—and if you’re an OG reader, you already know that.

For low-time pilots, they’re hardly worth their price.

It’s mostly contract and corporate positions that are advertised, meaning ATP-like qualifications required.

However, a popular one has pleasantly surprised me this month.

It had 5 real low-time pilot jobs posted!

THAT, is worth the $20 they charge in my opinion.

I even landed my next job through it.

Which one am I talking about? climbto350.

So yes, I take back what I said, climbto350 is NOT a scam.

Granted, all 5 were C182 jump pilot jobs. It’s about the time of year dropzones are hiring pilots, so I don’t expect to see ANY other actual low-time jobs posted there anytime soon.

And I actually knew 3 of those were hiring, BEFORE they were even advertised on climbto350.

Doing your own research still beats solely relying on job boards.

But they are a nice addition to your tools in seasonal hiring like this…

Good luck to all those applying for said jump pilot jobs. I interviewed for all 5, so if you have questions, feel free to ask.
- Ivan

P.S: there’s probably 3 left, and they are definitely swamped with resumes already.

01/26/2025

Barr Air Patrol is looking for a single-engine Cessna pilot (C172, C182, C185, C206) in West Georgia. No minimum total time is listed—historically, they used to ask for 600TT at least—and local candidates preferred because you must live within one hour of the aircraft’s base. Salary depends on experience, starts at $45k.

It’s a pipeline patrol job, 500’ AGL VFR flying. Click the link if you’re interested.

Quick Community Note in the making, keep an eye on your email inbox.

Good luck.

Pipeline patrol Captain needed west Georgia, with airport TBD based on successful candidate. Patrol captain is responsible for operating a single-engine aircraft at 500’agl in complex airspace environments while performing a high-quality patrol. Additional duties include technology interaction wit...

11/15/2024

Low time pilot job alert! 🫵

As a local, I would apply myself, but i definitely didn’t get 200 hours of flight time these last 12 months, and my Spanish is conversational, at best.

So, Sky Tours Miami is hiring Air Tour Pilots. Last I heard, 700 hours total time is competitive for this role.

10/25/2024

Who wouldn’t want to eat lots of Chipotle Mexican Grill? 🌯

Sol Aerial Surveys is hiring, apply today!

We’re hiring Aerial Survey Pilots!!

We have a start date in late December and one in early January. Apply using the link below!

https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/solaerialsurveysllc/jobs/4550368007

Required Qualifications

- 450 Total Hours
- 80 Multi-Engine Hours
- FAA Commercial Multi-Engine Certificate (current and proficient - Day and Night)
- FAA Instrument Rating (current and proficient)
- High-Performance & Complex Endorsement
- Valid First or Second Class Medical
- Valid Drivers License and Passport
- Authorized to work in the United States
- Ability to travel to Canada
- No Accidents or Incidents

Benefits

- Home-Based
- 16 days on and 12 off with dedicated and paid travel days
- Pay Above Industry Standard
- Generous Hotel Allowance and Per Diem
- Company-Paid Travel Expenses and Rental Car
- Health Insurance Options (Medical, Dental, and Vision)
- 401k with Company Match
- Instrument Currency Program
- Industry leading in-house training program
- Cross-country flying and experience navigating diverse weather patterns and complex airspace
- Monthly Health and Wellness Credit
- Advancement opportunities and at home work projects available
- Dynamic Team Environment

What You’ll Do

- Safely conduct aerial survey missions under CFR Part 91
- Fly planes located anywhere in the lower 48 or Canada, including relocations cross country
- Operate Multi-Engine Aircraft single pilot as PIC
- Manage the aircrafts movements and airports cross country
- Maintain a clean aircraft (interior and exterior)
- Complete daily forms about aircraft condition
- Monitor dynamic weather systems and patterns continuously while staffing an aircraft anywhere in the country.
- Typically work with Flight Operations and in-house Maintenance Team on decision making
- Work with maintenance facilities throughout the country to maintain a safe and airworthy aircraft
- Work above 8,000’ AGL including Class A
- Flights as long as 8 hours over large metropolitan areas
- Navigate high traffic airspaces, restricted and prohibited airspaces and the SFRA
- Monitor aircraft maintenance requirements and work with in house maintenance team (coordinate and verify completion)
- Coordinate maintenance on the field and verify completion and safety standards
- Utilize company programs to maintain flight records and aircraft status
- Handle all travel accommodations within company policy
- Contribute to the team structure and offer input on aircraft decisions in team settings at regular check ins
- Eat lots of Chipotle (Probably, it’s really up to you)

07/21/2024

Aerial survey hiring season is here!

I’ve been researching and talking about it for over a year now. It’s been a prevalent theme in this newsletter ever since I started it.

After sharing what I found in 51 emails now (soon 52), it’s finally time to submit applications and hope for the best.

That’s today’s email’s theme: make sure we’re all set up. (link in the comments)

Everything about resume and overall career tips, that will help you and me land a job this summer.

Best of luck guys! 👍

07/06/2024

Ocean Aerial Ads in Maryland is looking for a banner cub pilot to fill in for them on the week ends.

If you have experience and are interested, I’ll leave the link to the job post in the comments.

AOPA wrote an article about Ocean Aerial last year, link also in the comments, and we interviewed one of their current pilots to learn the details about the job. That email will be sent tomorrow.

05/06/2024

For those of you who may have missed it, quick announcement! 📢

After 3 months of deep dives focused on the aerial survey industry, we will be dedicating the month of May to skydiving ops.
The following months will each be centered around a different low time pilot job market.

In yesterday’s email, Connor shared everything there is to know about being a jump pilot in the Big Island of Hawaii.

(link in the comments if you want to check it out)

04/13/2024

Guess who our next deep dive will be on?

Hint: it’s Aperture Aviation’s little sister in Saint-Louis.

Not to spoil anything, but if Aperture Aviation is the best survey company out there, quality must run in the family because Meisinger has just as good of a reputation.

Subscribe now. You don’t want to miss this.

(link to our latest deep dive in the comments)

04/04/2024

A quick look at what’s inside the database. 👀

You can sort and research jobs by location, minimum or type of aircraft flown, all thanks to Notion being super intuitive.

Get it today and we’ll give you your money-back if you’re not satisfied.

(link in the comments)

03/30/2024

This Sunday Deep Dive’s company: GV Air, a vexcel imaging division.

(Yes, still a focus on aerial survey operations until season starts)

With locations in FL and OR, they hire fresh commercial pilots.

Where’s the catch?

Here’s a snippet of tomorrow’s case-study:
“You will not find a website for this company. The only way you will get a job is to walk into their office with a resume, internal recommendation, or email the chief pilot.”

But guess what? We got the chief’s email. 🤫

Don’t miss out.
Subscribe.
Link in bio.

03/28/2024

Big announcement, the Ultimate Low Time Pilot Jobs Database is live!

Well over a year of research put together into one easy-to-use website. Soon enough you’ll be able to find pay, contract details, contact information, schedule, location (…) on your favorite low time company.

DISCLAIMER:
We’re still and will keep updating the database. You’ll have lifetime access to all of it.

Invest in your career. Don’t waste anymore time and energy endlessly job hunting. Get the database.

(link in the comments)

03/27/2024

TRENDING NOW. 📈

Contour Airlines lowered their minimums from 750TT 50ME to 500TT 25ME with their new pilot pathway program.

(link in the comments)

03/20/2024

Things are going to be a little different for our next Sunday Deep Dive! 🤿

We’ll feature two aerial survey companies at the same time, as the interviewee worked for both and we’ll do a little comparison.

Don’t miss it, subscribe now. 😉

If you did miss last week’s edition, it’s available on our website.

(link in bio)

See ya!

03/09/2024

Hi, and welcome to our new followers! 🥳

Tomorrow’s Sunday Deep-dive will be on Kucera International. Go ahead and subscribe to our newsletter if you don’t want to miss it.

Oh, never heard of them? Well, that’s another reason to not miss it. Learn about what the Kucera aerial survey pilot life is like.

See you there. 😉

03/04/2024

It’s not too late to get a date and take the course.

If you don’t know what Jumpers Away does, we had a little blogpost about that for our subscribers and it’s now up on our website.
(link in the comments)

If you’re low time, got some cash saved up and ready to fast track your way to your first pilot job (and a super fun one too):
Jumpers Away is the answer!

03/03/2024

Tomorrow (Sunday, March 3rd)’s deep dive will be on Optic Air. A former Aztec pilot will be talking about their experience flying solo survey ops.

Sign up to not miss it!
Subscribers choose on which companies deep-dives are conducted.

(link in bio)

See you in there. 😉

02/27/2024

Aperture Aviation is hiring 500-hour Line Pilots!

Go check out their website if you’re interested. We also have a case-study on the company in our blog (link in the comments) if you want to know what you’re getting into.

Best of luck. 🫡