Low Time Alaska Flying Opportunites?

Discussion in 'Flight Following' started by MulePilot, Jul 6, 2020.

  1. MulePilot

    MulePilot Filing Flight Plan

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2018
    Messages:
    29

    Display name:
    MulePilot
    Hi all. I've been researching potential employers for once I've finished my Com. single and multi, and have fallen in love with Alaska. I learned of an opportunity flying Aztecs and 172s for a survey outfit based in Anchorage, called JAV Imagery, and I am intrigued as to what else is out there. Does anyone have any information on them or any other 91/135 opportunities in the 49th state for someone with low hours and progressing on an A&P certificate? Any information is greatly appreciated.

    Thanks a lot!
     
    MobileandMonitoring and Notrub like this.
  2. Greg Bockelman

    Greg Bockelman Touchdown! Greaser!

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2005
    Messages:
    10,904
    Location:
    Lone Jack, MO

    Display name:
    Greg Bockelman
    Look up David White on this board.
     
    TCABM likes this.
  3. MulePilot

    MulePilot Filing Flight Plan

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2018
    Messages:
    29

    Display name:
    MulePilot
    I don't think I found the right person. The only matching member that came up has had no activity since creating the account two years ago. Am I missing something?
     
  4. Htaylor

    Htaylor Pre-takeoff checklist

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2015
    Messages:
    328
    Location:
    Juneau, AK Summer, SoCal winter

    Display name:
    Htaylor

    I'm not David, but I do fly part 135 in Alaska during summer months, (except 2020 due to Covid). You'll need a minimum of 500 hrs for a VFR only position in the 135 world. That's legal minimum. Competitive is usually higher. I had 1300 when I got my first Alaska job as a VFR only pilot. That was 10 years ago when I thought I'd only do it for one season. My current employer wants part 135 IFR (1200 hrs) mins for a look as we do fly SPIFR. More is better and single pilot IFR experience will make you stand out. No telling what the survey outfit wants as that's probably part 91 flying. You can also up your value by having a float rating.

    The pilot market in Alaska is a bit saturated right now due to RAVN's shutdown and Covid. But I suspect in a few years things will go back to what they were and everybody will need pilots. Especially in the summer months. It's been my experience that places may hire you for the busy summer tourist season and often ask you to stay through the winter. I've never cared to stay through the winter.

    Good luck.
     
  5. Greg Bockelman

    Greg Bockelman Touchdown! Greaser!

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2005
    Messages:
    10,904
    Location:
    Lone Jack, MO

    Display name:
    Greg Bockelman
    DavidWhite. Last post was about 3 weeks ago.
     
  6. Stewartb

    Stewartb Final Approach

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2014
    Messages:
    7,977
    Location:
    Wasilla, AK

    Display name:
    stewartb
    About Oct 1 the big airlines will begin furloughing pilots. What was a shortage will become a glut. That isn’t expected to change anytime soon. And from this Alaskan’s observations there aren’t many tourists here. Lodges are closed. Some won’t survive the year. The world has changed.
     
  7. Zeldman

    Zeldman Touchdown! Greaser!

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2014
    Messages:
    16,161
    Location:
    high desert NM

    Display name:
    Billy
    I have several thousand hours flight time in Alaska. In today's world I would have trouble finding a job there.

    My prediction is that Alaska flying will go back to what it was like years ago when I started there. That is the living part will go back to several folks living in the same dirty cramped bedroom that is provided by the company. Treating pilots as a dime a dozen commodity. Hire incompetents as station managers and dispatchers. Pilots getting fired because a passenger did not like the route the pilot chose, or the ride was a little bumpy or the passenger is afraid of flying. And since RAVN folded, small companies will pop up that are owned by locals that think they have the right to withhold pilot pay because the owner wants a new snow machine. And everyone will fly a 207 again.

    As said, this is my prediction. Things could return to normal by next summer.

    But, you never know. If you are above 500 hours, fire hose resumes out and you might get a call. That is how I got my first job there, and think of working in Alaska as an adventure.
     
  8. Htaylor

    Htaylor Pre-takeoff checklist

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2015
    Messages:
    328
    Location:
    Juneau, AK Summer, SoCal winter

    Display name:
    Htaylor
    Yeah. Until recently, you didn't do it for the money. I got a whole $160/day my first summer there flying 207s. Pay went up with the pilot shortage, but I'm sure it will drop again with a pilot surplus.
     
    Zeldman likes this.
  9. Zeldman

    Zeldman Touchdown! Greaser!

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2014
    Messages:
    16,161
    Location:
    high desert NM

    Display name:
    Billy
    Rich man.!! :lol:

    My first Alaska job paid 30 bucks a flight hour and I averaged about 3.5 hours a day. No fly means no pay.

    The pilots that brown nosed the incompetent dispatchers got all the lengthy flights. Anyone that turned down a flight due to weather got put on the fly last list.
     
  10. Htaylor

    Htaylor Pre-takeoff checklist

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2015
    Messages:
    328
    Location:
    Juneau, AK Summer, SoCal winter

    Display name:
    Htaylor
    Can't go IFR, go VFR. Sorta'.
     
  11. DavidWhite

    DavidWhite Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2011
    Messages:
    6,962
    Location:
    Olympic Peninsula

    Display name:
    DW
    Whats your TT? If you qualify for Pt 135 VFR mins there are plenty of places that will pick you up - Grant, Yute, RyanAir, Wrights, and whatever RAVN will turn in to I’m sure will be hiring.

    Now if you’re looking to fly in the more inhabitable and pretty parts of the state like southeast or south-central expect less pay and a worse schedule. Any company in the state will look fondly on any time flying in western alaska, because if you can do that job you can do any job. Think flying 8 hours a day with 14 on the clock and 20-30 landings for two weeks straight.

    There is a *temporary* pilot glut until RAVN starts operating again, which then it will go back to the standard pilot shortage up here.
     
    TCABM likes this.
  12. DavidWhite

    DavidWhite Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2011
    Messages:
    6,962
    Location:
    Olympic Peninsula

    Display name:
    DW
    Ah yes, the good old special VFR.
     
  13. FORANE

    FORANE En-Route

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2013
    Messages:
    3,208
    Location:
    TN

    Display name:
    FORANE
    Yes, I imagine. We planned to come in September. The tour operator cancelled global operations so the planned excursions in Alaska are cancelled. We still have air booked to Anchorage, but are going to have to cancel that also due to quarantine rules in Alaska. Too bad.
     
  14. Magnus P.IFR

    Magnus P.IFR Pre-takeoff checklist

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2018
    Messages:
    126

    Display name:
    Required
    Smokey Bay in Homer had 2 pilots quit since winter... Again part 135 VFR minimums apply.
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2020
  15. DavidWhite

    DavidWhite Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2011
    Messages:
    6,962
    Location:
    Olympic Peninsula

    Display name:
    DW
    Now that would be a fun job right there!
     
  16. DavidWhite

    DavidWhite Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2011
    Messages:
    6,962
    Location:
    Olympic Peninsula

    Display name:
    DW
    The company that just bought all of RAVNs 207s today is well on their way to exactly this!
     
  17. aftCG

    aftCG Line Up and Wait

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2015
    Messages:
    714

    Display name:
    aftCG
    You'd think it wouldn't be hard to get 6' apart in Alaska
     
  18. Zeldman

    Zeldman Touchdown! Greaser!

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2014
    Messages:
    16,161
    Location:
    high desert NM

    Display name:
    Billy
    We called it PVFR.

    If the weather was so bad we could not go IFR, we would just pretend it is VFR and go anyway.
     
    nrpetersen likes this.
  19. Zeldman

    Zeldman Touchdown! Greaser!

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2014
    Messages:
    16,161
    Location:
    high desert NM

    Display name:
    Billy
    Hot dogs.!!! I'm dusting off the resume.!!

    Who bought all the sleds.??
     
  20. bflynn

    bflynn Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2012
    Messages:
    9,159
    Location:
    KTTA

    Display name:
    Brian Flynn
    They will have to weather the virus still. Just because they bought parts of Ravn doesn't mean there are customers to fly.
     
  21. amox

    amox Pre-Flight

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2017
    Messages:
    30
    Location:
    Anchorage, AK

    Display name:
    amox
  22. DavidWhite

    DavidWhite Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2011
    Messages:
    6,962
    Location:
    Olympic Peninsula

    Display name:
    DW
    The problem is the vast majority of the tourism here comes in the form of floating petri dishes full of the "severely at-risk" age group.

    There's still a little bit of non-cruise ship tourism, but it's such a small amount of the total tourist count it doesn't do a whole lot to energize the incredibly tourism-dependent local economies.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2020
  23. Bell206

    Bell206 Final Approach

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2017
    Messages:
    7,273

    Display name:
    Bell206
    Didn't RAVN have most of the USPS contracts in the northern parts?
     
  24. DavidWhite

    DavidWhite Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2011
    Messages:
    6,962
    Location:
    Olympic Peninsula

    Display name:
    DW
    The way that the mail system in rural Alaska works is incredibly confusing. Basically the only mail “contracts” are for EAS routes, of which there are surprisingly few in Alaska. Most mail gets doled out to the carriers based on the proportion of the passengers they take, for example if you carry 50% of the passengers out of a certain village you get 50% of the mail.

    To receive bypass mail you must fly a minimum of 20% of the passengers from the hub the mail comes out of to that village. Bypass mail is unlike regular mail in that it “bypasses” the post office. Generally its non-perishable foodstuffs and more soda pop than you could ever have imagined was possible. I don’t believe there is a minimum passenger count to qualify for regular mail.

    In RAVNs case they carried 100% of the passengers to certain places therefore they got 100% of the mail, but it wasn’t on a contract basis.

    That is the very simple explanation of the way the mail works up here, I’m sure I’m wrong on some of it, but I think the only people who could properly understand how it works would be lawyers who specialized in post-office stuff lol.
     
  25. Bell206

    Bell206 Final Approach

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2017
    Messages:
    7,273

    Display name:
    Bell206
    Appreciate the explanation. I always heard there was some correlation between pax and mail carriage to the villages, just never knew how. Usually I'm up there now for the summer but didn't have a warm fuzzy I could get back to the lower 48 due to some quarantine, or worse, cancelled flights with a load of fish.:eek:
     
  26. smv

    smv Pattern Altitude

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2019
    Messages:
    1,661

    Display name:
    smv
    nrpetersen and bflynn like this.
  27. bflynn

    bflynn Final Approach

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2012
    Messages:
    9,159
    Location:
    KTTA

    Display name:
    Brian Flynn
    Three days, I’m impressed. It took us, what, 6 months to get a monkey across the US?
     
  28. smv

    smv Pattern Altitude

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2019
    Messages:
    1,661

    Display name:
    smv
    I was impressed. Had it not been for the Monday holiday, it would have taken nine days. Hyder's mail usually comes (came?) on Mondays. Because Monday was a holiday, the Beaver did not fly until Tuesday. That allowed just enough time for the box to arrive in Ketchikan (I think) and get put on the Beaver for the Tuesday delivery.
     
  29. MulePilot

    MulePilot Filing Flight Plan

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2018
    Messages:
    29

    Display name:
    MulePilot
    Do certain areas in Alaska have longer lead times for cargo or is it pretty much the same around the state? I imagine with so many operators flying mail it can’t be too bad.