crabinow16

Has anyone ever done this or heard about some one doing it? I know Key lime air does and another cargo carrier I want to say alpine air taxi as well. You pay like 10k and get 200 hours in a B1900 and a 135 SIC rating. Just wondering what people think about this and if anyone has any expierience with it?

TonyWilliams

This subject has been beaten to death, and in general, most on this forum (who post) would suggest it to be a bad idea.

Do a search for Gulfstream Airlines (another pay to play).

Spoilers

I'll keep it nice and simple...

It is BAD!

9kBud

How have you missed the previous discussions on this topic???

NightIP

Why would you pay to go to work? You work to make money! That includes flying airplanes. While I enjoy my job and love flying airplanes, I wouldn't show up to work each day if they weren't paying me for it.

JumpSeater

Nobody can make this decision other than yourself. Many jobs require you to spend money to make money. It's called the cost of doing business. What you need to decide is whether your initial cost will provide a satisfactory rate of return. Unfortunately, within the airline industry, it is costly to purchase a type (PIC or SIC) and the return you get as first year pay is typically minimal. This is what makes most say it is a waste of money - your return on investment is little to none and the qualifications you receive do not do enough to boost your resume sufficiently to make a difference (especially so in this market). I do, however, know some pilots whom were offered jobs conditioned on their obtaining their own type rating in the aircraft (in this case GVs) and for them, this worked out to be a great opportunity. Each person's situation is unique and you have to consider your own circumstances. You will only know if it pays off after you have made that decision. I would advise to consider, heavily, the opinion of others whom have been through any program you are considering. Good luck!

1wrangler

Please don't ever pay to fly professionally or for free either. Do this not only for yourself but for everyone else.

Gunga Galunga

honest question, no flame intended -

in your previous posts and threads, you say that you can not afford the $3,000 or so it costs to get the CFI, so I'm trying to understand why would it make sense for you to even consider PAYING to be a first officer?

crabinow16

Up until this point I have no debt. No student Loans or anything to pay off after school. I have also started to realize that I will probably have to get a loan at some point to further my career because the opportunities were not showing up. I was hoping that this summer I originally had a job where i had the potential to make around 10K. I had planned to use that money to get my CFI and build up my time while I was at school for the last semester. The job fell through and now i am looking at taking out a loan to accomplish something to further my career. I was wondering about these oportunities because i would only need about 150hours to reach 500 and was wondering how much having the SIC rating and the turbine/multi time would help.

HSLD

Lets say you spend the money and get 500 hours....then what?

Are you aware of the changes to flight time requirements included in the FAA re-authorization bill? You'll find no support for pay-for-training here and even if you did, I'm not sure what your trying to achieve with 500 hours.

Save you money and stay out of debt, go get a CFII-MEI and go instruct for a few thousand hours.