Just wondering how hard it is to find a flying job in AK. I have 4000hrs TT, 200Float, 500 CO mountain experience, 500 Tail Dragger,and no Alaska experience. I've heard it's very hard to find a job with no AK experience?? I don't have CFI, but I am a A&P. Any advice is appreciated.

With that combo, and hours, you're good to go on insurance. Make some calls, or even better, knock on doors, and you'll get a shot.

As to current hiring.... Out of the loop now, but I imagine the economy has hit even the bush villages.

Gump

Try Jay at Brooks Range Aviation he usually runs an add in trade-a-plane every season. It helps to have Beaver time but from my personal experience it's not necessary

The A&P will make you very marketable, especially if you have good experience on Cessnas. Gump is right. Best thing to do is take a trip up. Nothing better than face to face. Separates you from the rest of the herd.

And... Odds are, Bethel will be first home. The key word for Bethel is "odd." And it makes Kotzebue and Barrow look like garden spots!



Gump

Thanks for the info

Several Alaska jobs posted on climbto350.com. Papa Bear in BET is/was looking for Beaver pilots, as was an undisclosed lodge. Yute is down two planes, so it probably won't need anyone until replacement airframes are found. Ryan's spring class is full. Grant just furloughed 12 pilots, so it probably isn't looking. Some of the really small outfits on the Kenai peninsula may be looking. Don't know about Bering, but they typically are looking for local pilots.

Penair is looking for SAAB SICs. Based on a conversation I had two days ago with an Everts DC-6 crew they will be needing to run an FE class soon due to retirements, upgrades, etc.

That covers some of the possibilities. There are lots and lots of small outfits from Juneau to Fairbanks, so your best bet is to plan a trip up here to hand out resumes. Act fast: this is hiring time for 2013.

You might try Air Excursions, Wings of Alaska, Taquan air and others in SouthEast

I asked the very same question last year, except not so much on the pilot qualifications, lots of A&P skills. Troy Hamon introduced me to Rocket Ron in Naknek. I had quite the adventure. I won't go into details, but things get weird quick with Rocket Ron, but he means well. He actually mentioned in an email recently that he needs an A&P for 30 to 60 days, good pay plus room and board. You will be lucky to last 30 if your good, but it will get you up there and you will meet people. I did, and spent the rest of the summer working on Bell 206's. I would actually consider working for Rocket Ron again, it's easy to forget the insanity when your job includes working on Beavers and Otters, and flying everywhere when your not working. Freaking awesome place Bristol Bay is.

David

Send me a PM. A&P gets you to the front of the line, but strong stick and rudder skills will get you a solid summer job, year round if you can hack it and want it.

Like Dave says, it can get weird out here. There are few opportunities for activity if one is not willing to endure the cold wind bugs solitude…and anal retentive dictoral DOMs.

On the the other hand this place, Western Alaska can be quit magical for those willing to open their eyes and, of course, work harder then you most likely ever have. I have always asked my employes to do two things: stay out of the bars/whisky and to get outside when the sun shines; even if it is -10 or dead calm when the bugs are bitting. I have the float/ski plane carrot I dangle out there also for the more motivated pilot mechanic but few have made it that far. The last mechanic who had earned enough rocket-bucks to fly our floatplane was flying a Beaver two years later.

If one dreams of being an Alaskan Pilot…well good luck. I fly about 100-300 hours a year but mostly for my own personal enjoyment and sanity but to do it professionally requires an element that seems to be more and more rare each year. The statistics alone should give one pause when considering the alternative safety of say a desk job or bagging groceries.

Some of the best pilots do their time up in Bethel and if you can keep your shit together flying up there there is little in the world, except perhaps for flying bullets, you will need worry. Two of Yute's 207 made emergency/precautionary landings in the tundra when the weather just turned to thick white fecal matter…both on the same day last week; it has been a rough couple weeks up here with some good pilots permanently flying south.

The real key is that "Alaska Time". The insurance companies all require at least 250 hours and it is what will keep you from flying into little things like the Muklung Hills while on final for PADL; or any other obstruction that the locals learn to instinctively avoid when it gets low and slow: Goony Bird Hill or that new cell phone tower off the end of 9Z8.

Realistically one never knows how a person is going to do out here, young or old, high or low time, Alaskan or from down in America. I think one just needs to grab a hold of life and hang on, and of course, fly low and avoid the radar!

Rocket

Are you ^^ the aforementioned "Rocket Ron?"

While Ak time is preferable for the company, it is generally not required by the insurance companies for 135 commuters. With the times you have you shouldn't have a problem getting an entry level job, ie Bethel, flying beavers or other floats may be a little more difficult, but the A&P will help.

Dam Gump that brought tears to my eyes.... It's a bitch to get old
but glad I survived it

GumpAir wrote:And... Odds are, Bethel will be first home. The key word for Bethel is "odd." And it makes Kotzebue and Barrow look like garden spots!

Gump

If I were u I would be packing my bags as we speak. Spring time is the hiring time and it is now. With your hours u won't have any trouble finding a job. If at all possible try and avoid the Bethel area for a starting point. Your A&P will open a lot of doors in Alaska and your flying hrs will get u beyond the Bethel training grounds. If u are interested in Float flying Lake Hood air taxis and fishing lodges are always looking for pilots, especially if U have an A&P. YOU CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO COME TO ALASKA !!!!!

PM me if u have questions

DonC wrote:Dam Gump that brought tears to my eyes.... It's a bitch to get old
but glad I survived it

Survive we did...

I was on the very, very tail end of the old bush pilot days when I hit Barrow (meaning there were still some real bush pilots flying. Not me. I was a rookie), and so lucky to have some mentors who were there from the start to show me the ropes. But I gotta feeling that it's not as much fun now. Maybe safer, but not as fun.

Gump

Pilot Job Alaska

Postby DonC » Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:03 pm

Pilot Job
Post Date :
2/1/2013
. Contact Information
Ref ID :
186604
.Fax :
907.822.4204
This is the outfit:

Copper Valley Air Service
.
Description Pilot Glennallen area
Must be able to fly 185, 206, and Beaver with floats. Must have minimum of 1500 hours flying time.
Please respond to [Click Here to Email Your Resumé] or fax resume to 907.822.4204
Source - Anchorage Daily News
RequirementsPlease refer to the Job Description to view the requirements for this job

get salary information for this jobFind Pilot Salary Information >> .
.

Thanks for all the good input, so far it sounds promising as far as getting a job. If I have to stick it out in some shit hole for a little while, then I will. I've had to pay my dues as long as I've been in aviation. I currently fly pipeline from TX through CO and WY, we fly tree top level through ALOT of bad weather. It's gave me tons of experience, I've had 2 dead stick landings and 2 other emergency landings and managed to save the plane in all 4 emergencies. Unfortunately I have 9 more months left on my contract with my current company. The people I work for have been very good to me and I don't want to leave them high and dry. I understand now is the busy season, but if I can't make something happen in 9 months then I will be there this time next year.

N300RE wrote:Thanks for all the good input, so far it sounds promising as far as getting a job. If I have to stick it out in some shit hole for a little while, then I will.

If that's your attitude, DON'T go to Alaska. There are NO shitholes in Alaska unless you decide there are. My parents told me when I was growing up that you can find something good about every place, and you can find something bad about every place. If you choose to look at the negatives of a certain place, or view a work site as just some shithole you have to tolerate to get where you want to be, you're going to miss some of the best country and people on the planet.

There's a gent who posts on here periodically who went to Alaska to fly, and he's been on the YK Delta for a couple seasons now. He sends the most glowing reports of the flying there one could imagine. He describes seeing moose and other critters and the villages of the Delta.......Yet many would call that a shit hole.

Read some of Gump's descriptions of flying out of OTZ......and the people of that country. Sure, it's challenging flying, EVERYwhere in Alaska is challenging flying, some more than others, but the point is, there's always something to like about every place, especially in Alaska. But, some would call Kotzebue a shit hole.....

I mean no offense toward you in this little rant.....I just saw too many people come to one of the "shit holes" I worked in with the attitude that this was just something they had to tolerate to get to a "real" job. And, they totally missed all the fantastic stuff and people that were going on around them at the time.

If you do go to Alaska, go with the notion that wherever you wind up, there's going to be some fantastic flying, some really good people and things to see that very very few on this earth have ever seen. If you do that, you'll love your time in Alaska, and you'll maintain your sanity.

This from a guy who lived and worked in Cold Bay for three years. I always heard people refer to being "stuck" in Cold Bay.....but what fantastic country! I wouldn't trade that time for anything......

Good luck.

MTV

mtv wrote: There are NO shitholes in Alaska unless you decide there are.

That is true!

My career started in Barrow, then wandered down to Kotz, Bethel, back to Kotz, and then for a short time Prudoe Bay. The far north I tolerated, Bethel I couldn't stand, and Kotz is, was, and always will be what I consider my Alaska home. For the people, the flying, and the scenery. Once that certain "place" hooks you, it's like a beautiful girl in the dumb things she can make you do to be with her.

On the other hand, there are guys on here in love with the YK Delta, whom you couldn't blast out with dynamite. Same for ANC, FAI, and points Southeast. You won't know till you get there, and certainly don't turn down a job based on what someone else says about an area.

Gump