Traffic Reporting Pilot

[Lowlevel]

Traffic Reporting pilots needed in Philadelphia, PA
Must be a local pilot (within 50 miles of KPNE)
www.avoidthejam.com

[rdsoxpilot]

Originally Posted by Lowlevel

Traffic Reporting pilots needed in Philadelphia, PA
Must be a local pilot (within 50 miles of KPNE)
www.avoidthejam.com

so with 500TT i'm supposed to fly a 152 for traffic watch? almost had me interested. KPNE is pretty cool, i had a good time there but dam..

[Lowlevel]

Originally Posted by rdsoxpilot

so with 500TT i'm supposed to fly a 152 for traffic watch? almost had me interested. KPNE is pretty cool, i had a good time there but dam..

That is an requirement placed by the media corp. They have tried for years to get them to lower the min. total time, but they refuse. Back when airlines required 1500 or 2000 total time, it was easy to find pilots, then airlines started hiring people with 240 hours. Now, as it is where I work, many airlines are furloughing and not many are hiring. So, many pilots are looking for something to do, now that they are unemployed (furloughed) or can't get hired at an airline. Many of the pilots that have flown here before moving on to airlines have said that flying traffic here was the best flying job they had, and is better than the airline they went to. Sure it's exciting to fly a jet at .80 mach (for a few months until it becomes old hat), but I guarantee it is more fun flying at 1000 feet AGL over the city or along the beach at 500 feet. Entering the class B and flying VFR right over KPHL during the busiest times....priceless. But hey, I'm just putting it out there. I happen to know around 350 pilots (including me) that are going to be looking for a job come January.

[WAFlyBoy]

Originally Posted by rdsoxpilot

so with 500TT i'm supposed to fly a 152 for traffic watch? almost had me interested. KPNE is pretty cool, i had a good time there but dam..

lol are you kidding me?

[meyers9163]

Originally Posted by rdsoxpilot

so with 500TT i'm supposed to fly a 152 for traffic watch? almost had me interested. KPNE is pretty cool, i had a good time there but dam..

You should be lucky you can even get this gig with 500 hours right now.

[splash]

Originally Posted by rdsoxpilot

so with 500TT i'm supposed to fly a 152 for traffic watch? almost had me interested. KPNE is pretty cool, i had a good time there but dam..

Looks like another case of BJS... What do you expect to fly at 500TT? Stop, breath, and look around!

[rdsoxpilot]

take it easy there turbo..

[Ray Finkle]

Originally Posted by rdsoxpilot

so with 500TT i'm supposed to fly a 152 for traffic watch? almost had me interested. KPNE is pretty cool, i had a good time there but dam..

Just curious if you want to expand on your comment. Why do you feel like this?

[rdsoxpilot]

Originally Posted by Ray Finkle

Just curious if you want to expand on your comment. Why do you feel like this?

just thought it was a bit weird to see a company requiring 500tt to fly a 152. but lowlevel explained it to me like a pro.

if anything i was throwing my .02 out there. take it or leave it

[Ray Finkle]

Ok. Just curious.

I read his post too. I would've submitted it may be an insurance requirement, unless that is what he was saying as well.

[myron96]

Originally Posted by rdsoxpilot

so with 500TT i'm supposed to fly a 152 for traffic watch? almost had me interested. KPNE is pretty cool, i had a good time there but dam..

You know I had to laugh at this one... Kind of reminds me of a trip I took to NC a few months back. I was travelling down the road and saw a gas station with a sign that had 87 gas for 3.65 a gallon. I thought, damn I better stop and fill up here ,that is dirt cheap....Now to the point of my post....

When did we start to think that 3.65 a gallon was cheap, and when did we start thinking that 500tt was a lot.....Just my opinion, but when I had 500tt, I had so much too learn, and for that matter still do.....

[mojo6911]

Originally Posted by rdsoxpilot

just thought it was a bit weird to see a company requiring 500tt to fly a 152. but lowlevel explained it to me like a pro.

if anything i was throwing my .02 out there. take it or leave it

A 152 at low level in busy areas is a big liability for the company.

[Joe Gremlin]

Does this deal offer a paycheck of any consequence in exchange for flying around Philly at 1000ft all day playing the 'where ya gonna put it' game?

[Lowlevel]

Originally Posted by Joe Gremlin

Does this deal offer a paycheck of any consequence in exchange for flying around Philly at 1000ft all day playing the 'where ya gonna put it' game?

Oh, come on people! What happened to the days when you got a flying job to gain experience and hours? Regional airlines are paying crap 18K a year to start and you want $50 bucks an hour to fly traffic? You'd be surprised how many open areas are in the Philly area to use in an emergency. I bet you'd want a lot of money to pull banners around because you may have to ditch in the ocean.

[falconvalley]

People who haven't been in aviation for over a cycle just don't realize that in the down cycle, you can't find a job easily with less than 500 and when you're at 500, you can fly SE and that's about it. If you wanna wait for the up cycle that's fine, but don't expect anybody to find a whole lot of humor in that kind of sarcasm.

[mojo6911]

Originally Posted by falconvalley

People who haven't been in aviation for over a cycle just don't realize that in the down cycle, you can't find a job easily with less than 500 and when you're at 500, you can fly SE and that's about it. If you wanna wait for the up cycle that's fine, but don't expect anybody to find a whole lot of humor in that kind of sarcasm.

I have 1500 hours and the biggest thing I have flown is a Partenavia P68 twin piston, LOL. I will take what I can get at this point.

[ppragman]

I'd take it if I were going to school there, it'd be a good gig, and you'd be building time, what more do you want.

[Ray Finkle]

Originally Posted by Lowlevel

Oh, come on people! What happened to the days when you got a flying job to gain experience and hours? Regional airlines are paying crap 18K a year to start and you want $50 bucks an hour to fly traffic? You'd be surprised how many open areas are in the Philly area to use in an emergency. I bet you'd want a lot of money to pull banners around because you may have to ditch in the ocean.

No, Id want a lot of money to fly banners around because of the POS airplanes they use. I dont know about other places but the ones down here scare the crap out of me just looking at them tied down to their spot.

[Joe Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Lowlevel

Oh, come on people! What happened to the days when you got a flying job to gain experience and hours? Regional airlines are paying crap 18K a year to start and you want $50 bucks an hour to fly traffic? You'd be surprised how many open areas are in the Philly area to use in an emergency. I bet you'd want a lot of money to pull banners around because you may have to ditch in the ocean.

Did I say I wanted $50 an hour? I asked what it paid. I'm already fully aware that it ain't a job I'd be interested in. I did my time in sky over Philly and got out of the biz. Thanks for the free lesson in how the industry works though. I feel enlightened now.

It goes without saying that flying traffic in a C152 is going to pay less than Burger King. I was just wondering what getting paid less than Burger King equates to in 2008 since it's been a while since I had to try to find a bank that would cash a paycheck written on a page in my logbook.

[slushie]

haha 1000'???

I like my nice, comfy (albeit boring) traffic watch route.
Somewhere between 6500 and 9500 depending on the runways in use at McCarran.

Aaaaaaannnd. after about 300 hours of flying in a big circle around Vegas, I know when I would head for McCarran, Nellis or North Town with an engine out. I also know a bunch of flat spots with no telephone poles...and how to find them at night

Also, I must concur...GET PAID for it. If the people that operate the drive through window mechanism get paid more than the operator of an airplane there is a problem.

[Joe Gremlin]

Originally Posted by slushie

Also, I must concur...GET PAID for it. If the people that operate the drive through window mechanism get paid more than the operator of an airplane there is a problem.

Well, then we have a problem.

[Lowlevel]

Originally Posted by Joe Gremlin

Well, then we have a problem.

I was going to say....most first year FO's at a regional make less than a full time burger flipper!
Food for thought:
If you make 19,000 as a first year FO, that would be equal to someone making $9.13 per hour at a 40 hour per week job. If that full time employee works just 2 extra hours a week (time and 1/2; 13.69 phr) he would make $1424 more a year (20,424.00).
A van driver at a hotel that I recently stayed at on an overnight stated that they make $13.00 per hour and work 10 hour days (2 hours overtime a day, at 1.5X pay). So, the van driver is making $37,180.00 a year to drive you from the airport, where you just had many passenger's lives in your hand for $19,000 per year. This is not including the $1 that you and many other crew members gave him in cash!
Even down in FL, at a hotel I park at near the airport, the drivers make $10 per hour, plus tips.
Ah yes, the great airline life!

[Ray Finkle]

Originally Posted by Lowlevel

I was going to say....most first year FO's at a regional make less than a full time burger flipper!
Food for thought:
If you make 19,000 as a first year FO, that would be equal to someone making $9.13 per hour at a 40 hour per week job. If that full time employee works just 2 extra hours a week (time and 1/2; 13.69 phr) he would make $1424 more a year (20,424.00).
A van driver at a hotel that I recently stayed at on an overnight stated that they make $13.00 per hour and work 10 hour days (2 hours overtime a day, at 1.5X pay). So, the van driver is making $37,180.00 a year to drive you from the airport, where you just had many passenger's lives in your hand for $19,000 per year. This is not including the $1 that you and many other crew members gave him in cash!
Even down in FL, at a hotel I park at near the airport, the drivers make $10 per hour, plus tips.
Ah yes, the great airline life!

And there, Gentlemen, is why we have a problem. Plus its everyone willing to work for that, which brings up the argument that we all need jobs or we'll starve which is why a lot of us take lowball jobs which is why these guys, plus many in the Corp/charter realm, are lowballers..and around and around we go.

[Joe Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Ray Finkle

And there, Gentlemen, is why we have a problem. Plus its everyone willing to work for that, which brings up the argument that we all need jobs or we'll starve which is why a lot of us take lowball jobs which is why these guys, plus many in the Corp/charter realm, are lowballers..and around and around we go.

I don't think it's a case of plus everyone is willing to work for that. I think it's a case of the jobs pay what they pay exactly because there is a never ending line of guys who will jump over themselves to work for that. In fact, I'll go one further and say its exactly because there is a never ending line of guys who will actually jump over each other to work for no pay at all that most of the low end jobs have such #### pay.

Yes profit margins are slim and times is tough. But supply and demand are alive and well and as long as there is an ample supply of pilots willing to work for free and an even more ample supply willing to work to peanuts, then peanuts is the best that most can hope to make. We have seen the enemy and it is us.

All that being said, I'm still curious just how many peanuts the traffic job pays.

[TangoBravo]

Originally Posted by Joe Gremlin

We have seen the enemy and it is us.

Amen!