How to get 200 more hours for my commercial pilot's license on the cheap?!?

Question

I'm a newly certificated private pilot in the U.S. ... (and not tooting my own horn or my terrific instructor's, but I got my taildragger endorsement a few days later in just 3hrs). Anyways, I want to fly professionally, but I'm frugal (and relatively broke). I know I need about 200 more hours (250 total) to get my commercial, so I'm now trying to be innovative to find a way to quickly and inexpensively build time so I can get my commercial rating. I've considered contacting businesses who fly seasonally and see if I could train in a parked airplane in the off-season and then pay back my, quote unquote, RENTAL time with a job once the season starts up & I have my commercial rating. I think I'll be really lucky if I can find something like this, but I'm hoping somebody may have done something similar or have an idea that could save me $20-$30k.

Answer 1

First of all, congrats, and glad you got the tailwheel endorsement. Now to business. You'll look long and hard for what you are hoping to find, probably without much success, so first I'll give a few other more productive ideas and then tell you what I did:

1) Join a flying club. Many communities have them and the rates are usually much cheaper than what an FBO charges.

2) Join the Civil Air Patrol. Put your time in (volunteer) and you will eventually be checked out to fly the plane(s). This can be a very inexpensive time builder and good experience.

3) Join any aviation organization, like the EAA, and go to meetings and events and get to know people. Eventually you may hook up with someone who will give you a little "stick time" just because they like you and want to help you out.

4) Join a soaring club, put in your time as a volunteer (and buy some flight time if you can afford it, gliders are great!) and try to get checked out as a tow pilot. If it is a club and not a commercial gliding operation, you do not need a commercial rating to do this. Having tailwheel time will really help.

5) Put ads up on local airport bulletin boards or in local aviation "rags" saying you're willing to work in exchange for flight time, and why you're doing this. Things like washing/waxing/detailing airplanes, or any kind of work you are able to do as barter. If I had someone like you around willing to help with the gazillion projects I have, I'd be happy to barter flight time and flight instruction in exchange for labor. There are surely others who would too.

6) Get a job at an FBO as line service or in some other capacity with any aviation company where you can earn free flight time or reduced rates on aircraft rental. Even if you only work part-time or weekends, something is better than nothing.

7) Get your ground instructors ratings NOW, Basic, Advanced, and Advanced Instrument. You don't need the flight ratings to hold these but you can then do ground instruction and be paid for it. If a flight school will hire you as a ground instructor, you'll probably get a chance to fly on reduced rates.

I did all the above in order to get started. I also bought a Chevy van (on the cheap) and lived in the darn thing for two summers. I saved all that rent money and put it toward flying instead.  Parking in a restful place without getting hassled was sometimes a challenge, but "doable" once I learned the tricks. For showers I joined an inexpensive health club, for mail I got a postbox, I did my clothes at laundromats, and for many meals I used a cooler and camp stove. I also took a part time job in a restaurant just for the free meals at the end of every shift I worked.  

After I had accuulated about 150 hours I could see that it was still going to take awhile to reach my goal, so I switched tactics and instead of buying more flight time, I put all the money I was making toward buying an old Cherokee 140 that was IFR equipped. I found a partner to go in with me, and as part of the deal the seller (an FBO) threw in the instrument training with the purchase. My partner only wanted to fly for fun, so part of my deal with him was that once I got all my ratings, I'd help him get his. Worked out great.

This was all good luck. I soon had my commercial hours as well as a CFI / CFII rating, and the FBO we bought the plane from actually hired me to instruct for them.  After I started working as a pilot I continued living in my van for yet another year so I could eventually afford to buy the multi-engine time I would need to get hired by a regional airline, which I did. The rest, as they say, is history.

True story. Pretty extreme and not something most people would be willing to do, but if you're desperate and want anything badly enough, there's another old saying that applies: where there's a will there's a way. I'm living proof. And I probably appreciate what I've got and where I've gotten to 10 times more than anyone who more or less had it handed to them on a plate, because I paid my dues and EARNED it the hard way.

Good luck and I hope this helps, or at least inspires your imagination.

EDIT #1: Getting flight time "ON CREDIT"? Get real! The only companies that do that are government-subsidized foreign airlines through their highly competetive ab-initio cadet programs, for which you do not qualify. If you want credit, go to a bank, or go to an aviation school where you can get student loans for flying.  I don't blame you for wanting it "quick and easy", but that's not the way life usually works unless you're well off financially or you have a sugar daddy. Sorry I wasted your time, but maybe somebody reading my reply will benefit from the advice.

EDIT #2: Yes, I was slightly offended by your additional comments. An optimistic attitude will carry you far and I wish you the best of luck, but you need to be realistic about the prospects of what you're asking.  The problem is, if someone lets you build hours "on credit", and then you skip out on them without working it off (not that you would, but there is that possibility in their mind) there's not much they could do to stop you. That's why banks do not make unsecured loans unless the client has stellar credit. Perhaps if you offered to sign a "letter of agreement" as a legally binding contract, that might help. If you defaulted then, the company could sue you for breach of contract and wreck your credit. One thing airlines look at when hiring people is credit history. If you've been irresponsible, they'll most likely pass you over.

Answer 2

Dude, find a rich girlfriend. That's it.... And be good to her.

Answer 3

Well... according to the faa you need to pay your pro-rata share as a private pilot.  Your example of swapping free airplane time for a later job is against the regs.  If you read on the FAA interpretations website they say that flight time is considered payment.... and in your case there is little doubt that a free airplane is compensation and thus you legally need to be a commercial pilot to get it.

The simple truth is this:  you need to pay for it.  If you want to fly professionally you're going to need an instrument rating.  Take 50 of those 200 hours and get that out of the way.  The rest of those hours you're going to need to pay for.  One way a lot of people build time is by splitting it.  Put one person under the hood (sole manipulator of the controls) and the other looking for traffic (required PIC crew member), thus enabling both pilots to log time.... and both to log PIC time.  

You're gonna find out in this industry there aren't a whole lot of shortcuts and to get started takes a lot of money.  Not enough people think about this before taking the flight training plunge.  It's a fun career... but work out your finances and see if it's worth the risk before moving ahead.

Answer 4

Well if you had enough money to get an instructors rating (not sure how much they are) you could get hours for free by training pilots. Contacting businesses on charter flights and crop dusting is a good idea too.

Answer 5

Earning your commercial certificate is more than just building the time in your logbook.  What are you planning on doing with the commercial certificate?  Without an instrument rating, commercial privileges are severely limited.

What I'm saying is much of the time toward the commercial isn't really "time building" - it's still training.  If you;re really good, you can get an instrument rating in 50-60 additional hours.  Honing your skills for the commercial certificate will take another 20 hours or so.  Then there's the requirement for 10 hours in a complex airplane.  In reality, you probably only have 75 to 100 hours of "time building" as opposed to active training, assuming you're a stick and rudder superstar.

Only 100 of the required 250 hours have to be in a powered aircraft.  Would you consider some glider time?  That's a much less expensive way to go and it still counts as flight time.