Ways To Use Your Pilot's License For More Than Just Recreational Flights

Education & Development Articles

Many people take flight lessons to fulfill a bucket list item and to fly planes for recreation in their spare time. However, you can also parlay the aviation training that you acquire into ways to make extra money. In addition to going on fun rides for your personal pleasure, you can use a small aircraft that you rent or own to launch a well-paying small business or help out those in need of airlifts. Once you undergo the requisite training, you can begin planning on how to earn money using your flight skills.

Offer Scenic Rides

Some people love to fly and tour scenery when someone else is at the helm in the cockpit. You can target this audience by offering scenic plane rides. You can offer rides for different types of flights, such as open cockpit rides or trips in small aircraft over scenic waterways, mountainous areas or urban landmarks.

In addition to offering plane rides, you should also provide your passengers tour brochures and small souvenirs that you can purchase in bulk, such as customized pins, to help them remember their flight and spread the word about your services.

Be a Skywriter

When you are sitting an outdoor sporting event and you notice messages in the sky created by small planes to advertise a brand or deliver a personalized message, you are viewing the work of skywriters. This unique way of delivering a message dates back to the mid-1900s.

Skywriting pilots, in planes equipped with special smoke for creating visible patterns, work as freelancers or as contractors to help companies deliver a message to a target audience.

When you earn your pilot's license, you can pick up work as a skywriter in your spare time. Check your local business listings for names of skywriter firms that hire pilots to complete assignments. You may end up creating message for your favorite sports team or for outdoor festivals.

For short messages, you can complete the assignment by yourself. However, for longer messages, you may end up working with a team of other pilots.

If you want to go the freelance route, advertise your services with sports leagues, members of the local chamber of commerce and organizers of local events such as music festivals and fairs.

Sign Up for Volunteer Work

If you live in a rural area and own your own plane or have easy access to a rental, you can provide a useful service for healthcare facilities in the area with critically ill patients who need upgraded care.

Air travel will not only get patients to a better hospital quicker, it may be more comfortable than a cramped trip in a car with a bunch of medical equipment.

You can contact non-profit organizations that match pilots with those in need to begin your volunteer work. The non-profit group will take care of organizing the logistics of the flight, coordinating between the patient and the medical center.

If you want to help out when people are in precarious situations like an avalanche or lost in the wilderness, you can join the squadron of your nearest Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and be on call for search-and-rescue missions.

The basic requirements for volunteering for medical flights and rescue missions include possession of a valid pilot's license, a current Federal Aviation Administration medical certificate and access to the appropriate aircraft.

Typically, organizations also require you to have a completed a certain number of flight hours in order to be a volunteer pilot. Additional requirements to be a CAP pilot include paying yearly dues, having U.S. citizenship or permanent residency and passing a criminal background check. Once you are approved, you can also participate in CAP-sponsored recreational and educational activities organized for member pilots.

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23 September 2015