Eye of Experience #26:
Freight and Specialty Flying

Most people think of the major and regional airlines when expressing a desire to become a

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Eye Of ExperienceTheFreight Dogs

When someone says, “commercialpilot,” the first thing the listener thinks of is an air carrier pilotwearing a blazer with stripes up to his/her elbow. But there are many moreoccupations for professional pilots than just flying a human mailing tube, notleast of which are the so-called “freight dogs” – the cargo haulersflying all kinds of equipment in all kinds of weather, day and night.

FedEx logoThey range all the way from overnight delivery companies like UPS (UnitedParcel Service) and FedEx (Federal Express), which operate large jet transportsconfigured only for cargo and operating on a regular schedule, to the smalloperator with perhaps one single-engine airplane flying small amounts ofmaterial on demand. Additionally, UPS and FedEx – as well as other packageexpress carriers – have contracts with independent operators who operatesmaller equipment, such as the Cessna Caravan, which are used in feederoperations into various hubs around the country.

Checks

In today’s world with the speed of instantaneous wire transfer, I don’tunderstand just why it is done, but after every business day is done there areliterally hundreds of airplanes flying around the country picking up anddelivering cancelled checks from banks to the nearest Federal Reserve Bank.Obviously with millions, even billions of dollars involved, the interest on thatkind of money in a single day becomes an important factor. The vast majority ofthis flying is done at night.

Beech BaronThese check haulers fly everything from Aerostars to Lears, from AeroCommanders to Bonanzas to CE 310s and 210s. Many pilots use this job as astepping-stone to the carriers. In fact many “freight dogs” who flyall kinds of cargo are doing so for that reason. It is a great way to build timein multiengine equipment. And the experienced freight dog is looked upon veryfavorably by the people who employ air carrier pilots since they know that thesuccessful “freight dog” is a very experienced pilot used to handlingwhat may be rather primitive equipment in all kinds of weather.

Parts and Supplies

The traffic manager of a large industrial plant is sitting in a room with nowindows, and he neither knows nor care what the weather is. All he knowsis that if the cargo is not delivered timely, the assembly line may have to shutdown and a large number of workers will be idled. Thus, the term “fastfreight” takes on a whole new meaning.

The airport where my flight school is located, being a general aviationairport in the area of the world’s automobile manufacturing center, has severalcargo operators, who fly auto parts from suppliers to the plants where the carsand trucks are built. The equipment they use includes Cessna 310s, Convairs, andLearjets among others, including some of the large singles.

IBM logoFor two years I had a contract with IBM for the delivery of emergency partsby air. Wherever there is a big mainframe computer, there are IBM employees atthe customer’s location to see that the computers are running properly. Thesepeople are called Customer Engineers, or CEs. In various locations around thecountry, in addition to regular parts warehouses, IBM maintains emergency partswarehouses. In order to avoid the red tape involved in obtaining a Part 135 AirCarrier Operating Certificate, I leased two Piper Seneca IIs to IBM, outbasingone at a distant location to serve a warehouse there and keeping one locally forthe local emergency parts warehouse. The pilots were on duty at the warehouses24 hours a day, seven days a week, and when a call came in from one ofthose CEs, the pilot would grab the part (usually shoebox size) off the shelfand head for the airport. He would advise the CE who had ordered the part as towhich airport, where on the airport and what time he would arrive. This program was extremely successful, so successful that the company took itaway from me and gave it to a large national cargo charter company that isequipped to cover the entire country.

Mail

Cessna 208 CaravanMost of the mail transferred by the Postal Service from place to place goesby carrier, but there is still a large amount of United States mail being flownaround the country in cargo planes. For many years the venerable BeechcraftModel 18 was the primary equipment used by the contractors who handled thischore, and for many operators it is still is the aircraft of choice. In otherinstances, Cessna’s single-engine turboprop Caravan is popular. The pilotsflying the mail (and the cancelled checks as well) operate all kinds ofequipment in all kinds of weather, in the darkest of nights. Sounds like lots offun, huh?

Again, this is a great experience builder, and many of the pilots employed inthis activity go on to become pilots for scheduled airlines, usually on commuteror feeder carriers first, then for a major air carriers. However, none of thisis to say that all cargo pilots are on a career track to the carriers. A greatmany pilots, for one reason or another, prefer to remain in the freight dogclassification and make a career of hauling freight.

Specialty Flying

Crop-Dusting

Because crop-dusting, also known as aerial application, requires flying verylow and close to the ground – including tight, sharp turns and accurate flightpaths – the pilots engaged in this activity are especially skillful atmanipulating an aircraft’s controls. This kind of flying requires specialtraining, and although the work is usually seasonal, the pay is high enough thatthe pilot can earn a year’s pay in the few months that the season lasts. Crop-dusting is a particularly dangerous and high-pressure occupation, butthe pilots engaged in this business with whom I’ve talked like the work and thelife.

Banner Towing

Banner towing is another seasonal activity for pilots except in the southernand western coastal areas where airplanes towing advertising banners can be seenflying back and forth just out from the beaches. In the northern states it is asummer and fall activity, with airplanes towing banners over and near largeassemblies of people such as stadiums where sports events are taking place.Banner towing usually involves flying low and slow in a single-engine airplane,due to the banner’s aerodynamic drag, but this activity is a great way to buildtime.

Here, again, a high degree of specific skill is required to pick up and dropoff the banner. Come in a bit too low and it is likely that the banner ortowrope will snag a wire, tree or some such. Come in too high, and you’ll haveto go around for another pass, wasting time and your boss’ money.

Glider Towing

Although somewhat similar to banner towing, glider towing requires an evengreater degree of skill on the part of the tow pilot. It also requires a degreeof faith in the pilot of the glider following behind on a 200-foot towrope sincehe or she is quite capable of jerking the tow plane around rather violently. Aconsiderate glider pilot will swing out slightly to the left of the tow plane,allowing his sailplane’s drag to pull the towplane’s tail slightly to the leftand relieving the towplane pilot of the need to hold a lot of right rudder in ahigh-power, low-airspeed configuration.

Fish and Game Spotting

In the ocean waters where large schools of fish are found, so also areaircraft reporting to the commercial fishing boats the location of theseconcentrations of fish. The same is also true of the spotting of animals,particularly for the census of herds and individuals. My primary flightinstructor had earned his living during the mid-1930s by flying around in a50-hp Cub with the door open and a shotgun on his lap to shoot coyotes for abounty! Other operators fly light singles well offshore to help fishingfleets spot schools of fish while many larger vessels sport a helicopter landingpad and a small copter. The pilot lives aboard ship and flys from the helipad tohelp find fish.

Photography

There is also a thriving business in aerial photography and surveying. Inaddition to taking pictures of buildings and homes, nurseries and large farmsfind aerial images extremely useful in deciding how to improve and maximizeproduction. Many years ago I occasionally flew for an operator who had mephotograph stockpiles of coal; ore, and slag for a couple of steel mills thatenabled them to judge their requirements. There are a great many otherapplications for photography from the sky.

Traffic Reporting/Newsgathering

It seems that every large U.S. city has at least one television or radiostation with an aircraft it uses to report traffic and “real-time”news events. Although networks of strategically-placed video cameras havedisplaced many airborne traffic reporters in recent years, news-gatheringremains a popular application for light aircraft and can be a great way to buildtime and learn first-hand the rigors of commercial operations.

Law Enforcement

Virtually every municipal, state, and federal law enforcement agencymaintains a fleet of aircraft for surveillance, traffic control and emergencyresponse, among other uses, and these aircraft have proven themselves time andtime again. Of course, the U.S. Customs Service and the Drug Enforcement Agencyemploy large numbers of pilots to help interdict the flow of illegal drugs intothe country.

Pipeline And Power Line Patrol

Another area in which quite a few pilots are employed is patrolling pipelinesand power lines. Here again, the flying is done at a low altitude and requiresspecific skills, including the ability to monitor the area being patrolled whileflying the aircraft.

S-2 TrackerFire Fighting

The spotting and fighting of forest fires is another area of specialty flyingthat has an important place in our economy. The earlier a fire is discovered,the better the opportunity to contain it, and the dropping of water andretardant chemicals is quite useful in fighting a forest fire, once it isdiscovered.

Flight Instruction

Sadly, there aren’t a lot of “career flight instructors,” as Ipointed out in a previous column, but there are some, and this is anotheroccupation for the commercial pilot. Helping students become safe, efficientpilots can be a very rewarding career for the pilot who wants to make a livingflying and there is a strong need for this kind of dedicated professional inthis role.

Conclusion

Next time the subject of commercial flying comes up in a conversation and theconsensus implies that air carrier operations are synonymous with flyingcommercially, feel free to point out that the carriers comprise a small fractionof commercial flying.

Blue skies and sunshine to you all.


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