How to Build Flight Hours: Tips for Aspiring Commercial Pilots
Start Instructing and Log While You Teach
If you’ve earned your Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) certificate, you're sitting on the best opportunity to build time while getting paid to do it. Teaching others to fly forces you to know your systems, procedures, and maneuvers inside out. You’ll spend time in the pattern, cruise, IFR training, and emergency scenarios—all while reinforcing your own fundamentals. And let’s be honest: teaching landings in gusty winds or watching a new student recover from a botched stall keeps your scan sharp and your instincts faster than any simulator can.
Busy flight schools offer nonstop demand for instructors. You'll find yourself flying 5-6 hours a day if you're in the right environment. Add a CFII or MEI to your credentials and you'll open up even more dual instruction opportunities, often at higher pay rates. If you're consistent and show up ready, you can knock out hundreds of hours in under a year and walk away with valuable experience that speaks louder than just numbers on a page.
Consider Ferry and Delivery Flights
Ferry work might not be on your radar at first, but it’s one of those lesser-known opportunities that can rack up hours quickly and give you real cross-country experience. Moving aircraft from a factory to a buyer or between schools and maintenance shops means flying unfamiliar routes, dealing with weather, planning fuel stops, and managing unexpected challenges. That’s the kind of experience that teaches you how to manage long legs, new airspace, and new aircraft types—all with no two flights ever looking the same.
Some ferry companies will take low-time pilots for SIC positions or pair you with a higher-time captain to make the flight legal. Others look for time-builders who are willing to fly piston singles across the country for discounted rates or even for free, just to get the aircraft to its destination. If you're resourceful and flexible, these gigs add hours to your logbook and teach you lessons you'll lean on when you're the one making the calls in a commercial cockpit.
Aerial Tours and Sightseeing Flights
Flying tourists over coastlines, national parks, or cityscapes can get you consistent hours during peak seasons. These operations may not have the structure of a formal airline, but they put you in a position to operate on a tight schedule with paying passengers. And that’s exactly what recruiters want to see—flight experience in a commercial environment, not just weekend time-building hops.
You'll get used to short turnaround times, rapid preflight inspections, and communicating clearly with passengers who have no idea what “density altitude” means. You'll also sharpen your skills flying the same routes repeatedly, which gives you the chance to perfect your altitude management, timing, and ATC coordination under real-world conditions. Just make sure the tour operator complies with all FAA commercial flight rules, and you're logging time in aircraft that help build your credibility—not just your totals.
Banner Towing or Jump Operations
These jobs are often where low-time pilots cut their teeth. Towing banners might sound simple, but it involves precise flying, slow and stable patterns, and takeoffs and landings with drag and load factors that most flight schools don’t teach. You’ll be flying close to the ground for hours at a time, monitoring weather, and coordinating with ground teams. If you're flying over a beach or stadium, you're also dealing with congested airspace and VFR traffic that demands a constant lookout.
Skydiving flights are another route, often using aircraft like Cessna 182s or Caravans. You'll be climbing fast, flying the jumpers to altitude, then descending quickly for a rapid turnaround. It’s repetitive, but it gives you a rhythm and teaches aircraft control, energy management, and how to operate safely with non-pilot passengers moving around in your cabin. These jobs also tend to run on weekends and during events, so they can pair nicely with a weekday instructing schedule if you’re looking to double up.
Utility Flying: Powerline Patrol and Aerial Survey
Pipeline patrols, powerline inspections, and aerial survey jobs aren’t glamorous, but they’re some of the most consistent hour-building gigs out there. You’ll fly low and slow, often in straight lines for hours, scanning infrastructure for damage or mapping terrain for government and corporate clients. That repetition builds stamina. You learn how to fly precisely for extended durations without letting your guard down—something that separates a good pilot from a great one when you're flying long-haul routes later on.
These jobs also expose you to a variety of airspace and weather conditions. If you’re in a rural area, you may fly solo for hours over unpopulated regions. In urban zones, you’ll work just under Class B shelves, dodging TFRs, helicopters, and commuter aircraft. Some positions even qualify as PIC turbine time depending on the aircraft involved, which adds an extra bonus to your resume.
Charter Flights and Part 135 Time
Once you hit the legal minimums for commercial operations, you can look at small Part 135 operators and charter services. Even if you start as second-in-command in twin-engine pistons or turboprops, you're still logging meaningful time with more advanced systems and higher expectations for precision and professionalism. Many operators fly routes to remote airports, medical charters, or urgent cargo missions—giving you new flying experiences you won’t get from local traffic patterns.
Some of these companies will help you get to 1,200 hours and beyond while preparing you for ATP-level checkrides and airline interviews. The more structured the operation, the more it mimics airline life: dispatch releases, customer expectations, weight and balance, and operational procedures. If you get the chance to fly with an operator that offers training on IFR procedures, RVSM, or crew resource management, you’re getting hours that will make you stand out in competitive pools.
Time-Building Groups and Rentals
If you're between jobs or living in a region with fewer aviation employers, teaming up with other pilots to rent aircraft and split time can be an effective way to reach your goals. Long cross-country flights, mountain flying, or weather-diverse trips offer more than just numbers—they provide variety and challenge. And those are the flights you remember in an interview when someone asks, “Tell me about a time you had to make a tough decision in flight.”
Some time-building programs even offer block rates and structured packages that include multi-engine hours or simulator sessions. If you're careful about budgeting and pick the right routes, you can pack a lot of flight experience into a small window. Just avoid falling into the trap of flying the same local route over and over without adding anything new to your skillset.
How Do I Build Flight Hours Fast?
- Teach at a flight school (CFI, CFII, MEI)
- Fly ferry and repositioning flights
- Work aerial tours, survey, or banner towing
- Join skydiving operations or Part 135
- Rent and share cross-country time
In Conclusion
Building flight hours isn't about checking boxes—it’s about collecting real experiences that shape you into a professional pilot. Whether you’re teaching students in a 172, ferrying aircraft across the country, or flying surveys in unpredictable airspace, each hour logged should push your skills further. You’re not just flying to build time. You’re flying to build judgment, consistency, and confidence. That’s what hiring managers care about—and that’s what’ll carry you through the cockpit door when the opportunity comes.
💬 Read more insights via @ijaredailstock.
Comments
Post a Comment