Northwoods Air (Deep Dive)

Today’s Deep Dive is on an aerial survey company that hires very fresh commercial pilots (300TT posted on their website). Obviously though, just like for any job, solely banking on having the minimums to get hired is unrealistic.

And remember last week, when I said that I’ve seen guys tell others to “just send an application even if the application window is marked as closed, it never hurts!” when the guy in charge of hiring for the company they were talking about mentioned he hates that?

Well, that was Northwoods Air, and Cody.

Now, I’m sure you and 99% of the pilots reading this meet the minimums. But the hiring window is currently closed, so again, PLEASE, DO NOT apply simply because “what’s the worst that could happen?”

It’d be a bad look, and a waste of time. I’m counting on you here…

Let’s dive in! 🤿

“Okay, I'll just tell you straight up: I came to Northwoods because flight instructing wasn't doing it for me. I was 23, did the basic 141 route, and started instructing my senior year of college. I put in somewhere around 250 to 300 hours of dual given before I left. Everyone tells you the more you do it, the better you get at it, and that's true, my skills did improve. My heart just wasn't in it. That's where Northwoods came into the picture, and looking back, it's the thing that opened my eyes to the fact that there's a lot more to flying at the low-time level than the CFI-to-airline pipeline. Nobody really talks about that, and I wish they would.

Northwoods is a small company that runs two main contracts.

The summer contract is agricultural survey, mostly Midwest. Illinois, Indiana, that kind of footprint. It runs from early-to-mid May through late September or early October, when corn season is in full swing. So really, you're flying over corn fields six to eight hours a day in a 172, building hours, single pilot.

One thing to know about that gig: you have to be a local. I got lucky there because the airport was about 45 minutes from my house. The other two guys on contract with me were also local Illinois guys. So I just lived at home and drove in if it was flyable. That's how 99% of the guys at Northwoods start, by the way, the summer contract is the door.

The winter contract is where it changes shape. That's the real on-the-road, fly-wherever-they-tell-you gig. They split the fleet for it. They've got a fleet of C172s and 182s. The summer 172s have aux tanks on them by the way, so on a good day you can stay up for eight or nine hours straight without ever coming down. We flew our asses off in the summer. I built somewhere around 250, maybe 300 hours over that one contract.

Summer days revolve around weather and sun angle. If you wake up in the morning and there's already rain or thick clouds, you don't go to the airport. That's your day off, as they call it. If there are clouds below your collection altitude during the day, you have to stop, because obviously you can't shoot imagery through clouds. High winds, maintenance issues, same thing: you're not flying. On a really good day, the collection window goes from when the sun gets to about 30 degrees up in the morning until it drops back to about 30 degrees down in the evening. In the summer that can be something like 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. So a good day is six to eight hours in the airplane. A shittier day, the clouds start building around noon and you're calling it short.

The work itself is single-pilot, mostly straight-and-level over corn. You're working directly with the client, and one thing a lot of guys don't realize about survey is that it's not as schedule-based as they think. Things change in the drop of a pin. They might tell you to do one thing one day and pack your bags and head to a different state the next. That flexibility is pretty much core to being a survey pilot anywhere.

The winter contract kicks off in November. Cody, the boss, flies you out to Old Town, Maine for a week or two of training. He covers accommodations, the whole ordeal, and you're there with the rest of the guys you'll be flying with that season. It's a mix of flight training and learning the survey system, how to fly the lines, all of that. Then they send you out.

He's looking for a six-month commitment. Supposedly there are contracts, but I never signed one. Some guys left mid-season while I was there, and Cody wasn't thrilled (in this industry your word matters) but he's not a douchebag about it. If you've genuinely got family stuff or medical stuff, he gets it. He's understanding. He'll make it work if it needs to work.

The lifestyle is the other thing. If you're young and single like I was (no girlfriend at the time), I'd recommend Northwoods to anybody. If you're married or have kids, it's not impossible. I flew with a guy who got married right before his contract started, and his wife came out to him a few times during the winter. But it's a lot easier when you've got fewer obligations.

I'm not going to pretend the road doesn't get to you. The first month or two is rough. You miss your friends, your family, your bed. Everybody going through it feels homesick at first.

But just remember everyone else is living their life too. Your buddies aren't sitting at home hanging out without you, they're working. Your parents are working. Once that clicks, you stop feeling like you're missing some big party back home. And weirdly, when you do get to go home, you appreciate that time so much more than you ever did before. You don't take any of it for granted, because you know it's limited. It's a trade-off, and it's temporary.

The great thing about flying for Northwoods (and survey in general) is the network. You're at FBOs all over the place. There are jet pilots coming through, charter departments sitting right there in the building, line guys who've seen everything. If you're a social guy, you go up and have a conversation. But not a transactional one. Don't walk up and ask, "How do I get hired here?" That's the worst way to do it. Just introduce yourself, ask about the airplane they're flying, ask who they fly for, and let the conversation go where it goes.

A lot of the future job prospects I have right now came from people I met during my time in survey. It's a small industry. People remember. The biggest thing a lot of guys get wrong is they think networking is transactional. Throw that out the window. Be friends first. Talk about non-aviation stuff. Let people offer things to you instead of asking for them. 99% of the time, you shouldn't be asking someone for a job. They should be offering it to you.

Hiring at Northwoods is 99% word of mouth. They advertise 300 hours online, and they'll hire there, but most of the guys getting in are 300 to 500. The market is what it is, so the owner can pull from wherever he wants.

If Cody doesn't already know you, knowing someone who does is your best shot. After that, it's just doing good work and not being a dick. If he likes you, the winter contract gets offered.

But let’s hear it from Northwoods Air themselves:

For the right guy, yeah.

If you're young, single, want real-world flying experience, want to build a network, want to see what's out there beyond the CFI-to-121 path, Northwoods will give you that. You'll handle your own maintenance scheduling. You'll fly cross-country in actual weather. You'll meet people you'd never meet from a flight school office. You'll grow as a pilot fast.

But go in with your eyes open. The pay isn't great, especially in the winter. The company isn't perfect. You'll be away from home for half the year. You'll have moments where you wonder why you signed up for this. That's normal.

Embrace the suck, and use the time to build genuine relationships with the people you meet. That's what survey is really for at this stage of the career. It's not the hours alone. It's the hours plus the network plus the perspective shift you get from doing something most low-time pilots will never do.

Most good things don't come easy. This is one of those things. It's a trade-off, and for the right person, it's worth it.”