Airline Pilot Forums

Getting out of the Navy now and I wasn't really planning on continuing my flying, but, I just can't resist anymore.

So, since I'm not current since I haven't flown in just under 2 years, does that prevent me from getting hired from all the big boys? I'd prefer Cargo, but would love anything really. I have my ATP, multiengine, 707, and 737 ratings with about 1800 total time(pretty much all heavy time). Looking around this site, if it doesn't specifically say "500 hrs in the last 24 months" does that mean I'm good?

I'm just real excited. I wasn't looking forward to getting a "real" job, always looking to the sky, and time for me to get moving. First step, first class medical certificate.

Any other gouge for a late starter who collects their last paycheck in 4 days? haha.

Yes - many places have recency is their requirements. You'll just have to research the requirements for the particular operators that you are interested in working for. Keeping *current* is one of the hard things to do for many while furloughed/laid off and I've seen some on this forum go back to flight instructing. It is one of the hardships of the industry.

I'm sure many on there will be able to give you specific advise, but the hiring information of each operator ought to give you the details, then you can get plenty of opinions here at APC how to get that recency if you need it.

USMCFLYR

Anything can happen. I know of pilots with zero PIC time who were hired by the likes of DAL, CAL, and FDX.

However, you aren't that marketable with a lapse in currency. It is very easy to get back. Go to your local community airport and take some lessons, rent an airplane, log time.

Anything can happen. I know of pilots with zero PIC time who were hired by the likes of DAL, CAL, and FDX.

Can you expand on how somebody without 1000 TPIC was hired at FedEx?

Unless it was before 9/11, and a pretty healthy amount of years before 9/11, I'm pretty sure they haven't waived that requirement.

IIRC, there was a time when it was around 500 (early-mid 90's perhaps), but it was STILL a PIC requirement.

You might try Atlas (after you get current) they just dropped their mins to 2000TT 500 Turbine.....

Thanks all! I was on this website nonstop about 3-4 years ago lurking, but when it looked like I was done I drifted away from here. Now I have lost my SA and have no homework done! Current market? Who's hiring? etc. Time to cram? Seems like things are starting to pick up now, at least. Time to cram and figure out who's hiring!

Retired AF guy here (although I was current when I retired). My advice:

1. Get all your ducks in a row if you haven't already. Make sure you have a fully-polished resume (both flying and non-flying versions). Start ordering the other stuff you'll need if you haven't already (copies of college transcripts, driving record, FAA records, etc). You won't be handing over your driving records, FAA records, etc, but if there is something inaccurate in there you need to know about it and get it corrected.

2. Apply as early as possible, although most Majors won't even consider you. When you go online to apply, most have a list of 5-10 questions that you must answer yes or no before you can get to the application. One of those is often "Do you have at least 100 hours in the past 12 months or 200 hours in the past 24 months?" If you answer "no" to any of the questions, you cannot even fill out an application.

3. Don't forget about corporate aviation. If you have lost touch with your old military buds, get back in touch pronto! Networking is EVERYTHING in the corporate world! You might be able to find a corporate gig where they will pay you peanuts to fly in their right seat -- just make sure the aircraft REQUIRES a right-seater so you can log the time. That would allow you to get the needed recency -- it is probably going to be way too expensive to buy the recency you need. Also, keep in mind that corporate operators HATE guys who use them to get their recency and then bolt for the airlines, so your best bet is probably to be honest with them about your goals and offer to give them a reasonable amount of time (18-24 months, maybe) before you decide what you want to do. You might love it, so keep your mind open.

Important question: How long before you retire/separate? If it is less than a year, then you are WAY behind schedule!

Finally, as you are filling out your first application, I recommend that you create a "master application file". It was very helpful for me -- basically, I put all the data I gathered for my first application into a single word document (addresses the last 10 years, info about references, etc, etc) and then continued to expand the document as I filled out more applications with more data requirements. This makes it WAY easier to fill out subsequent applications so you won't have to dig up the same info over and over.

Good luck!

Thanks all! I was on this website nonstop about 3-4 years ago lurking, but when it looked like I was done I drifted away from here. Now I have lost my SA and have no homework done! Current market? Who's hiring? etc. Time to cram? Seems like things are starting to pick up now, at least. Time to cram and figure out who's hiring!


Protrident,

Where do you plan on living? I work at Sky King and they have hired many people who have been out of the cockpit for several years. If you have time on the 737, it wouldn't bee too hard of a sell to get a job here. The majority of the flying is in Miami and we also have smaller bases in Atlantic City and Guam (Guam is 100% voluntary so don't let that scare you off).


These small operators are probably your most realistic places to seek employment right now. Check out the charter section or do a search for Sky King. There is a little bit of info out there.



Forgot to mention...they have an ad on climb to 350's website as we speak.

Marvin, great gouge! Thanks. Funny, I completely agree with you, time to separate? 3 days!!! haha, yes... way way way behind! But, for some reason, such is the path God lead me down. Not fun, but we'll make it happen!

Pilotgolfer,

We are living in Oklahoma City right now and would really prefer to stay here, so I guess that means I'm commuting. Company looks great, funny, I have around 40 hrs in the 737-200. Never signed for that one since I was a student, but flew it a good chunk non the less. Much more hours signing and instructing in the 737-600 though (first of the next gen). I think you're right about the smaller places, but that's fine with me. I'm behind and need to catch up! If I knew I was going to fly I would have kept flying the whole time on the weekends to keep current with my buddies, started applying and networking a year out, and been on this website nonstop staying abreast with all the latest. Life is good though, you guys are helping me and I appreciate it!

I hope I'm not stuck making $22k a year though!! That would be extremely rough with 3 kids.

As a thought, have you considered trying to get a job at FlightSafety Int'l as an instructor?

I did that for about 18 months. Good place to work, stable, good money, home every night ... and you will make a ton of contacts in the corporate world. If you are a good instructor with a good personality, I can guarantee you will get job offers from some of the corporate outfits you instruct. Just a thought.

They are very wary of guys who only need them for a little while too. I told them I would stay for 18 months so I could evaluate them and they could evaluate me. Was offered an opportunity to work at jetBlue (I was in the pool) 5 months later and turned it down because I figured Karma would get me if I broke my promise. Decided to go to Airtran (now owned by SWA) after my 18 months had expired. :-)

Protrident,
don't forget the guard and reserves(AF and Navy). There are some there at Oke city and in the surrounding area. Great way to get back into and keep flying and helps put food on the table. Great connections for the potential aviation career either corporate, pax or package airlines. Call them all that are commutable for you or somewhere where the wife can be happy. Even if it can't keep you completely employed, it is a great bridge.
Pakage

Any other gouge for a late starter who collects their last paycheck in 4 days?Judging by your flight time I'm going to assume you're leaving before retirement. In a nutshell... use the reserves to get current. If you can't get into a reserve unit soon enough, apply to everyone and take the best job offer you get to regain your currency (given your background, somebody will hire you). At that point you're back in the game for the majors. Resubmit for all of the majors/freight and track down everyone who you flew with who's now at a "destination job" (if you can get into the reserves, there's no better place to network). Good luck, eventually, it'll work out.

PS, driving to work makes your life a lot easier.

Here are some US companies hiring and my personal ranking of them, best-worst:
Large aircraft:
Atlas
Kalitta
Evergreen
Omni
Southern
...not sure how to compare the above with Miami Air

Small Aircraft:
American Eagle
SkyWest/ExpressJet/ASA
Pinnacle/Mesaba/Colgan
Trans States/Compass/GoJet
Republic

I think Allegiant is also hiring, as is Spirit.

JetBlue is good, as is SWA/AirTran.

Overseas there are a LOT of jobs: China, ME, Asia, Africa. pprune.org has the most info on companies outside of the US.

cliff
SYD

Protrident,

There's a guy one here who runs an airline interview consulting firm that wrote a great post in the military threat called "timing your exit". Google it, it was updated this year. Not all of it applies to you but good info nonetheless.

As far as your currency problem, you are definately behind the curve. As others have suggested your best bet is the reserves/guard. You can make more $$ there as a quasi full time bum than you can as a regional guy and you will be home way more. You may want to think about moving to a Navy training command location as they are almost always in need of guys. You might be able to swing 6 months to a year of active duty orders as well which will put you in the hunt (able to apply for a major) right as the retirements start up next winter, PLUS you will have lots of opportunities to network.

The more desirable airlines have somewhere between 3-7 thousand qualified/current applications on file depending on who you talk to so don't expect the application mins to change anytime soon. Your military background is a plus but it wont even matter if you can't get past the initial application screen. Good luck.

The more desirable airlines have somewhere between 3-7 thousand qualified/current applications on file depending on who you talk to so don't expect the application mins to change anytime soon. Your military background is a plus but it wont even matter if you can't get past the initial application screen. Good luck.

What is a "desireable airline", and do we have a "pilot shortage" already. Obviously this is subjective. I think my airline is "desireable", and we just lowered our mins...for the second time in about one year. AAEagle just lowered their mins, as did just about every regional airline in the US. Overseas the mins have been lowered multiple times by multiple organizations. I think this is due to a "pilot shortage".

The good thing, for US pilots, is if you have an ATP-MEL, your currency will matter less and less as we get closer to the day when an ATP will be required by all new pilots that are going to fly -121. It won't matter if you are current or not, as if you don't have an ATP you won't get hired for a -121 job....and that will affect all other organizations, as those with ATPs will be sucked up by -121, leaving less guys to fill the non -121 slots.

cliff
SYD

All good suggestions, thanks everyone!

I've thought about the Reserves, but didn't know if they were "eligible" for these random deployments to the desert and all points not flying. I've already been tagged for an IA to the desert and don't want to be in that situation again. But, if being SELRES lets me fly some without the worry of deployments, I'm all for it!

Thank you for that list too! I like seeing how different people rank each job, gives me a little heads up when I start evaluating.

Seems there's a job fair in Orlando for the Regionals in a week put on by FLTops! I'm off to that as well to see what I can do in person.

What is a "desireable airline", and do we have a "pilot shortage" already.

I was referring to the list on the APC homepage of the most visited airline profiles. The folks I know who fly for the ones at the top have told me there are several thousand applications on file.

As far as a pilot shortage, and this is my opinion only, there is not and wont ever be a shortage in the U.S. There is a dwindling supply of people/banks willing to spend/loan $60k to pursue a job that only pays $20k to start. The regionals know about upcoming retirements at the majors and the soon to be 1500 hour legislation and are trying to get ahead of the curve.

[QUOTE=Protrident;1095136]I've thought about the Reserves, but didn't know if they were "eligible" for these random deployments to the desert and all points not flying.QUOTE]

You get a 2 year deferment when you join the reserves. As things wind down overseas your chances of being mobilized will likely fall substantially. Talk to some reservists in the unit you want to drill in, I'm sure they will be willing to help.

Good luck at the job fair. My guess is with your experience even without currency you may get some offers in the near future. However they know you are probably looking to get current and move on. I hope you will post about your experience there.

Stitches, definitely will!