Hello, I am a new member on Airline Pilot Forums. I would like to get some advice from airline pilots on how to proceed with my flying career.
Here is some history:
I'm 27, started flying when I was 17, and have 1444.5 total time, 233 ME, 1146 CFI but
haven't flown since mid-2001. I am a current CFI (hasn't expired) and I currently have a First class medical.
I am not a U.S. Citizen, I got my residency 2 years ago. I was divorced on August 15th 07 and have a 4 year old son. He lives with the ex-wife in Orlando (they moved in December of 07). I am currently living with my girlfriend in Tallahassee.
I have a B.S. in Professional Aeronautics with a minor in Aviation Safety, from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Extended campus in Orlando) and am 1/2 way done with my M.S. in Aeronautical Science specializing in Aviation/Aerospace Operations through Embry-Riddle's distance learning. I did all my flying at Airline Training Academy in Orlando, Florida between 1997 and 2000.
I was hired to fly a Jetstream 31 for Discover Air in 2000, which was owned by the same folks that owned Airline Training Academy, finished their basic Indoc, Systems training and CRM class, and then found out that my college visa (through Embry-Riddle) did not allow me to travel internationally as a pilot. At this time I also found out that my visa had a limitation of 1000 hours for my B.S. degree (to get 36 credits of experience through ERAU) and I could not go back to flying instructing. I paid out of pocket for a few months, until August of 01 to fly and eventually could not afford to pay for flight time, so I stopped flying.
I have plans to get current (flight review and Instrument proficiency check) in the next month and possibly get hired at a local flight school in town. I have a desk job making $42k and plan to work as a part-time weekend flight instructor, at least to have it on my resume, since the school does not get or have a lot of students.
I want to get hired by a Regional but a not sure how to proceed. I asked Republic if they have a set minimum hours that they need their pilots to have in the last 30 or 60 days, and the response I got was that recency is important to them. When I ask some airline pilots on recency, the response seems to have 1/2 and 1/2. One half say that I need 80-100 hours a month to get hired by the regionals and the other half say that they have been in systems class at an airline with pilots who weren't current.
I'm also not sure if I should:
a) Just fly 8-10 hours of single engine time a month either as a CFI or paying out of pocket or sharing flying time with another pilot or
b) Do the above and get some (4-5 hours) of ME time and apply for a regional or
c) Do the above and get my ATP in a ME before applying for a regional (I have met all ATP flight time requirements expect for total time).
d) Get current and find a full time flight instructing job
e) Pay $5000ish for a Regional Jet Program (sounds like a waste of money to me)
I also don't know if I should have the Jetstream systems training on my resume. I don't want to look like I flunked out of airline training and at the same time I don't want it to raise 20 questions.
Bottom line is that my son has finally moved out of town and I need to get my flying career off the ground. This forum has a LOT of information on it, I just didn't find anything specific to what I was asking for. Any suggestions on how to do this would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dee.
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