Originally Posted by fosters

Funny you mention that. CAL has hired people directly from the right seat here at AWAC recently. I have connections to a 727 freight outfit that doesn't even care if I have PIC time. There are options even if I don't upgrade in 2-2.5 years (which is what upgrade is currently doing).



They came up in the world of 3000TT minimums for regionals, and 6 month upgrades on the Jetstream. The current environment is vastly different. Where are you going to go? Half the legacies are bankrupt, with the other half barely hanging on for dear life. There is fierce competition right now for the heavy freight gigs and the few pax airlines.

Don't get me wrong, I agree about getting PIC turbine ASAP. However, about 6 months ago I had a big choice - I used to instruct for Mesa at their airline training program. I could've requested the 1900, with an upgrade of around 3-6 months. When I thought about it, I would rather sit right seat making decent $$ (after first year) with half the month off than live in South Dakota or other similar places to tough it out on the hopes that I might catch a break. I also had a choice of whether to go fly cargo in the west in a shorts. Again, I valued my QOL over the perceived gains of having turbine PIC. If the majors were hiring like crazy (or I thought in the near future hiring would pick up) I obviously would think different...

If you have connections to a carrier that requires PIC time, then by all means go someplace to get 'er done and over with and meet the mins. Me, on the other hand, have no connections and as such it wouldn't help me except make my life MISERABLE living in podunk South Dakota (or similar base that the newbies get).