Originally Posted by
skylover
NO! I thought I mentioned this before - I plan on flight instructing a lot, actually! With the new ATP rule, it is impossible to not time-build in some way, since the ERAU curriculum itself only provides around 200-220 hours. It's up to the student to time build up to the ATP requirement. I thought that was established in previous posts?
I was not using your particular situation in my post skylover. I think both bcrosier and I were talking in GENERAL when we were talking about people cutting corners - but it would apply to you if you were in a position to go straight from ERAU to a regional. Thank goodness - I hope the new rules have put an end to that practice.
I DON'T think it's okay to go right from flight training to a regional. And again, that ATP rule is eliminating that option anyway. When I say "go straight to a regional after graduation," I said that with the assumption that one flight instructed like crazy DURING college. I completely agree with people who say that "300 hours wonder pilots" shouldn't be in the cockpit of a regional aircraft. I've always been a believer that you don't really know something unless you can successfully teach it to somebody else.
We agree on these points and I think that you will find that most experienced piots also agree.
If you're curious, I plan on actually becoming a CFI/II during the summer of my freshman year (ERAU has a summer program for that), flight instructing as an undergrad as a sophomore, summer of sophomore year, and junior year. Summer of junior year I plan on interning at a major.* I'll probably continue flight instructing during senior year. At the end of all that, I'll have well over 1,000 hours of flight time, and like you said, much more experience.
I had some instructors in college who CFI'ed for about two years while still in college.
At the time, the school even had a P135 operation (Exec Express) flying Navajos (eventually trying to upgrade to Do-228s which probably sent them into bankruptcy). That was a great way for them to get a little more experience prior to geting on with a *real* regional and working their way up the ladder. It didn't work out that way for me....but that is water under the bridge at this point
I'll look into aerial surveying - I've never really heard of it before.
Plenty of threads on the subject.
USMCFLYR