Originally Posted by
JohnnyG
Alright, we have a H.A.M. over here. I find it hard to believe that any generation had it this hard. You're not telling me anything new. People 'only' need ATP mins?
It's more or less been like that for all but a handful of years due not to legislation, but competition.
1. How many hours did you have before you manipulated the controls of your first turbine aircraft?
About 800 or so before I flew a King Air as a SIC for a 135 op. That is still available for those that work for it. I networked by butt off for that opportunity, just like you can. The ATP rule has no effect on that segment of the industry.
2. How many hours did you have when you got your first 'real' job that wasn't instructing, banner towing or otherwise similar?
Again, 800. Flying charter was my first gig post CFI. Though I still worked as a CFI during that time, as I was only paid a daily rate at the charter op and our schedule was very erratic.
3. How much did your flight training cost?
I'm not sure, but I started in 2004. I had a family member as a CFI for a couple of ratings, which helped a lot. But I worked very hard to minimize the amount of instruction needed (and more importantly, to reduce the flight time), which I later found out is pretty unusual. For example, no matter how many times I told my instrument students to practice with Microsoft Flight Sim, most of them showed up unprepared and wasted tons of money. Having prepared students was very, very uncommon. I also flew the cheapest planes out there when I was working on my ratings, and didn't even use a GPS until I was a CFI.
4. Were there hours to be had when you were building time?
Most of it was through Flight Instructing, and later as a charter pilot.
There are a lot of success stories out there right now, but most people can't get hours because people can't afford flight training, and that's after they shelled out their own 70K plus for flight training. That 70K doesn't adjust for inflation, neither does the 14K they will make.
There are tons of ways to save on flight instruction costs, but the sad reality is most people are lazy and want everything handed to them. I only had a couple of students take my advice on how to be efficient with their money - most just complained.
You sound like the old timers that call the newer generation of veterans wimps when most young vets spent more than the entire duration of major US involvement in WWII deployed.
Well, I started flying professionally a few years ago when I was 30. I first started flight training in my mid-20s, which was like 10 years ago. Not sure I'd be included in the old timer rant.
YOU get over it. Just because you want to think that new people have things easy doesn't mean you're right.
I think it is harder these days than it was in the '80s or something (as far as costs go). But it's not that much different from when I did it. Heck, I didn't get on with my regional until I had my ATP, over 2000 hours, and a type rating. There were a lot of people like that in my class, and we weren't even on the jetttttt! Lowly Brasilia for us.