Originally Posted by lnelson3
Looking for advice!! I'm 35 and live in Dallas and enjoy my charter job! BUT...
Here's my scenario....I'm a 135 charter B200 King Air driver that has 200 pic turbine and soon to be "captained" so I can log pic alot quicker (about 350-400hrs/year). Question is in the end if I had 1000-1500 pic turbine in a B200 and maybe a 737 type, would Alaska Air interview me/consider me a competitive candidate??? I've heard different points of view about king air time. Option 2: should I just go to a regional (I like Horizon) and do my time?? At least from the pay, Horizon has career potential! Any ideas?...any Alaska guys out there..?
I fly for Alaska so I'll chime in. I would stay where you are. B-200 time is valuable. PIC turbine is good as gold. 350-400 hours per year is low however. Can you find a way to get your plane utilized more? Is the aircraft's schedule consistent enough to find someone else who can use it during it's down time? Maybe you can charter it out. You get more pay and flight time; your owner gets some pay back.
You don't mention college. Do you have a degree? Alaska is still looking for graduates. If not, run, don't walk, and get enrolled.
The sim ride was tough when I took it. I don't know if it has changed. I do know that some recent new hires did not take a sim ride at all. I don't know why. When I took the ride it consisted of a departure, turn to intercept a radial, fly outbound and intercept the 7 DME arc, fly about 45 degrees and intercept another radial for a few miles and then intercept an arc the other way. Sometime during the maneuver you will level off. DON'T EXCEED 250! Then you will get cleared to an NDB and enter some sort of hold. WHAT ARE THE CORRECT HOLDING SPEEDS? The entry will not be direct. After established you will be cleared an ILS or NDB approach. Always fight through the approach. Don't give up. You may have a second chance.
A friend of mine did not like the way his ILS was going and asked to start over. He really dicked up the second one so he failed. His first one wasn't that bad but he felt it did not reflect his skills so he wanted to try again to "really impress the instructor." BIG MISTAKE. He should have stayed with it (unless he was really in a dangerous situation) and done his best. If it was not acceptable the instructor would have asked him for another one. On my NDB I was not in a position to land. I was significantly off to one side at MDA. I saw the airport, made a turn towards it and realized I was not going to make a "stabilized approach." I went around and thought my dream was over. The instructor said, "I would have busted you if you tried to make it." Whew.
The instructor will take in to account your experience. If you are a furloughed jet pilot he will expect more from you than a EMB-120 guy (like me) I did the sim prep before in a 737 and was fortunate to get the 737 for the ride. The instructor is looking for calm maturity and an ability to learn. If you start out shaky and get better during the ride, good. He also wants to see some good fundamentals. Did you brief the approach? Do you have a good scan? Are you too ham fisted on the controls? Can you spot a trend and correct a bad one? Most evaluators don't want to bust you.
Be humble, prepared, honest, (thrifty, reverent, brave... LOL) Seriously though, the ride is tough but not unfair if you have good experience behind you.