Originally Posted by
Timbo
I'm guessing most Major's insurance policies require they hire pilots with some amount of turbine PIC, how much is anyone's guess.
The real question is, how competitive are you as a prospect, if you are the only one in the room without 1000 turbine PIC?
Oh, and of the hundreds of pilots I've known who got hired, only one had little to no turbine PIC, only her solo time in a T37 and T38. She was hired at American in 1986 with a total time of 750, no left seat time in anything, except a Cessna while in training. There were many guys in my Guard unit who had many thousands of hours PIC in a KC135 who were not hired, but she was a chick and it was 1986 so...
I was the only one in my room at VX without 1000 TPIC (I had 0). The problem isn't the room. In fact, from personal experience, once you get called to the room you are all treated the same and qualifications don't matter at that point. The biggest obstacle is getting that call for the interview in the first place!
The problem with PIC time is that it has most to do with timing and luck. It's not merit based, you have to wait for your number to come up in order. Almost all regional FOs hired in 2007 were affected by the Age 65 rule and the economic recession. Without any movement no one was moving up, and now we have 5-7+ year regional FOs as the norm. You can't really fault these people for not having PIC time. It was never an option to begin with. Some majors/LCCs recognize this and have hired FOs without TPIC for that reason. Now of course, everyone would rather have some TPIC before going to a major but that is not the reality for many regional pilots due to what's happening to the regionals these days.
I guess the point is if you can TPIC time, get it. But if you can't and a major calls, it's probably worth taking the leap instead of sticking it out at a regional hoping it will work out in the future.