Originally Posted by
Otterbox
Yeah, and at the other end of the spectrum- with the current contract that MAG has they get guys a type rating on the proline, and exclude the EFIS differences training at CAE, but if they have less than 300hrs on the 350, the Army won't let them fly it so they end up flying 300s with EFIS... because Potato.
Avenge and MAG both advertise they'll get pilots a type rating so it looks like somewhere along the line the government decided they wanted to require it. You've been around the industry for a while, what caused the shift from no type required to type rating required?
Probably the contract models have changed.. MAISR was R2P2, MARSS was cost plus on a different model, and the USAF programs (corportate ****s kittens if I name them, even though they are named on our own website) have been on the COCO then GOCO models, and are changing in a month.
I think the contracts as a whole are getting somewhat "Standardized" around the DoD, which may explain the type ratings for everyone now, but they've also had to flex on the experience required.
Five years ago, forget about being hired for King Air ISR work with less than 2000 hours, even if it was all in King Airs and the Space Shuttle..
Then about 2013, Avenge started hiring pretty low time guys, but L3 and others held out..
Now? I think if you have a wet ink commercial and a security clearance one of the ISR contractors will hire.. I've seen a definite decrease in the ability of the talent coming through the doors at every place.. Not just MAG or L3. (Both my own observations as the guy who runs the OCONUS training schedule at one company, and friends who are IPs at the others)
I think with the lower time, lower experience SIC onlys coming in to all the major players, having a type rating gives the GFR a warm fuzzy that they were able to pass a legitimate checkride at some point in the desired aircraft.
That said, CAEs checkride isn't exactly onerous.