I was a full time CFI for several years followed by 6 more years as a part 135 Alaskan Bush pilot and contract forest service pilot. Then went on to corporate jet, medevac and the regionals.

I didn't want to do all that, I had to. The market was different back then. On one of my earliest trips in the 757 a check airman asked me about my background. After telling my story he was impressed and exclaimed that I had a "good background". Good for what? was my response.

What good is all that stuff? It didn't help me make my dreams come true so really it all it was a waste of time and obstacle to my dreams. HR departments don't care if you can land a Cessna 185 on an 800 foot gravel bar. The sim can't tell that you had thousands of hours in a Cessna or 300 hours total time. You don't gain a single thing to have flown a more than thousand hours as a single IFR pilot multi-engine piston over the cascades.

15 years ago my peers and I would have sawed off a finger if we thought it would have done any good. Anything to escape the 5 to life sentence we were serving towards an uncertain future.

In the end the only thing that matters is part 121 PIC time as fast as you can get there. The sooner the better. Anything less is to handicap yourself.

SkyHigh