Originally Posted by
dera
Tradewind does have a training contract, 12 months after upgrading to PIC. If you do well, you can except to upgrade at 135 IFR mins. Pay is great for PIC.
Definitely go to a 135 before 121 if you ask me. Yes, it might take 6-12 months longer, but having experience in commuter operations and multi-crew flying will be very beneficial during your 121 training.
Yes, you can pass training after sitting right seat on a 172 for 1500 hours, but 172 to 121 is a steep learning curve.
Hey, a lot of us would gladly go that route. But we've all beaten the discussion of "regionals and mainline have opened the hiring floodgates" to death so it doesn't need repeating. So many "lower time" 135s still want around 1000TT and a good amount of multi. Many instructors will take the obvious route of "suck it up for a few more months for that next 500 hours" and then be on their way, versus jumping to 135 and spending the next 6-12 months before they upgrade there. And since a lot of these outfits have these contracts, that means instead of sticking it out for 6 more months they now will spend two years at 135, a net setback of 18 months. I'm curious to see what ends up happening, because I think there will be a significant onslaught of R-ATP eligble CFIs. For me, it's a no brainer: I need 675 more hours to go to a regional, which is around the same time I'd be really competitive for many 135s (and still falling short of single pilot IFR). I know we don't make up the majority of the upcoming pilot force but between us R-ATP guys and the guys who can go to any regional at 1500, I think it will be very interesting to watch what happens to 135, many of whom hire between 1000 and 2000TT.