Originally Posted by
Glennnn
Good morning,
Just have a few questions ! I'd precise that I'm
not a native English speaker, so I just hope not to do too much mistakes and I apologize in advance for this. To introduce myself, I'm 18 and live in Europe.
So I'm just planning to build my aviation career in USA in the next 2 years (assuming that I'd obtain my Green Card in 2018 or 2019).
1) After getting basic qualifications and CFI, is it easy to find work as CFI ?
2) Is it better to work as a CFI until 1500h or just make hundreds of hours before going to a part 91/135 carrier (in order to increase IR and multi skills) and build up hours to 1500h there ?
What is the best to have a solid, competitive resume ?
3) Okay, so... Maybe a stupid question but let's go...
Is a
failed checkride a big mistake in a career ? Does it occur even if we are very hard-working and serious ?
4) I saw that regionals are hiring many and many people. So, the " classic " path is
to build 1500h, and then you have a lot of chance, if you do things well, to be considered by regionals, get an interview and a CJO ?
5) Just had a look about many threads here since 6 months. Majors are recruiting but I don't understand why the average joining a Legacy is about 7000 hours (according to " class drops " topics) and we can see in some topics that there are new hires who have 2000/3000/4000 hours without military. Is there a reason for that ?
6) Several companies (mainly legacies I assume) required a Bachelor.
Is it an hard requirement ? Is the best to get a Bachelor and them starting training or just starting training to lunch the career and then passing an Online degree (ERAU for example) ?
Thanks in advance, any answer is much appreciated, just want to learn and prepare !
1) right now it is very easy to find work as a CFI. In fact you will likely have your choice of flight schools to work at.
2) I can't answer the second half of that, but many 135 operations will come with training contracts or something similar that will either force you to buy your way out or stick it out through the end of the contract. If you get your CFII and do a moderate amount of instrument work your skills will probably be enough to get you through. You will also fly a lot more as a CFI therefore getting your hours quicker.
3) generally, one checkride failure isn't a big deal, especially if it was early on in training (or your cfi ride since that has a historically high rate of first time failures) and especially if you can explain why it happened and what you learned. I would be more worried about traffic tickets to be honest.
4) yes, there are a few things in interviews to know. Not to be dismissive but by the time you get close to applying you should know a few people working for regionals who can give you the scoop on what they're going to ask about. This also changes rapidly so any advice I'd give you now would be obsolete by the time you're doing interview prep.
5) I can't give you an informed answer unfortunately as I havent been through interviews with majors at all. Sometimes people have connections, sometimes they can check enough boxes like a masters degree, or instructor experience, military exerience is golden. But there are a few people who get offers that were just at the right place at the right time.
6) as far as degrees go, it kind of depends. A lot of people go to American Airlines Wholly owned regional airlines because they "flow" up to American and don't have to have a degree. To get hired at delta, southwest, or united (who don't have a flow at the moment) you need a degree, and according to rumor for delta it needs to be from a well known school and not taking more than 4 years. Again, I'm ignorant on that matter having only heard rumors. I think most would advise you get a degree anyways in case you decide a flying career isn't for you. 4 year degrees are expensive in the US but there are ways to work through school and minimize debt, or scholarships are an option. Or, many degrees from foreign universities carry the same weight here.
Best of luck!