A few words of advice on the DEC positions that might be found. I went this route as I had alot of time and it did land a CA position in a turboprop. Well lets look at the positives of this
Instant 121 PIC and much better pay (even if i was fo in a much larger jet)
However, the negatives
If you do fail the ATP/ type ride you will be displaced to FO anyways with a record of failing a training event. (in my airline this also seat locks you for upgrade) Maybe you pass the Ride and find your self finishing IOE and ready to take your Fed ride. Again fail this trouble follows. Depending on how bad it went they can snatch those hard earned certificates you have, not just the ATP. One guy I know managed to get busted all the way to PVT with student privelages. (I believe this is usually related to a 709 ride).
Ok and suppose you get all that past you, if you make a mistake on the line, most companies have a self disclosure policy meaning the first time you are rushed and dont catch a mistake on the 8 page release, an MEL that has no control # in the ADL or one that isn't logged or one of 1000's of other things you are responsible for on that 10 - 20 minute turn then the company is going to let the FAA know about it. Sorry for that sentence
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Finally, if weighing all those you decide to take this route, you have to find a company that is having trouble with getting enough people with legal mins to upgrade. Because unlike the last guy said, they will not let a guy off the street jump in front of a qualified line guy. The union won't allow it. However at places that take the 300 hour guys, they sometimes take so long to get ATP/ ICAO mins that the run out of qualified CA upgrade candidates.
Hope this helped and my sentence structure doesn't give anyone a headache
Oh one last thing, that guy that is mad because someone upgraded ahead of him is likely a PFT that started with very low times. I guess he just had to learn his lesson the hard way right. Maybe this will convince some PFT not to become lifers in the right seat.
XtremeF150