Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
Dandy. Another one that thinks he's unique.
The story seldom changes. Everyone else gets their CFI, but me, I'm different. I'm unique. I can't wait like everyone else. I want a job that doesn't involve instructing. I'm special. I have a unique experience that the airlines will snap up.
No. You don't.
If your goal is the airlines, you'll be an entry level regional schmuck like everyone else, and your masters degree won't matter at all, and your former airline experience won't make a hill of beans difference.
What will? Get ATP qualifications.
Farther down the road, your degree will be a qualifier, but for the next few years, it doesn't mean squat. Neither your quality assurance.
Buying an airplane and flying it around does not speak to your ability to be vetted or hired, and means that you're not subjecting yourself to regular evaluations, observations, or competing with other pilots for a job or to show your worth. Your sole qualification is that you paid to get what you got.
As a flight instructor, you'll undergo several more evaluations to get the ratings, then by a school to hire you, then training and evaluations during your time with the school, and your students will be examined, and their success will reflect on you. This paints a clearer picture of your character and ability than simply buying an airplane and flying it around (because you can).
I wouldn't count on that. it's not what most 135 operators are interested in, especially with regard to a pilot.
Not really, no.
Hey, you're entitled to your opinion. I know plenty of perfectly good Captains and First Officers at the airlines I've worked for that don't have a CFI nor were military, and they're making the same money as those guys who initially built their time that way. It's clear from your response that being a CFI is the only way you think time building should be accomplished, if you're non-military.
In regards to my "uniqueness," how many other low time pilots do you know who could go up to almost any major airline and be qualified for a low six figure safety or regulatory compliance job? I doubt many.... It also happens, that with all that airline experience, I have an "in" to more than one 135 operator if I wanted it, since I happen to know multiple people in flight ops and safety management at various 135 operators.
As far as getting "vetted" and trained by a flight school, sure maybe. I'm in Vegas right now, and there's such an instructor shortage here that I know someone who received a CFI offer at 3 different flight schools before taking their CFI ride. Flight schools right now can't be picky with who they choose to hire and they seem to care less about having a quality instructor than a body to fill an airplane. If I wanted to fly around foreign students all day, there are plenty of pilot mills out here in the southwest where I can do so.
My thoughts with getting an airplane, were that I'd at least be able to focus on what I want to do, when I want to do it... I learn something new when flying all the time, and I suspect I'd continue to do so with or without my CFI.