Originally Posted by
MNpilot16
Hello
Know this is a long shot , but I thought I’d ask.
Is it worth even putting in an app if we don’t have 1000 turbine ? I’m at about 800 only (don’t laugh). Looking through here there’s some people with some impressive experience . I’d really like to get to Delta and am patiently waiting to apply but at the same time don’t want to look like an idiot. Should I even put something in when I hit 1000 hours turbine , or wait for some PIC time (which is going to be 3-4 years probably from now).
Also wanted to ask, how long does one take to get to MSP nowadays ? I heard it’s really senior but getting better as time passes.
Short answer: yes, apply ASAP. AFAIK they still consider when you applied and if you updated monthly. IOW that "weighs" a *little teeny bit* more than a brand spanking new app, all things considered.
Longer answer: Don't get wrapped around the axle about that though. There are too many pages to count in various threads about app/point weighing and the perception somehow persists that anything that adds weight to your app is an automatic fast track while anything that reduces points puts you into tier 5000 pergatory forever. Both those POV's are false. Pretty much every app will have some + and some - and it will be weighed in the aggregate when scored and again when interviewed.
The only risk to your situation would be that if your app is right on the very edge of what they're looking for and somehow only that 200 extra PIC hours would have put you over the top, then theoretically its technically possible that maybe just possibly you would have your app scored yet somehow fall just below the line of whatever they were looking for which usually means not another app score for a year.
However if that were somehow the case, then your next app scoring (and subsequent interview if relevant) would be that much higher. Now someone is going to read that and somehow come up with "less than 1000 PIC = trash bin 1 year lockout" when that's almost always not the case.
I would start the app (it takes time to complete anyway, you'll see) and they do consider when you applied and if you regularly updated once a month or so.
1000 PIC is a nice round number and for some airlines its either a hard requirement or only waived if you are an extremely connected applicant. AFAIK that's not the case at DL. Unless you're sitting on 995 hours or something, I'd just apply now.
MSP varies but with the movement we're about to see I'd say within 1 year in most cases and 2 years in all cases, black swan event notwithstanding.
Good luck.