Originally Posted by rwpapp
"...or that the time itself was compensation. If you can convince them that you are an long-time, avid, recreational pilot who has decided to fly professionally, you should be OK..."
Wow... Thank you for the input all, this may sould like a dumb question though, but why not mention that I have flight time from compensation/trade for mechanical work? About -1/4 time is for MX testing and such 1/4-1/3 time in trade, and the rest recreational
The time is real, and can be vouched for by several people (2 of them in the airlines now). One thing worries me though, as 1 logbook was lost in the hurricanes that hit here a couple years ago and that book contained close to 2000 hours.
Thanks again....
It looks like you were basically buying the flight time and paying in trade, that should be OK (as long as they don't ask about taxes lol).
Honestly, since you have to reconstruct a log book anyway...maybe reconstruct a few hundred hours instead of 2000. If your total is at or near 1500 you should meet mins at most regionals. Since you are not actualy required to log flight time anyway, legally it doesn't hurt to not log some of it! Just make sure that you don't have any medical apps or or 8710 forms out there that would disagree with what you represent. Just make sure that everything is CONSISTENT. If the quaestion comes up, you could say that you had some non-logged private time, and be vagua about how much. WARNING: If they even think you might have done any narco-flying you will not get hired, ever. You will want to have a seamless employment and/or school history without any gaps...a 3000 hour private pilot with employment gaps just SCREAMS drug-driver!
If you have trouble getting hired without any commercial experience, a few months as a CFI, pipeline, traffic, banner, or diver-driver should fix that.