Alpine Pilot

I was a rotary guy before Alpine and this was my first gig after getting all of my fixed wing add-ons. I had about 1100 hrs rotary built in R44's, Jet Rangers, Long Rangers, and a little OH-58 time. I also had almost 200 fixed wing and technically met all of the minimums for a PIC position in a 99. However, in airplanes I had only flown Diamonds and Sport Cruisers. So, to let me get used to these aircraft that are WAY more powerful than the DA42 I flew for my multi-engine training, I few right seat in a 99 for a few months.

We have an FAA approved PDP program for our 99 and 1900, you can legally log SIC time in our right seat. However, right now we are not specifically hiring SIC's or recruiting SIC's. For now, we occasionally use the option to train a pilot as an SIC and have them fly in the right seat if...

a) You legally meet all of the hour requirements like I did, seem like a good fit for the company, but are coming from something like a rotary background so you should build some experience in these aircraft. This is basically for the sake of safety and common sense before we give you the PIC keys to a twin turbine airplane and cut you loose into the world of single pilot ifr flying.

b) You have an airplane background, but lots of your time was built flight instructing and you're something like 100 hours short of the cross country time requirement because of it. We can, and might if you're otherwise a strong applicant, train you as an SIC. This way you build the last few hours you need and gain some good experince in the aircraft before going through the PIC training and taking command as a single pilot ifr captain.

As far as SIC pay goes... I don't have the SIC pay scale in front of me so there may be an error here, but if you have less than 900 hours total time I think SIC pays something like $30 per hour, and over 900 hours total time it switches to something like $30k a year until you take a PIC check ride. As I said above, it's not something we're really hiring or recruiting for so PLEASE don't spam Cole with 300 hour applicants looking to get out of flight instruction because that's not what we're doing right now. The only pilot we put in the right seat with low hours also worked on the line as ground crew for nearly 2 years while she went to flight school. While going to school she was also working as an Alpine employee assisting pilots and providing GPU starts in either rain, shine, the dead of winter, or the heat of summer.

We don't have many of these positions and most of our pilots still fly single pilot ifr without an auto pilot installed. Work life is the same as it is for the other line pilots, if not easier because most things are on the Captains shoulders and not yours. I flew 5 days a week trying to build time as fast as I could, but occasionally I chose to only fly 4 if I wanted to go camping or something with my wife. I could have flown 6 days a week, but my wife is a school teacher and I tried to give her the weekends she deserved. It's going to depend on what base you go, how bad they need you on the line, and how bad you want to build your time to get that PIC pay.