Originally Posted by
tnkrdrvr
Garmin is not the same as flying an FMS equipped airliner. It’s great technology for flying small jets and bug smashers around. From a flying point of view, can you brief an ILS or RNAV approach off of Jeppesen plates and fly it confidently down to mins? All 121 airlines will teach you how to use the FMS in the plane you will fly. They vary by brand. Getting an IPC may help you accomplish the above, but it’s probably not necessary. Contact an interview prep company Spifire, Emerald Coast, Cage Consulting, etc and pay for them to tell you what to do so you can go VFR direct to a major. Don’t waste time, the best pilot job market in living memory won’t last forever
Ditto this. I had about 2500 total hours in the AV-8, followed by a year of corporate ME time, and a year with NWA in 2001 as FE on the B727 panel. But when I got laid off after 9/11, I spent about 5 years back in uniform (with a few months of C-12 flying thrown in) and then declined recall to fly a desk for a DoD civilian career (alongside USMCR). Just retired from that in September and made the dream career change back to flying (got picked up by an LCC, about to finish training).
I did the GA SE piston (TAA) thing for several months to confirm that some stick-and-rudder skill and scan was still there, and the recruiters seemed to appreciate that, but the best thing I did to get my head back into the airline world was a subscription to an interview prep service (Spitfire for me) and pounding those academics and HR prep. On the GA side, I had intended to follow up the flight review with an IPC, but by then I got busy with interview invites and got a class date.
Other than the GA flying this past year, my last flight (C-12) was 2004. Similar situation.