Originally Posted by
BoilerWings
I can echo much of what the more experienced people have already said. I was one of the guys that got hired by eagle and was sent to an RJ class. When I went, I had 550TT/50ME. I was the HIGHEST time guy in the RJ class, and the only CFI/CFII, 250 dual given at the time. This may scare some of the older guys, but the lowest time guy was 210TT/100ME.
I would highly recommend instructing for a while. You don't really know the material until you can teach it. And you'll REALLY know it when you can teach the same concept 5 different ways. The industry now just is not demanding pilots, even CFI jobs are hard to come by.
-Instruct, learn how to teach and grow in knowledge.
-Fly freight, test your limits and practice what you taught.
-Then go the airlines and transport people safely.
Three pieces of advice given to me by a wise man once:
Persistance is key
Never stop learning
Realize that you'll never have a career in aviaion, just a series of "gigs."
Being one of the Eagle hires in your course, I believe I would have been perfectly fine working on the line with my time, however I am now 'Paying my (freak'n) dues' by flight instructing. My experience building time was all single pilot flying all over the US in busy airspace, with some solo ifr flying. Now that I'm teaching I just have to know everything better than I had before, and I don't get all the bravo/restricted airspace time. It is very interesting teaching but I still wish I actually went to class at Eagle.