Originally Posted by
BSOuthisplace
Here we go again with the "I did it this way so you should too".
And talk about a waste of money, those aviation job boards are useless.
And yea, the CFI job compared to the regional job was craptacular. Old airplanes, shoddy mx, low pay, the whole shabang. Would I have taken the job if I had nothing else lined up?... yes. But I did, so I didn't and I'm thankful I didn't have to go through it. Would I have learned a couple of things doin patterns and steep turns in a 172 all day? Maybe, but I've learned much more where I am today. And I know all the naysayers out there are gonna say, "LEARNED? you shouldn't be just learning things when you're at a 121 with pax in the back!!!!" BULL, you learn new things almost every trip no matter how many hours you have, and I'm not talking about the basics like how to pick up clnc at an uncontrolled field. By the time you have your CFI or commercial you should know that (hell you should know that before you have your private) and if you don't that's where the training department should come in and kick your asz to the curb.
Just the other day a captain gave me some pointers on how to land without a yaw damper in a gusty crosswind. Now, would I have learned that CFIng it, or flying some checks around in a Baron? No. And it's a two way street, I showed him that there was multiple ways to identify the FAF on our LOC approach when the VOR was out (seemed kinda obvious to me but I guess even with his 10,000 + hours of experience he didn't know that there was).
All I'm saying is that from my perspective it doesn't make sense to put a minimum number of hours to sit in the right seat 121. It should be left up to the carrier's training department with strict oversight from the FAA on who gets to become and stay an airline pilot.
You asked, how can one get hours, and I answered how I got hours. Your reply, "I did it this way so you should too". I never said you must do it the way I did it, but I did offer one way. If it isnt good enough, fast enough, or easy enough, so be it: go find your own way. If my method was not good enough for you, feel free to find your own path.
I will agree that poor mx is a reason for avoiding a job (or violation of FARs), but other than that a crappy job beats no job at all.
True, if one has 100 hours or 10,000 hours, he is still learning. The question is WHAT is he learing. Is he learning the subtleties of flying a transport catagory aircraft, or is he learning basic instrument skills?
Imagine this: Tomarrow your chief pilot comes to you and says, "We need another CA and you are next in line." Would you take it? Sure you would (you admitted that you took the opportunity to fly a regional airline vs a CFI job, you took the regional). So there you are, a fresh CA in a new base (maybe on a new aircraft) with a FO fresh off of IOE. The wx is crap. Would you rather have someone who has a few hundred hours flying a 310 single pilot or a 300 hour "just got my commercial AMEL"?
No, hours alone doesn't describe the quality of a pilot, but higher hours does typically mean a broader background. There is no one way to measure a pilot's ability, but if all I had to look at a resume, seeing some CFI time and some 135 time would put that applicant on my list of interviews.