Originally Posted by
A320fan
Ok, I can't keep my mouth shut anymore. Before I say this, I want anyone who responds to this to know that:
-Yes, I am only in flight training.
-I acknowledge that I don't know exactly how the 121 world works, and there's only one way for me to learn.
-I have nothing but respect for the guys who already did it, everyone on furlough, everyone who's a CFI, and think that yes, they should get hired first.
Now.....what I gather from this thread is that if you have any desire to make it to anything ran by the numbers 1, 2, and 1, your "time" flying 172's and Seminoles is absolutely worthless, even as a CFI. To get hired by a 121 carrier of any kind, you need 121 experience, and to get 121 experience, you need to get hired by a 121 carrier, no exceptions. It almost seems that unless you already made it through a 121 training program, you have less than no chance at coming close to this scene. My little time flying "airplane" (172's) will do nothing more than allow me to be a career CFI, and take on all the disrespect that comes with it. How much of this is accurate? I have no intention to offend anyone here, I just want to know the facts.
You don't need 121 experience to get hired by a 121 operator in theory, just during these times it's a big plus. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with 91 or 135 flying, it's just that with all these furloughed pilots on the street, the strong likelihood is that they'll get hired first. Like it or not, if a pilot passes 121 training and goes through IOE, whether or not they fly another hour after that before getting furloughed, they are more qualified than a 91 or 135 pilot without that experience. Jets are jets, so jet operators from the 91 and 135 world will be viewed favorably, but the SCHEDULE and all the other crap that you have to deal with in the 121 world is what makes it most challenging.
Also, like others have said, the danger with hiring non 121 people is that their training capacity is an unknown. With a 121 person, you know they're going to pass training. It's not that non-121 pilots will never get hired, it's just that right now there are so many of our union brothers and sisters on the street that we feel deserve to be brought back into the fold before all the others.
The time will come, probably sooner than we all think, when non-121 pilots will be hired, but anybody who thinks that any airline is going to push furloughees aside to pick up CFIs is kidding themselves.