Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
Here is my point. Flying is the bush is "neat". DC6 time is kind of "cool". However there is not even a place to record those experiences in most airline pilot applications.
The HR lady does not care about your fun connection to aviations past. The computer who scans the application does not care how cool a DC6 is. It all just goes into the total time column as if it were touch and goes in a 172. There is not a place to record such vivid and broad experiences because the airlines don't care about it.
All they want to see is part 121 jet PIC. Anything that detracts from that path is seen as a negative no matter how cool or fun.
Skyhigh
Boy, I really do feel sorry for you.
There are some of us who would love to fly the gooney-bird: an airplane that, not only still flies, but is economically viable
75 years after it entered service. A plane drawn on a drafting table based on calculations done on a slide rule. Flying one of those ol' girls is almost like serving on
Old Ironsides. Well, if you don't get it, there is no way I can explain it.
Putting all that aside, let's talk about getting that dream job with your dream mainline....
There are several thousand regional pilots with 1000+ TPIC in 50+ seaters. Add maybe another thousand with similar time flying larger TPs. But there are only a couple hundred who have flown any of the classic workhorses.
So, now you and I and 18 other folks are sitting in the Continental interview room. Who do you think will peak the attention of the
Pilot interviewer? Consider these questions:
"What did you do before coming here?"
-"I flew a 50 seat barbie jets from class B and C airports"
vs.
-"My first real job was in a DC 3. I started in the right seat and moved to the left seat about a year later. We hauled mostly show goats and pot belly pigs. The neat thing is, that plane, N-----, originally NC----, entered service with Essair which changed it's name to Pioneer Airlines which, of course, merged with Continental in 1953."
"TMAAT you had an emergency."
- "Well, one day we had both generators fail and had to hand fly an ILS using only standby instruments."
vs.
- "Weelll, one day setting climb power, we had an engine start clanging around, making one heck of a racket. The engine was still making power, so I chose to leave it running. After we declared and were on vectors to final, I realized I might want to reconsider shutting down the engine. You see, we had one piston seize. It tore the jug out of the block and after a couple minutes the rod failed and the jug flew right out the cowl flaps."