Originally Posted by FlyJSH

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."