ACMI to Majors?
09-02-2025 | 06:03 PM
#31
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09-02-2025 | 10:29 PM
#32
Prime Minister/Moderator
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From: Engines Turn or People Swim
The potential employer was the major airlines, as I said.
The pilot in question is the low timer we're talking about in this thread.
The problem with civilian ASEL turbine PIC is it's usually also single pilot. So a different animal than multi engine/multi crew ops.
Yes you can imagine a hypothetical pilot with a variety of experience and a lot of it, who might be competitive at the majors with ASEL TPIC. A few such folks actually exist.
The pilot in question is the low timer we're talking about in this thread.
The problem with civilian ASEL turbine PIC is it's usually also single pilot. So a different animal than multi engine/multi crew ops.
Yes you can imagine a hypothetical pilot with a variety of experience and a lot of it, who might be competitive at the majors with ASEL TPIC. A few such folks actually exist.
09-03-2025 | 09:32 AM
#33
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1. The crazy hiring days are over, things are getting back to normal and that means turbine PIC is king.
2. Even more so since all of the legacies kind of got burned with social experiments in pilot hiring, and seem to be reverting to traditional, established industry criteria for sorting applicants.
Very roughly, in order...
Fighter time.
Other Mil FW PIC
MIL RW (with appropriate FW time from somewhere).
121 Jet PIC
135 Jet PIC
91 Jet PIC.
121/135 Turboprop PIC is in there somewhere too.
All SIC is lower on the list. If you work the job fairs and other events, you might have a shot at a decent major job with just SIC but even that's hard to predict right now and I bet it would take years if ever.
Bottom line, you probably need to make a move, even if it's night 135 turboprop cargo... I think you can get away with turboprop PIC because you've already demonstrated you can be trained to fly a big jet (that's not a transition everyone makes smoothly).
2. Even more so since all of the legacies kind of got burned with social experiments in pilot hiring, and seem to be reverting to traditional, established industry criteria for sorting applicants.
Very roughly, in order...
Fighter time.
Other Mil FW PIC
MIL RW (with appropriate FW time from somewhere).
121 Jet PIC
135 Jet PIC
91 Jet PIC.
121/135 Turboprop PIC is in there somewhere too.
All SIC is lower on the list. If you work the job fairs and other events, you might have a shot at a decent major job with just SIC but even that's hard to predict right now and I bet it would take years if ever.
Bottom line, you probably need to make a move, even if it's night 135 turboprop cargo... I think you can get away with turboprop PIC because you've already demonstrated you can be trained to fly a big jet (that's not a transition everyone makes smoothly).
09-03-2025 | 09:37 AM
#34
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What do you think is going to happen at his cargo operation in a downturn? He seems pretty junior there, he will be one of the first furloughed and there is already an ACMI furloughing. He has zero risk jumping ship right now for a Legacy although he is not any where near close to being competitive 747 type rating or not.
09-03-2025 | 09:43 AM
#35
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09-03-2025 | 09:52 AM
#36
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From: Engines Turn or People Swim
I'm aware of the transition issues, which is why you do need your 1000 FW time from somewhere... IP, regional, ISR contractor, whatever.
09-03-2025 | 09:57 AM
#37
Prime Minister/Moderator
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From: Engines Turn or People Swim
What do you think is going to happen at his cargo operation in a downturn? He seems pretty junior there, he will be one of the first furloughed and there is already an ACMI furloughing. He has zero risk jumping ship right now for a Legacy although he is not any where near close to being competitive 747 type rating or not.
Once you get a legacy number, you're pretty much a career made man, even if you get furloughed in a downturn. Especially if you're young.
Unlike the early post-deregulation era, I think the legacies have stabilized and are now too big to fail, outside of WW-III or asteroid impact. I don't think the big 4-5 airlines could go the way of Pan-am or Eastern.
09-03-2025 | 04:18 PM
#38
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From: Window seat
If you have the details providing them will help. What airline? When? Cadets don't count as they're is a different deal. Same might go for 'friends and family' candidates. Frontier and Spirit were big time outliers. Looked like they were hiring 1500-2000 TT pilots perhaps hoping they'd stay once they had 2-3 yrs LOS and were competitive at the majors if the majors ran out of TPIC candidates which they have in the past - more hiring scheduled vs candidates with 1000 or even 500 hrs TPIC.
Granted my information is dated now but speaking with a top floor guy about 1.5 yrs to 2 yrs ago he was very dismissive of SEL TPIC time. It's like logging PIC time - they want real PIC time, not FAA approved to log as PIC time. Same with TPIC time - they don't care for people thinking SEL TPIC is in the same category as MEL TPIC and obviously jet and 121 is another check mark they like.
Granted my information is dated now but speaking with a top floor guy about 1.5 yrs to 2 yrs ago he was very dismissive of SEL TPIC time. It's like logging PIC time - they want real PIC time, not FAA approved to log as PIC time. Same with TPIC time - they don't care for people thinking SEL TPIC is in the same category as MEL TPIC and obviously jet and 121 is another check mark they like.
09-03-2025 | 04:24 PM
#39
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From: Window seat
I would pretty much always say take the legacy job if you can get one. I would not delay THAT just to have 1000 RJ TPIC in my hip pocket lol.
Once you get a legacy number, you're pretty much a career made man, even if you get furloughed in a downturn. Especially if you're young.
Unlike the early post-deregulation era, I think the legacies have stabilized and are now too big to fail, outside of WW-III or asteroid impact. I don't think the big 4-5 airlines could go the way of Pan-am or Eastern.
Once you get a legacy number, you're pretty much a career made man, even if you get furloughed in a downturn. Especially if you're young.
Unlike the early post-deregulation era, I think the legacies have stabilized and are now too big to fail, outside of WW-III or asteroid impact. I don't think the big 4-5 airlines could go the way of Pan-am or Eastern.
09-03-2025 | 09:19 PM
#40
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Granted my information is dated now but speaking with a top floor guy about 1.5 yrs to 2 yrs ago he was very dismissive of SEL TPIC time. It's like logging PIC time - they want real PIC time, not FAA approved to log as PIC time. Same with TPIC time - they don't care for people thinking SEL TPIC is in the same category as MEL TPIC and obviously jet and 121 is another check mark they like.
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