pilotflyer94

I'm getting myself ready to apply at Delta in 3-4 years as it's my dream company to work for. Not being military is a huge disadvantage for me. I've been trying to gather as much information as I can about everything I can do to be the most competitive I can by then. Any tips you guys can give? Should I apply to work at my union? I know training department experience definitely helps. Should I finish my degree at any college just to have the degree or should I go into something like Embry Riddle or some other bigger college? I could definitely push the limit and transfer if that is something that would stand out but if they only care if you have a degree it would help me a lot if I could save the money. Anybody have any feedback on this?

Whoopsmybad

Dropping trips requires an airline to be properly staffed. In junior categories, it’s not happening very often. I shake my head every time I look at reserve coverage throughout the system.

Funk

Too many variables to adequately judge what is best, but there are a number of things open to you. 1 - Finish your degree, wherever it is that makes it possible for you. Whether it remains a hard prerequisite or not is unknowable, but more likely than not will remain one of the bars you must clear. 2 - Strongly consider looking at an application to a guard or reserve unit to get a slot for UPT. It would add the military checkmarks and expand your network of contacts, etc. to help you work the process better as you hit your goal timeline. 3 - Do a professional application review to: a) make your application administratively flawless, after all, it's HR that acts as the gatekeeper, not other pilots, and b) to get insight on the holes in your resume that you can work to address through broadening your education, work experience, and charitable involvement.

Good luck.

gloopy

Not being military isn't nearly the disadvantage you may think it is. The balance is shifting (and may already be) towards majority civilian pilots simply due to availability. While military will likely remain an advantage all things equal, you will have an excellent chance if you go the civilian route as long as you do your part WRT the other things you're already aware of.

As for union work or training department etc, those things do help round out your resume. However I wouldn't do any of them at the expense of your flying resume. For example some Seniority List Instructors at DL can fly well under 200 hours a year. If that's the case where you are, trying to get that "plus" on your resume can cost you thousands of hours you might need just to be competitive on that front for the same timeframe.

IMO take care of your flight resume and get your degree. No one really cares if its from a big box school as long as its accredited and it doesn't seem to matter what its in (IOW it doesn't need to be an "aviation" degree). Do your best to get a good GPA.

Military is great all things equal. It depends on your circumstances. Getting in and getting to the other side of all the flight training could eat up a couple years of your time for a few hundred hours on your resume. Eventually it will be a net positive, but you have to weigh the time commitment as well as the everything it entails. Its not always "just one weekend a month" and its not all flying. And while it does help some and likely always will, its absolutely not an automatic ticket to any airline you want. Not even close. Also, you will need a degree for that anyway. Since you mentioned 3-4 years as your current goal, that may not work. That said, any timeframe and any airline goals need to be kept flexible. The industry is fickle to say the least. Always work towards your goal, but understand the pilot hiring universe often operates in a "plus or minus a decade" time dilation for personal goals that may seem very reasonable at the moment.

Get good flight time, get your degree, do your best with your GPA. Just those things will eat up the vast majority of the 3-4 year timeline you mentioned. If you do a lot of non fying things, even if it seems to help, it could add several years to the same point in your logbook. Perhaps you have safety committee or ASAP event review board stuff you could get into that would add value but still keep you flying most of the time? Once you get to the competitive flight time regime, you can then look into those opportunities that greatly slow down that part of your resume. Also find something you genuinely like to do to help out, like volunteer once in a while at Habitat or the local food bank or animal shelter, Pilots For Kids, etc.

Just my $2 van tip. Best of luck.

Wink

I'm in the same boat as you and this is incredibly challenging. I'm very conflicted on which would be better if I am offerred the CJO. On one hand, Delta is the company i would prefer to work at. Its much more professional and the experience is way better for the passengers. Their financials are way better, and the company is so forward thinking that I have a lot of faith in their long term viability. Their pilots also make more and seem to be generally happier than those I know at AA.

At the same time, it could mean a lifetime of commuting, I dont know if i could really do that or if it would be healthy for my relationship. Additionally, AA will retire 50% of its seniority list within the next 10 years. Delta has already hired 50% of the seniority list since 2014, so it would take 20 years to meet that same bench mark. AA as it stands today has me as a widebody captain for the last 15 years of my life whereas that would only happen for the last 7 at delta IF i took it because, once again, i am commuting. I doubt i would want to commute to reserve at 58.

All of this has a giant asterisk on it as Covid continues to spread and restrictions continue to shut international travel down. I don't see AA recovering without some sort of reorganization/restructuring, and if AA maintains my home base after is a giant question.

My biggest thing is I want my next airline to be my forever airline. I wanna look back at 65 and think "it may not have been the easiest ride, but it was a good ride." Things seem so unstable and volatile right now that it makes this choice almost impossible.

A lot of the responses in this thread regarding flow in a year VS Delta today are speaking from a position where they entered the seniority list years ago and got to enjoy the benfits of their seniority. In that regard, we might be better with the high retirement numbers at AA because we will be junior at Delta for a long time. Commuting and junior sounds like a terrible combination, but life at either company sounds amazing. I'm still humbled and grateful I was considered for an interview.

I just really don't know which would be better. Of note, is ALL of my Delta friends said don't wait and come to Delta. Only half my friends at AA said it was worth it to wait.

gcm20

[QUOTE=aviator1308;3291705]What difficulty on the CUT-E prep is similar to the actual? Thanks.

It depends on the section. I’ll explain:

Spatial orientation: self explanatory. Any difficulty will be the same. Anyone should be able to ace this one.

Reaction speed: I would say that medium is about right. However the delta one doesn’t have the distracting middle bars that the CUT-E one has. This one is much easier than the practice.

Deductive logical thinking: medium is good enough. There are puzzles with small 8 blocks total all the way to 36 blocks total. I believe it gets harder the more accurately you answer them.

Monitoring ability: This one definitely gets harder the more accurately you answer. So it may start at “easy” but the dots will move faster and there will be more of them the better you do.

Multitasking: it’s a bit different from the practice. I would say somewhere between easy and medium.

Auditory comprehension: no practice available. Put in quality headphones and use a pencil to write down the clearances. That is specifically allowed. The voices are from all different accents and dialects, but the big differences are in the numbers (altitudes, headings, and frequencies). Don’t worry if you don’t understand the SID or point name that the controller said.

Complex Control: the real thing is WAYYYY easier than the practice. Don’t waste your time on it.

Behavioral: Watch the YouTube video in the on the practice tests. Just answer honestly.

🤞

Sailingbill

Out of curiosity, is there still a technical test being offered? Can't seem to find any recent gouges on interview. Last one on aviationinterviews was from 8 months ago.

LJ JE

No technical knowledge test.

Whoopsmybad

When it comes down to it, you have to do what is best for you, your family, and your situation.

DWC CAP10 USAF

It was literally answered in the first post of this thread on page 1....lots of good info in the thread if you take the time to read it.