JohnBurke

No, that you posted the video is the joke.

You're a noephyte pilot trying to explain to professional pilots, on a professional pilot board, the concept of "calm under pressure," as apparently you see it as an essential aspect of being a professional pilot, and to do this you use a video clip of a kid having a dream. Outstanding, in a ridiculous sort of way.

You're right, however, it's not funny.

The goal shouldn't be calm under pressure. It should be to act such that the pressure isn't an issue. There is an old saying that it's far better to exercise good airmanship such that one doesn't need to showcase one's outstanding emergency skills; one may be capable of displaying calm under pressure and great skill in an emergency; better yet is to play such that one doesn't have to.

Years ago, while interviewing for a documentary, Bill Waldman (second longest serving pilot in the air tanker world) was asked about his experiences and counsel to pass along. Bill chose to focus on a discussion of laundry. One day you may understand this.

rickair7777

That's possible at your age, given all of the retirements which will increase pilot demand across the board. You'd obviously want to hustle... conservative timeline:

Ratings: One year, maybe less
CFI Timebuilding: Two years, maybe less to 1500 hours
Regional FO: Two years, maybe less to 1000 121 hours (required for upgrade)
At this point (five years, maybe less) you can realistically apply to many majors and likely get hired without TPIC. Or if you want to be picky, you may need to upgrade at the regional and get a little TPIC under your belt. So 5-6 years from start to LCC is realistic. SWA would be on the more selective side, so you might need a year or two of TPIC.

But don't lock yourself into one "dream job", that will often result in wasted time and eventual disappointment. Spirit, Frontier, and Jetblue also have MCO bases (there will probably be some merger of two of those three soon). When you get closer, you'll want to research relative seniority of each airline's MCO base and also system-wide retirements.

Relative base seniority will determine how quickly you can upgrade at a major, you'll need to research that.

Also consider AA with an MIA base... they have a lot of retirements coming up.

JoeSkurkis

Appreciate it. The local school for the 141 accelerated program says I'll have everything I need within 6 months. But will I have the 1,000 hours coming out of that? Or just what I keep seeing around the 250hrs mark? Also will not having a degree hurt my chances or is it just a minimal ding on me as a potential pilot? TIA

Frozen Ronin

Young,

I'd say that there are plenty of reasons to go after your ratings, but airlines might not be the first choice. I've had lots of fun flights during medevacs, with flight docs who come forward during the empty legs. Imagine doing the same in reverse? Or as Jay Mahon did, a rotational flight gig out of Bethel, AK is a great way to overcome low timers syndrome (summer is 100 hours a month, usually). I spent a year in AK, once. Took me ten more to find my way out! At the end of that 10 years, I had over 7K hours. Bethel was the fastest time building. A few years in SE in Beavers on floats, which was the most enjoyable. The last few in the arctic, which was the money maker. Now I'm in fire service and DoD operations. I've tried the gamut, including regional time. I'd see you in medevac, if I had to guess. 7 on/7 off. Lots of time at home. King Airs, small team environment. Or Doc outreach flight support. Just food for thought. Most smaller 135s are seeing King Air 200/BE30 charter pilots around the six figure mark. The ones I know, anyway. You'd need two of those high volume Bethel flying years to get there, but even that isn't as painful as it was 20 years ago.

Networking is super important, in my work. You need to have the skills to stand on your own, but when folks know your work, recommendations happen. Recs go far in my office. Inversely, you can be overqualified for the job, but when I call a buddy from your last employer, and he tells me you kept 3 A&Ps busy from bending metal, that's all I need to know. V/V, if you impressed with customer service, helpful attitude and good judgement (no A&P overtime required), then that will be passed on as well. Or a phone call comes in before you walk through the door, because that same buddy wants to see you go to a good operation and has sent you to me.

For our little corner of the world, "introductions" are where we get many of our best folks. I've received a handful of introductions to pilots that have become fixtures in our operation. Endeavor to be one of them.

As to Rick and Johns point: A doctor can mistakenly kill a patient. A pilot can kill hundreds. Don't be that guy. Makes it tough for all of us.

Be safe! Live well.

Good luck

rickair7777

Starting from zero? Including CFI ratings? Hypothetically possible if the school can fly you every single day and you're a damn good flight student. Realistically very few schools can actually pull that off. Big BS flag. But if you can talk to current students (maybe in the parking lot) they might give you the real scoop.

1000 hours? For what? You need 1500 hours for 121 eligibility.

250 is about right for 141 with CFI ratings.

You'll also need a multi-engine rating and at least 25 ME hours, but you don't strictly need to get that with your initial training. Will need it to get employed at a regional.

Yes, it's a big deal. Five years ago it was almost a show stopper for most majors, today most of them have removed the hard degree requirement, but it's still very strongly preferred for the best jobs. In the current climate you should be able to get on with an LCC. Top-tier/legacy jobs are going to be tough, you'd need to stand out significantly in some other way... you don't have enough decades left to accumulate numerous type ratings and check airman experience. Alternatively, AA owned regionals will let you flow up to AA without the degree, but the price you pay is a long wait. But like I said you should be able to get a LCC job due to all of the retirements.

JoeSkurkis

LCC? I dont understand half the acronyms you guys use yet haha. Here are the 2 schools I'm looking at. What do you think would be best as both are in my backyard? Also thanks for taking the time to help and answer our questions. https://www.sunstateaviation.com/ & https://atpflightschool.com/

rickair7777

LCC = low cost carrier (major airline, not regional). Usually that means Jetblue, Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, startups like Breeze, Avelo, etc. Technically SWA and Alaska might also be LCCs.

Also ULCC (Ultra Low Cost Carrier) is used to refer to differentiate between older, established LCC and newer, cheaper ones.

We have an acronym glossary here: Acronym Wiki

I'm too far removed from general aviation to have good insight on specific schools. You REALLY need to talk to current students, so you might need to go hang out in the parking lot or maybe the airport bar and ask around. You cannot trust any flight school to tell you anything like the truth (there might be a few honest Mom and Pop schools, but you have no way of knowing which are which).

JoeSkurkis

Appreciate all the help. SunState is attached to Liberty University so its also a degree program.

rickair7777

Tough call whether to do a full aviation degree program right now. There will be a LOT of retirements in the next eight years, and you'd miss out on a lot of that doing a four-year college program at this point.

In this climate, I'd almost have to recommend just do vocational flight training and get to a regional ASAP. Then you can work on an online degree if desired (common in this industry these days) while building turbine time. At some point, based on opportunities that exist then, you can decide whether to finish the degree and shoot for a top-tier job, or just get on with an LCC without a degree (or maybe a two-year degree). A LCC job is a pretty good life these days, especially if you live in base. Again you probably won't need any college to get hired with an LCC.

JoeSkurkis

Thanks, I didn't consider all that with the college program. Again, I'm 38 so I don't have time to waste if I want to make it high up the ladder somewhere. My only limitation is my unwillingness to move from Orlando so I need to make this my base and pick a company from that although Tampa isn't a far drive either to have as a base. I guess ATP will be my best option then for their accelerated program of 7 months and ending with 295hrs flight time and a whole bunch of certs. Then just have to hustle to get to 1500 asap. You really have no idea how much of a help you and others are here and how grateful I am for it.