When to leave the boat?
 

I have less than 2 years ADSC and really want to fly for a legacy carrier (DAL or UAL preferably). In 2 years, depending on how the airlines view my time and/or if they use a military conversion, I could be anywhere between 1700-1900TT, with at least 1000 tiltrotor (which I hear/hope most legacys are counting as FW), and at least 800 PIC. I'll have MCI and ATP practical done (written complete May 2014). TT includes SE prop FW, SE Helo, ME Helo, ME jet, and ME tiltrotor--all turbine except SE prop obviously.

Question: will my estimated TT be competitive for entry into a legacy like DAL or UAL? When 2016 rolls around, I have the option to stay active for another 2 years without adding ADSC. Is it better to continue to build my military time as long as I can to be more competitive (over 2000TT) or leave the boat as soon as possible to get on board with a legacy and build seniority? I will be 35 in 2 years.

I know this was a long post; thanks in advance for any help!

Plopter

I may be out of touch on this, but I'm not aware of any legacies counting tiltrotor one-for-one. Airliners, tiltrotors, and helos all handle the same in cruise flight...and usually on autopilot anyway. It's the landing technique they're concerned about, about V-22 are powered lift, not fixed wing.

Do your research with specific airlines but I think you'll find you're going to need 1000+ FW turbine, so start thinking about how to get that. I suspect that in 2-4 years any mil guy with a decent track record who meets the mins will be able to bag a legacy job. Try to get yourself into a non-obligated FW flying gig where you can bail on short notice when you get the time you need...based on competitive mins at that exact moment, which we don't really know at this moment.

rickair,
Are you advocating getting picked up by a regional first, like Republic, to build turbine FW time fast? A lot of blogs mention that crossing from Regionals to Legacy is hard; I'm not sure why. If I left the AF in 2 years, flew regionals (a huge pay cut) until I got the minimum FW turbine, who knows what a Legacy would think of my resume or if they'd even look at me. I wonder how many military pilots have taken this route. Is age not of concern here? I have been told, and the DAL website says, they take into account quality of time versus quantity. I understand your concerns with the landing techniques of a tiltrotor over a FW...makes sense, but I hope a Legacy could see what else my experience has to offer and that I can be taught how to fly a coupled ILS to mins with crappy visibility.

Thanks for your response!

Plopter

Not if you can help it. Get your time in the military if you can.

There's no reason that working at a regional would "taint" you...if people have trouble making the jump it's probably because they weren't too competitive in the first place, or had some other issue. But it's quite common for RW guys to work at regionals and then move on. That would probably be considered normal for RW, while it might be considered not normal for a fighter or heavy guy.

Plenty have taken that route, but I'd avoid it if possible just due to the pay issue.

Not unless you're over 60.

It's not MY concerns. There's not going to be ANY subjective valuation of your powered lift time...they either take it or they don't and their policy will apply to all applicants. As far as I know they don't, so you can't even get an interview. You can alwayshope their policy changes in the near future, but I wouldn't hang my hat on it. But do research all the majors individually, I could be out of touch on this.

V-22 is powered lift in the FAA world, neither RW or FW. Airlines could accept PL time towards some or all of their mins if they wanted to but that's typically more of a regional thing where they allow some RW credit (I assume but don't know those that accept RW would take PL as well).

I just got the interview invite from DAL and I am a AF CV-22 pilot. They counted all my CV time as ME Turbine. But, each airline may have different standards, I would verify before applying.

Here are my quals for reference:
TT - 2718
TPIC - 1350
IP - 194
MIL - F-16/U-28/CV-22

BS Aeronautical Science GPA 3.8
MA National Security Studies GPA 4.0
2 Internal Recs
DAL Internship (2000)

Not military but I have seen with my own two eyes, military pilots go regional, and the 121 time seems to give their resume some added horsepower.

I concede this has been in times when majors/legacies were not actively hiring so their really had no option but go regional anyway.

There is zero requirement for most military to slog it out at a regional. I would bet there are hundreds of military pilots on this board alone who have been hired by a legacy without a single hour of pt 121 time. 2 years ago things were different, but now I've seen guys with just over the 1500 hour min get picked up.

To answer the title of your post, you leave the ship when it's sinking. In my view the USAF has went full Titanic, get out while you can!!!

While there isn't a requirement for 121 time, there can be a requirement for currency. If you don't have another way to keep current, going the regional route isn't a bad idea if you are still waiting for the call from a major.

Thanks
 

Fellas,
Thanks for all your input, advice, and help. See you on another thread.

Plopter

Mike,
You are correct. However Satpak's point was the extra 121 time certainly helped those who did go the Regional route for whatever reason.