aLtLBirdieAtTW

That choice*

airhoglucas

Could anyone tell me what life is like HPN based? Like how many legs per day, PIC pay, work hours, and mainly, is there a way I could only be based at HPN and not have to relocate to PR for the winter? For reference, I live in north NJ and commute is about 45mins from HPN.

Thanks

JohnDoeTW

10-14 hour duty days, 10 hour rest is common. ALOT of driving from HPN to OXC or TEB, expect almost equal amounts driving to flying Everyone goes to PR, how much you complain dictates how long you go for.

dera

Q4 and Alambique. PR ain't that bad!

MaxMar

And the casino in the Embassy Suites!

Danpilot38

If someone has insight .. Are TW still hiring for next class or they have plenty of candidate ? competitive time ? when is next class ? hiring process average time ? is there Sim training delay in DFW ? Any info would be welcome ! Thanks

airhoglucas

Late response but good to know. If you don’t mind speaking more about PR, for example, would so have to be living there part time? Or would I fly in for the week and have a hotel and after fly back home to my house in NJ?

KermitFlyer

Anyone recently went through their interview process? I have an interview coming up and would like some insight. Thanks!

aLtLBirdieAtTW

New hires are/have been “forced” to go to the Caribbean. You have very little say on whether or not your base is changing to SJU, you do have some say on how long you go down for. You need to be there at least a month for it to make sense for them so expect 1-3 months. Or a whole season if you decide you like sharing a 3bd company leased apartment with 2 other pilots and always immersing yourself in work life/culture… for me that got real tedious real quick. For others, it’s their frat 2.0 and they love it. Water/power is hit and miss in PR. Some places have good luck, others not so much. In that case you go to a hotel and company will reimburse. It’s not all bad but there’s definitely lots of “little things” that make SJU relocations painful for a lot of people. That being said the winter flying up north really slows down and if you want to keep busy you go south 🤷‍♂️

aLtLBirdieAtTW

Interviews are becoming more “tough” than they were before as TJ begins to evolve that being said it’s really quite passable if you are an IFR proficient pilot and prep. Also aviationinterviews.com is a thing hehe.

All that aside competitive candidates are about 250-500hrs off from 135 IFR PIC mins. It’s enough time to learn the plane but not too long for the company to wait for you to upgrade. CFI/II candidates are always strongly preferred and honestly coworkers who are/were active CFIs typically perform better in the flight deck… I’m not management but I’ve heard through the grapevine these are the things they like.

It’s been said before and I’ll say it again, the closer you are to meeting the 100hrs of night time required to be a 135 IFR PIC the better. It’s hard to get that time here. Doable, but tough.

Realistically, the 35k training contract is a lot to think about as well... Many PICs want to leave around the 6mo mark as Captain and I don’t blame them… 17.5k was tough enough for those guys to take as is…. The new 35k contract is really just a set of financial handcuffs to keep PICs here long enough to keep management happy. If you decide this place is for you then great! Prep hard on aviation interviews and study your IFR and weather knowledge because your flying skills are going to sharpen in SBH and your IFR planning is going to improve dramatically in the NE during all the storms we like to get up here. This place is really what you make of it, just don’t lose site of whatever goal you have/light at the end of your tunnel. As soon as I can make my next move I am going to, and I recommend all new hires/employees here do the same as well.