I’m not a Boutique pilot, but I’ve flown single pilot 135 ops at other places. While not the most common thing, it is legal and does happen.

 

I have personally flown right seat as a passenger on a Cape Air 421 in the Caribbean, long before I got my pilot certs.

 

it’s legal as long as there are 8 or fewer seats in the back.

 

Meh, not that big of a deal. I left a few copilots behind for weight and balance when I was at BTQ and it's fairly common at my current company in both our amphib caravan and pc12 to have a passenger sit up front.

 

So the SIC hours counted for the FOs who were there prior to the FSDO/MGMT issue?

 

if they passed a type rating or ATP ride yes if not no unless AP was inop

 

Situational question, I'm done with my PPL and will go for my advanced ratings (MEL, IFR, COM) at a local FBO. Is it reasonable to just get my hours for boutique by flying on my own after my training is complete? Money aside, I am more so wondering from an experience standpoint, cause obviously CFI experience is valuable, but Boutique's min's are low. Would it really be worth getting your CFI for just a couple hundred hours to get your 500 for Boutique?

 

Is getting a CFI that you'll never use with it? Absolutely. You don't know what you don't know, and going through CFI and digging into all that knowledge makes you a more well rounded pilot. You'll find that you didn't really understand aerodynamics or the regulations until you start trying to explain it to someone else. Now all that being said, do you have to get a CFI to be a good pilot? No. If you absolutely don't plan on instructing, then don't get it. However the way the hiring environment works right now, you should absolutely plan on instructing. It is nearly impossible to get anyone to take you seriously without at least 500 hours. Don't think you can short cut it. Going from 300 hrs. to 500 hrs. doesn't sound like that big of a jump, but it really is. And at roughly $200/hr, an airplane rental would cost you $40k. Might as well instruct and get paid for those 200 hours and then reassess whether you want to keep instructing or wether you really want to go to a place like Boutique (Hint: read the previous pages on this thread). Plus you'll see that a lot of 135 operations actually list "CFI Preferred" in their requirements. It can only serve to benefit you, even if you never use it (but you more than likely will use it). For now, you've got a lot of ratings to work on, so focus on those first and then see where you are once you have your Comm. Multi. Just my two cents.

 

I have talked to other people that have had this same thought, and two who did just what you're saying.... and Boutique, Cape, Mokulele, STAR, Southern, Tropic and TradeWind all NEVER called. They they had to get their CFI...

 

Ok, that makes sense. Did they have their 4 year degree at all? I will be getting mine in a year from now (in engineering, if that really even matters in the aviation world), while hopefully getting my training finished at the same time. I feel like many of the pilots applying for these low time 135 jobs often have their CFI but rarely their 4 year.