I see the caravan guys are starting to pony up more money now. No pilot shortage, just a shortage of pay and benefits. Yeah, 5 nights a week loading and unloading the freight, crawling around like a rat..... and they're ALL 30 days contracts with UPS.

I could not let this slide. Caravan time is NOT worthless. Its part 135 turbine PIC. I nailed my jet interview describing the experiences I had in this type! (even after being grounded for years afterwards caring for alzheimer's and autism in the family)
I could not have trusted this airplane more. Its the most forgiving, fun, stable, responsive, intuitive, comfortable thing I have ever had the pleasure of flying. I mean you literally feel like its a part of you after a few hours. Do you want to build 135 IFR time and make your first REAL paycheck as a pilot after years of mostly VFR single engine instruction, skydivers, banner towing, surveying, traffic patrol, Civil Air Patrol, etc.
WITH THE LEAST CHANCE OF DYING?
THIS IS YOUR AIRPLANE!!!
Sure, you made simpler decisions in the caravan, but you were in charge, making all the calls (go,no go, alternate courses of action) and calling all the shots, not another guy in the left seat! You dealt with low IFR and areas of thunderstorms, loading, fueling, MELs, ATC, THE CUSTOMER, maintained your company manual, flight logs, and FAA/Jepp charts. You ran your carrier's base at Podunk International (KBFE) 5 days a week.
When you prove you can be a caravan captain, the interviewer knows its just a matter of experience before you can become a captain in whatever it is they fly. Being a first officer is just on the job training. Companies hire CAPTAINS! Be a captain! Multi jet time will come.

Well said.


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they just hired a former student of my schools at 350 ish.
its long hard work for little pay but rack up time real quick!

Great post Learjet.

I like this suggestion better. As far as the Caravan time being useless, I don't know, but different places have different requirements.
Turbine PIC or Multi Engine, all depends what the goal is.
I do remember a pilot having problems moving on, after the company got rid of the Pilatus, because of the lack of multi time.

I never once said that I didn't enjoy the van nor did I say I didn't trust the plane. The Caravan is a 182 on steroids. I was at mra when one of the pilots died, I also was there when there was another guy was injured due to mx , also one week after I quit the plane that was on my route lost an engine and luckily he was fine and was not injured. Mra has a lot of problems. Not to mention they are on the verge of losing their contact in rdu. I have flown 135, 121,and 91 delivering aircraft. 121 is much safer and a lot more challenging. Flying to the same 2 airports in imc is easy after the first month. The only challenging thing is flying into weather that you are forced to fly into because mra will threaten your job if you don't take off. A year of seniority at an airline is worth more than a year at mra. And BTW the captain and the fo make decisions to go when flying 121 that's why it's called crm. The captain just has to sign the paper work.

As someone that has flown 121 and interviewed and hired hundreds of pilots I can tell you I agree with Learjet. Multi time meant nothing to me in an interview. Real IFR time and real decision making. If you come in to an interview with the experience described above, we want you. I would be confidant that person will have no trouble in our training program.

Just my opinion....................

Why? Can't you have the experience described above in a multi engine? As far as multi time meaning nothing to you, like I said, different places, different requirements. One should focus on his final goal and how to get there.

Of course you can but the vast majority of Piston Multi engine time I have seen in the last couple years have come from flight instructing. We know who is successful in our training program. The data shows us college graduate from an aviation university, 135 time flying turbine equipment as PIC.

Send me as many as you can find. We need hundreds more