or a 500 pilot and a 2500 hours pilot...

 

AggieFlyer,

You're counting way too much on the minimums being the same when you graduate. They don't stay static for long and they can't go down anymore. Do yourself a favor, don't expect to get on with the lowest amount of time possible.

 

we had people pass with 280 hours and 25 multi. it's doable, but you should know how good / bad you are at checkrides. use that to judge your move.

 

...or a 257 hour pilot and a guy in a chicken suit on a street corner hawking car washes for the local high school band boosters.

 

Got my comm single and comm multi for $3400. Comm single at LGB would have been $3000 plus another $4000 for the multi addon. I spent 1.4 hrs in a single (including checkride hrs) for my commercial. 19 hrs in a comanche. Depends on who you go to for the courses. I found it to be much cheaper than the single engine at LGB.

 

I say do what your heart tells you. You wanna be an airline pilot at 250+ do it.

I had to work my way up as a traffic watch pilot, and a lot of pps on this board had to work their way up as flight instructors, pipe line patrol pilots, corp pilots - however, things have changed and this industry has taken a turn in how it thinks it's going to meet the need capacity of pilots to fly the airframes they have with the schedules they want and the contract (and their translation of the contract) they have signed. With that in mind, people like yourself and different people with different types of experience can get on alot faster. What I did, doesn't mean that YOU have to do it too because I told you that my way is better or correct - you do what suites you with the given opportunities presented to you along the way.

A person I knew once, told me, you have to be the right person at the right place at the right time - but when all these three happen you have to prove and do a hack of a job to prove that you are two of those while the third is the option presenting it self to you.

With all that in mind, and with whatever path you choose know that just like any choice in life it bares responsibility and I ain't just talking about the ones sitting in the back of an ERJ, but also personal resposibilities as for working hard, studying hard making sure you WANT (not necessarily succeed) to pass the rides etc etc. I am NOT saying you will not pass your rides or that with your experience I would sitr away, not at all! I would just make sure I know full heartedly what I'm getting my self into and what responsibilities it bares with it .

To sum it all up. If I were you and I was presented with an offer to join an airline with less experience hack yes! Would I take it lightly? hell NO. It is a responsibility and with such there are consequences that you might have to bare, both good and bad ones.

Think of that, and do your own personal math. Not what a bunch of people are telling you because of their path/choices/given opportunities in life.


On a side I do however want to share with you a little something I've concluded along the way.
A long time ago, I had a friend who was an airline pilot in Europe, flew a bunch of Airbuses for diff carriers. I told him I've had it with GA and I want to move on. He laughed and told me to patient and that I should try to enjoy where i'm at and make the most of this experience building time as the airlines once you get into them are boring. You can into a jet that flies 450mph+/- and you enjoy very little of it and the associated "flying" that comes along with it - whether you use the automation or not. I started laughing and told him he forgot what GA is and how sucky it feels. Looked up to him and envied his airplane, the speed, the computers and the cockpit which just for the mare fact it had an A/C in it was far better than my stupid cessna. Today, looking back and not trying to sound cheesy, I know exactly what he meant. Airline flying is an awesome job but it is also very B-O-R-I-N-G and very very repetitive. Flying loses alot of the "magic" it had back in GA days. Take that for whatever it is worth.
-schone

 

You know that you can't do drugs and fly right? Cause you appear to be on crack. If you are counting on graduating in May and walking into an interview immediately you're nuts. It COULD happen but it's not likely in reality. Go pay your dues and build some real world (outside the training environment)experience then worry about who's hiring. You guys kill me that say all they wanted to ever be was an airline pilot but are so unwilling to do what it takes but the bare minimum of what you perceive it takes to get the job. Being a pro pilot is more than have a Comm ME rating and a few hundred hours.

 

Come on, give the guy a break. If he can and wants to get on with 250hrs and thinks he'll get through the training then let him. Every one of us would have done the same thing given the chance had the industry been this way when we were coming through the ranks. So don't beat down a guy who wants to do it at such low time. If he can then let him. Just one piece of advice Aggie. If you want to pursue the airlines that will hire you with such low real world experience, pass the training. Whatever you have to do: make sure you pass the training. That's my $.02

 

The decision for you to go on to a regional is your choice and your choice alone. If the airlines are advertising commercial mins, that is the airline's choice as well. No one is forcing anyone to go one direction or another. Obviously there are some risks involved with this, but again, this is something you will have to decide for yourself.

I am in the same position as you: I am graduating next spring. I have, however, basically eliminated TSA from my list. TSA routinely comes to my university once every semester and gives a presentation followed by an interview session. 250/25 is their advertised mins. Their recruitment presentation is straight-forward and they tell us up-front: "We aren't going to lie. Our airline is a stepping stone. You get in and get out. You don't retire here. It keeps the costs down low." They also added: "We aren't the best regional, but we aren't the worst". TSA waves the quick upgrade time around a lot (1.5 years?). I'm not sure if I believe that is more of a good thing.

They give you a total of $800 in housing allowance in several increments during training in St. Louis. It is up to you to find your housing (they can help with finding "affordable" housing - crashpads). That didn't appeal to me after my friend going through training at Pinnacle said they are put up in a hotel paid by the company.

As for the training process the recuiters said that part 61 guys often have a harder time because they are not used to the intense studying. He gave the example that some guys that are hired from a 61 background show up without all of their memory items memorized, lack the study habits, etc. that 141 university guys develop well through cohort competition. I'm sure this doesn't apply to every 61 or 141 guy out there. He may have been saying that just to blow smoke up our asses. I dunno. Everyone is different, but I think the university experience may help in that respect.

If you can fit the battle, you will be a champ. Good luck.

 

Someone please tell me how flight training in a single engine airplane sitting in the right seat teaching a student how to do S-turns, turns around a point, stalls and slow flight is real world training to be a First Officer on a commercial airliner? Too me they sound like two different kinds of flying.