Hey guys,


I applied to the regionals months ago and haven't heard anything yet. I had not hit my 1500 yet when I applied because I had been told to apply when I was within six months of hitting 1500 (which I finally did last week). In the meantime, I have not heard anything from any of the six regionals I have put in for. I'm fully aware of the hiring market compression, no thanks to Boeing and Airbus’s P&W engine AD's. During highly competitive times like this, however, I'm sure that applications are being vetted with a microscope. Despite the tough times, I feel like I'm a fairly strong candidate for someone who has just hit their 1500. I am a 600 hour CFI/CFII, have 135 experience, 450 hours of part 91 turbine time, no check ride or written exam failures, no accidents, no incidents, no FAA admin action, clean driving record, no criminal record and a four year (non-aviation) degree. I’ve been wondering why I haven’t been contacted by anyone yet. There is one possible blemish on my application, however, and I'm worried this might be plaguing me. I'm not sure if I'm in my own head about this or if my concerns are merited and I want some opinions. On all but one of the addendums (which didn't ask), I decided to answer "yes" to the question "have you ever been asked to resign or been terminated from employment?" Here's why, and I'll be omitting names and some finer points to help with anonymity.


The flight school I got all of my certificates and ratings at was a really awesome place to be a student. They hired me as a CFI/CFII. I instructed there for a total of a year and a half. The first year went by great. I had a good relationship with my co-workers, students and admin. Seemingly out of nowhere, the school became wildly successful in a few short months. That's where the problems started. Admin and the owner basically became croney seemingly overnight. Profits came first. Student/employee experiences hit the backburner. In addition to this was maintenance. The school started refusing to maintain/fix anything that wasn't regulated by AV1ATE or 91.205. Sure, INOP lights and certain avionics aren't a big deal when teaching a private student stick and rudder skills in the daylight. However, I was primarily a CFII and found myself trying to teach instrument students with half working or completely busted avionics/GPS's. It was extremely frustrating. Without getting too long winded, the maintenance issues snowballed until eventually a student and I had a terrifying in-flight emergency. We were able to safely make an emergency landing. However, I shortly learned the issue that caused my emergency landing was a prior issue that hadn't been fixed properly. That same issue forced another CFI and student into an emergency landing months earlier. Upon learning that is when I became appalled and stopped being quiet about the growing shoddy maintenance practices. Unfortunately, instead of doing the right thing and fixing their planes, all this did was sour relations between admin and I. By the time things reached a boiling point, I had a CJO from my current job but that was dependent upon if insurance would cover me or not. Albeit minor, after I had yet another in-flight scare and made a precautionary landing, I squawked that plane for a maintenance checkover. The next day, the school manager called me and was very hostile. The conversation basically ended up being us mutually parting ways by them saying "you're gone" and me saying "I quit." I started my new job two weeks after that. I've stayed in touch with my co-workers ever since and I know for a fact that admin is very bitter towards me to this day.


I’ve never experienced anything like this before. Of all the other jobs I’ve ever had, I’ve always resigned and quietly moved on. So there hasn't been any grey areas around my dispositions there. What I don’t want to happen in this instance, is for me to check “no” to the aforementioned addendum question, only to have an airline recruiter call the school and have them conflict what I wrote and tell the recruiter they terminated me. I do not want my application to come off as dishonest and get forever disqualified. I'm rather worried about what they may say about me. So, to cut off at the pass, anything conflicting they may say, I checked “Yes” to the question. I was very transparent while filling out the addendums and explained everything in the explanation box. The state I live in is a right-to-work state and state law empowers current/former employers to say whatever they want about past/current employees to prospective employers who call for a reference check, so long as any statements aren’t factually dishonest (slander). I think what happened between myself and the flight school is arguably a matter of perception of the situation and they may honestly believe they terminated me. That could limit any legal action I could take against them and probably won't act as a deterrent. Meanwhile, I honestly believe I walked away.


I have no idea what kinds of questions airline recruiters ask when they call former employers or if they even call at all. The silence from the regionals has thus had me wondering about two scenarios. First, is that my concerns are merited, I did the right thing by cautiously checking "yes" and I should leave that part of the addendum unchanged. The other is I’ve been wondering if I’ve been a little too cautious over something that’s not the end of the world and checking “yes” to that question is a blemish causing my application to get overlooked, and perhaps I should change the answer to “no.”


What do you guys think?

 

The line starts way back there.....

Your part 91 turbine time gives you a microscopic edge over other fresh 1500 hour pilots without it. But then there are 2000+ hour pilots with 135 turbine time, including TPIC time that leapfrog all the other 1500 hour apps. And more pilots with their ATP done, etc. etc. etc.

Assuming you've been updating your apps each month and checking to see if the addendums are asking for new/additional info, it's a waiting game. A handful of the regionals will be at Sun-N-Fun in 2 weeks if you want an excuse to go to a cool airshow in Florida. Then you can let them tell you to your face how competiive (or not competitive) your times are. At least you'll have made a human connection.

For your grey area termination/resignation from the shady flight school, if it were me I'd put "no" on that question. You can get ahead of it when they ask you some TMAAT questions that relate to safety, challenges, conflicts, etc. and tell them you resigned. But that's not likely preventing you from getting any calls. It's just the huge volume of apps out there from many many pilots at or well above your level.

 

It's the nature of the cycle right now...way too many of us looking for jobs, thinking that 1500 is the standard just because that is what we are accustomed to post-COVID. Instead of just sitting back and waiting to be contacted, be proactive. Send emails to the recruiting office, make phone calls, go to events. Can't hurt. But as said above and on many many other forums, FB pages, etc... there is a LARGE influx of cadidates that are looking for jobs that are harder to come by. As the market changes, the minimums necessary increase since the airlines can be more selective. Think of OO that accepted EVERYONE to their cadet program, and guaranteed an interview. Now they are sitting with so many cadets with CJOs that it'll take what feels like a year to get through them all. I submitted my documents to them the first week of december, for that "guaranteed" interview....still waiting. Keep building time, make contact, go to events...it'll come your way when it is your time.

 

I hate you break it to you, but there are way too many applicants chasing far too few positions right now. I have 2000 TT with 800 hours jet 135, and I can't get a can back from anywhere. 3-4 of my co workers are at about the exact same times as me (some even a little more) and they're getting crickets as well. Sorry to disappoint, but you're nowhere near competitive with 1500 right now. That will probably change in the not too distant future, but as the guy above said: get in line.

 

Piling on - 1500 isn't getting anyone anywhere unless they flew something with ejection seats. Play to your strengths ... the 450 of turbine time should help getting another/better Part 91 job. Work on making your 2025 hours notably better quality than 2024. Keep on with 2026, 2027, the movement will come.

But for now ... the regionals have waaaaaay more applicants than spots. IDK what they're looking for. They may not know what they're looking for. But it's definitely not wet ATP's.

And are you overthinking things? Yes. Your initial post was about 8x longer than it needed to be and comes across kinda neurotic. That is blunt but meant to be clear and helpful feedback, not dumping on you.

 

[QUOTE=B00kem;3895939 Keep building time, make contact, go to events...it'll come your way when it is your time.[/QUOTE]

Where can I look to find out about events that aren't Sun N' Fun or Osh? As much as I'd like to go to those, I usually end up working when they're happening.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm being sent to get typed in a new airframe next month. That's going to give me the opportunity to get way more hours and I'm really looking forward to it. It's an airframe that NetJets and FlexJet use. After I get some time-in-type built, it could open the door for them or various other corporate jobs, if the regionals are still gridlocked.


As for your last remark, I'm not a neurotic person. I'm not brittle, anxious and losing sleep over this. I stated in the OP that I knew the compression was bad. I was still under the impression I at least should have heard something. FTR, I worked in another highly competitive industry before aviation and they would nit-pick applications over the dumbest little things to narrow down their applicant pool. It was extremely hard to get hired and I'm used to dealing with people of that mindset. I'm not familiar with the 121 world and if they practice the same hiring ways or not, hence why I was wondering if the flight school situation was that disqualifying X-factor. Now that I've read all of these replies, I'm understanding the depth of this situation is far worse than I thought. I'm no longer surprised that no one has contacted me yet. I'm going to keep on keeping on, in the meantime.

 

Thanks for the advice and for being the only person who fully answered my question. I knew there was compression, but I didn't realize it was THIS bad. No wonder I haven't gotten a response. I'm going to take your advice and change my response on the addendums and I'll get ahead of it during interviews, whenever that time comes. Thanks again!

 

That's all you can do. It sounds like it's going well. Getting a new type and some experience on it is fantastic. I agree with those who advised you not to check the terminated box. It's a good story for an interview but get some professional prep so you tell it correctly. Keep flying and keep applying everywhere and take the jobs that will let you fly bigger stuff and put more marketable time in your logbook. You have also already learned the lesson about flying for operators who try to cheap out on maintenance. They are everywhere, especially at the entry level so be cautious.

 

Just keep pounding on doors and networking . You never know. I sent Mesaba an updated resume every 3 months for about 3 years before ever getting an interview back in early 90's. I also sent USAir a bunch of updates on the application for awhile and heard nothing and then I decided to show up in a suit and tie one day at the place where they did the interviews and asked to speak to the HR lady in charge of interviews 😂😂 to beg for an interview 😂😂. Got a call 3 days later . Just keep trying .