The newest SF3 CA upgrade award is an August 2007 newhire at Mesaba. Upgrade time is now down to 2 months or less at Mesaba if you have more than 3000 hours and have an ATP. This is mainly because too many FOs with higher seniority before him do not meet the upgrade std. Most regionals have upgrade min time as 3000 hours or more and ATP in hand. So if you start out with 600 hours you will have to fly your ass off for at least 2 1/2 years or more and then upgrade to get the T PIC time. PIC time droning around in a C 172 do not count very much to Majors.

Where are the 3000 hours and ATP requirements coming from?

I think I must have quoted that number wrong. What is the upgrade requirement at Mesaba? I heard that from someone during groundschool. Is it 3500 hours?

ATP mins and some company time (which can be reduced)

It might have been mentioned, but you only need those 250 hrs to get your ATP out of the way. Don't know where your connections are at, but if they're at CAL you might have a little bit of luck getting in w/o turbine PIC or waiting around for upgrade. A guy i know explained that they had several individuals who were never captains in his recent CAL class, while it wasn't the "majority" it also wasn't a rarity to see. If you're looking at places that require the 1000 TPIC, well...you'll either have to get that time, or wait for the mins to change.

you could jump ship to a regional that has a quick upgrade, probably one of the smaller turboprop operators out there, and try to get your time that way. But on reserve, it'll take you quite some time to get some more PIC, (as you probalby know) on the other hand...you could try to get enough PIC to get over your 500 hrs PIC, and 500 hrs SIC issues.

And no, the FAA says you have the 500 hrs of PIC, just the other airlines might not.

I have close to 5000 hours, almost all of it turbine ME 121 time. But I have less than 200 total PIC. Now that I have upgraded, that will increase rapidly. But my SIC time and all the quality of my time means NIL, NADA, NOTHING, etc.

I get talked to like an equal in terms of experience by whomever I talk to, but when it comes to that all important resumé, there is nothing like PIC and even more nothing like turbine, 121 PIC.

Get thee to a job where you can upgrade quickly.

I see pilots with equal total time (or less) moving on because they got their PIC.

FWIW, I missed out because of a furlough in 2003. Started all over again.

Get your PIC at a regional (preferably jet, but that doesn't play a huge role AFAIK).

saab2000, Good advice. I agree 100%.

P.S. I was wrong about upgrade requirement at Mesaba. RJ85FO is absolutely right.

Don't forget that Continental requires 1000 hours turbine in addition to others, which are as follows:

1,500 hours fixed-wing total flight time
1,000 hours fixed-wing PIC time, or 500 hours PIC time and 500 hours SIC time in a turbojet
1,000 hours fixed-wing turbine time
1,000 hours fixed-wing multi-engine time (civilian or military) or 1,000 hours single-engine military fighter jet time
A current ATP written exam
A current first class FAA medical
A current passport
A Bachelor's degree is highly desired

So either way you are going to need 1000 hours turbine time.

You shouldn't feel like you are the only one that has the no real PIC time in the logbook. There a huge amount of guys that went for the jet F/O job with really low TT. So what if all your time in the begining is SIC. You just have to wait for upgrade at your current company. Once you upgrade then it shouldnt take you longer than 18 months to get 1000 PIC Turbine. Then you have options.

Its not that big of a deal in terms of the length of your entire career.

Poak, your a chick, UAL is hiring, what more do you need:p

here we goooooooooooooooo hahaha

Half joking of course ;)