please,
let me begin by asking you not to fire up the flamethrower....
I'm 33 with a wife and 4 yr old, considering a career change, not a gel-head-ipod-backpack type and i am looking for some reasonable feed back.

i'm sitting on 220 hours and am about to start my commercial training.

i would like to limit my commute to atl or s.fla. and it looks like it limits me to asa or gulfstream.

anyway, i have a couple of questions for the APC crew:

now that they are hiring off the street for first officers, has anyone noticed a change in the prevailing attitude towards the crews?

also, does the hands on flying of the 1900 make you a better pilot versus the automation of the crj?

thanks in advance and GO GATORS BEAT GEORGIA!!!!

you should have many options with a wet commercial ticket and a few more hours...you'd be better off instructing for a short-time (making money as opposed to pay-for-hire) and going somewhere else...

hope you have some money in the bank..... and a wife who makes some money.

Sounds like ASA is a good place for you to go...especially now with the new TA. I agree, don't do the pay-to-play. I know pilots who have done that and regret it, and really in today's environment it wouldn't take you long at all to build your time for the mins you need.

Good luck with your decision...

i understand that the pft thing is over with and they are hiring off the street first officers now. i would never pay for any job. as a small business owner for the last 9 years i haven't paid for a job yet and i wouldn't start now.

Well if they're not charging you for a job, get an interview...!

Just expect and plan to jump-ship somewhere fairly quickly LoL

I agree.... train.....get a few hundred hours ... and apply somewhere else.....

Umm.. what the heck is "pomade?"

pomade will make your dome shine like custom chrome wire rims..

thanks for the input, it's clear that gulfstream is a pig that no lipstick could cure.

p.s. saabarooski- my joke about the gel and backpack was in poor taste.

i have a lot of admiration for what you guys at xjt are doing. striking out on your own requires a great deal of effort and guts. i have been doing it for a long time and wish you guys all the best.

i have friends who have flown branded from jax multiple times and all say the service is excellent. hopefully you guys are on to something....

if the rumors of a base in jax ever come true it would be the immediate end of my fence-sitting position.