I think the argument was that anyone with half a brain can follow a checklist. Its more about what happens when the situation you find yourself in does not neatly conform to one of the little emergencies you practiced in the sim and have a neat little checklist for. For example, a medical emergency. Land at nearest suitable airport, right? Ok, medical emergency over the mountains of central Mexico on an international flight. Little more complex now, isn't it.

 

T-cart - Right on. I wonder if you have to be a "good stick" five feet off the ground at 150kts+ in an Air Tractor holding 500 gallons of chemical? Wonder if you have to be any good to land that same airplane in a bad crosswind. Flying under wires?

Good post.

 

Nah...but I bet all that sim time sure makes it so much easier....

 

I dont see how anyone other than guys that come out of pilot mills can get hired with extremely low time. I have tried and tried; I am working on my CFI right now and should be finished soon. My whole goal is to work at a regional airline, and I am becoming a CFI because of that. If I could get there sooner I would definitely take it. I have low time with 270/70 and I haven't gotten a response to anything i have sent in; I take that back... Colgan sent me an e-mail telling me to get more time, but they hired a buddy of mine with 300/100. Weird.

I am not complaining or anything, it just seems so random. People say that you can get hired with comm/multi cert., but I really believe those guys are few and far between.

 

I say yes those guys are few and far in between. PSA regrets hiring a few of those guys and seems to be going back up with their unpublished minimums. The problem, they lack the experience to be professional on the job I hear.

 

To the original poster: A lot depends on what you are looking for. You could probably get on with one of the lower tier regionals (lower tier meaning lower QOL), but I would try to gain more experience and get enough time to be competitive for something better. And like others have posted, that extra experience will come in handy. I was hired with a regional at 2000/800, the majority of it instruction in light twins/singles, and the flight experience did not help much when it came to sim training, as flying a jet is quite different. But as far as emergency situations and delegating tasks, following procedures, etc in a crew environment, it helped alot. Out on the line my past experiences have proven more valuable. Best of luck.

 

this discussion is getting old, 1/4 of the posts on the "regional" thread are about low timers and how the higher timers think they are not ready, the point is thats how things are right now, and 5 years ago when it was 1500/500, thats how things were then. Who knows what its gonna be 5 years from now, hell 1 month from now. someday the minimums might be 3000/1000 and they'll be saying that 1500/500 wasn't experienced enough they should cfi some more...

...the point is that this is a trend and everyone who is lucky enough to get hired as a low timer should enjoy it before they raise the minimums again.

 

Hey, if it wasn't for low-timers and Mesa-bashing, what else would be have to talk about?

 

Here is some food for thought. "You're only one bird strike away from a battlefield promotion to Captain. Do you feel ready for that responsibility?"

Imagine it: You're making a night time, full-procedure ILS approach into a special airport that is nestled in between two mountain ranges. You've just past the FAF and have made the final configuration changes. You start down the pipe very stabilized. About 20 seconds past the FAF, the windshield shatters in front of the Captain. You've taken a bird through the windshield. In the hysteria that follows, you realize that your #1 engine is winding down as you ear the tell-tale signs of an engine coughing with severe engine damage. The remainder of the flock that didn't go into your windshield - found your left engine. The wind noise is horrendous. The captain is unresponsive to your repeated shouts for assistance. Your ILS starts to look more like a sword fight rather than a stabilized approach. Your airspeed begins to drop like a rock and you can't figure out why it's falling? You're now flying a CRJ, single-pilot and with only one engine turning. Then you think that you're still configued for a twin-engine approach and that you aren't configured for a single engine approach. You elect to make a missed approach. You finally get the aircraft to some degree - stabilized. You're able to hold altitude when all of the sudden you hear your sim instructor in the back of your mind yelling: "TOGA, GO AROUND THRUST, FLAPS 8, POSITIVE RATE, GEAR UP, SPEED MODE, BUG V2, WHITE NEEDLES, AUTO-TUNE, GOOD PICTURE, NAV!" Your training saves the day on this missed approach. You finally get configured as you limp into your climb. You finally get everything established and enable the auto-pilot. You hit enroute speed, level off, bring the flaps up and climb toward your missed approach fix. You enter the published hold and complete the appropriate checklists. You brief the cabin crew of the situation, the type of landing they should expect and if there is going to be a planned evacuation upon landing. Since you have your hands full, you request that ATC relay a message to your company regarding your situation. You request that ATC get the fire equipment and ambulances rolling for your pending approach. All check lists are now complete. You take a deep breath and leave the fix inbound for the toughest approach and landing of your very short career......do you feel ready?

In your answer to this scenario, I think you'll find the answer to your question...

Never be afraid to put in the hard work to get where you are going. It's good to do the tough work in your career. It helps remind you where you've been and where you're going. There are a lot of lessons learned in the first 1500 hours of total time...even more if you have been an instructor during that time.

 

bustinmins - semi-stabilized and beyond the FAF, I probably would have landed her