New Career on the wings
 

First, thanks to many on this forum for their information and insight. Within the next few days, I will be finishing up my commercial multi tickets and currently have just over 3100TT almost 900 multi (all private time). I have read in a couple places where many of the regionals may shy away from so much time ("over qualified"). I was wondering your all thoughts on this matter. Plus, I have been looking at either Republic, ASA/SkyWest, or XJT for the first choices. I hope to retire with one of these outfits as I am now 40. Thanks for your input...:)

How the heck do you have 3100TT and are just now finishing your commercial :confused:

Built up slowly over 12 years... lots of trading mechanical work for flight time, washing/waxing, taking care of aircraft, etc. Most of the time was built between 1998 and 2002 and back then you needed close to 3000TT to be relitavley (sp?) competitive in any airline job. Then came 9/11.... And it cost $$ for checkrides etc, and that I did not have....

Fishy
 

They just might shy away because your circumstances and time seem fishy. I mean either most of your time is bogus or you spent the last ten years avoiding getting the commercial because the airlines are an after thought. I think you will have a difficult time in any case.

SkyHigh

It's different, which might help you get an interview. Also, if you're planning on retiring at a regional and you're 40, that will help a lot. I know some places want the time to be commercial time, but if you meet the mins, then apply. It would help significantly if you got your ATP. you have the flight time to do it.

It's unusual. You have two issues...

1) Was all that time real? If you have original logbooks and maybe other documentation and can explain how and why you accumulated that time, it should be OK. There are plenty of businessmen out there with thousands of private pilot hours, although many of those guys actually hold a commercial for insurance purposes if nothing else. You will wan to avoid giving the impression that you were compensated for the time in any way, or that the time itself was compensation. If you can convince them that you are an long-time, avid, recreational pilot who has decided to fly professionally, you should be OK.

You probably don't want to give them the impression that you have spent years and years struggling to become a commercial pilot, and are just now getting there...

2) Overqualified means someone who is going to get hired by a better (ie major) airline in 6-12 months. As long as you don't have a significant amount of turbine PIC you are probably not overqualified for most regionals. Also, since you don't have a CFI or any professional flying experience, you may be viewed as underqualified at some regionals.


Bear in mind that certain regionals like career pilots, others want you to fly for them for a few years, then LEAVE so they can replace you with a cheap new hire. Unless you know for sure what they are looking for at the interview, try to stay in the middle of the road on that...

"...or that the time itself was compensation. If you can convince them that you are an long-time, avid, recreational pilot who has decided to fly professionally, you should be OK..."

Wow... Thank you for the input all, this may sould like a dumb question though, but why not mention that I have flight time from compensation/trade for mechanical work? About -1/4 time is for MX testing and such 1/4-1/3 time in trade, and the rest recreational

The time is real, and can be vouched for by several people (2 of them in the airlines now). One thing worries me though, as 1 logbook was lost in the hurricanes that hit here a couple years ago and that book contained close to 2000 hours.

Thanks again....

Pilot with similar circumstances to you are usually shyed away from by the airlines. 3100 over 12 years is flying 250+ hours per year or 25 hours per month. That is a ton of flying for a private pilot. I fly about 250-300 hours per year as a corporate pilot.

If you interview you better have a great explanation on how you accumulated so much time without being commercial or owning a plane.

I would get a new log book and put some more reasonalbe times in there.

Smells fishy.

I am going to be the lone dissenter here and say it can't hurt to try. If you are serious, join Air, Inc and do some mock interviews (the interviewers used to be airline people with specific backgounds at various airlines...that was a long time ago can't say what it is now) and be honest about your background. You have different circumstances than most and there may be nothing wrong with that.

Also, I don't see anything wrong with the way you got your time. Most people here don't like it because it is different. There was a guy in my hew hire class way back when with over 3,000 hours (but only a small amount of multi time). He flew single engine pipeline partol and was in his late 30s. He got hired (I was second most senior and had 2,000 hours, and then below us were all the 20 somethings with less than 1,000 hours!). He even got extra training because he wasn't too sharp multi-wise.

Point is, anything is possible. Everyone has a story. Give it a shot, but also consider other avenues, such as corporate. May be a better place for you anyway given your age. Probably will pay better too.

Good luck.

dhc8fo:

I TOTALLY agree with everything you just said. It is refreshing to hear someone, like yourself and others, every now & then give encouraging words to some of the older guys that participate in this forum that are pursuing pilot careers.

Thanks. ;)

atp

It looks like you were basically buying the flight time and paying in trade, that should be OK (as long as they don't ask about taxes lol).

Honestly, since you have to reconstruct a log book anyway...maybe reconstruct a few hundred hours instead of 2000. If your total is at or near 1500 you should meet mins at most regionals. Since you are not actualy required to log flight time anyway, legally it doesn't hurt to not log some of it! Just make sure that you don't have any medical apps or or 8710 forms out there that would disagree with what you represent. Just make sure that everything is CONSISTENT. If the quaestion comes up, you could say that you had some non-logged private time, and be vagua about how much. WARNING: If they even think you might have done any narco-flying you will not get hired, ever. You will want to have a seamless employment and/or school history without any gaps...a 3000 hour private pilot with employment gaps just SCREAMS drug-driver!

If you have trouble getting hired without any commercial experience, a few months as a CFI, pipeline, traffic, banner, or diver-driver should fix that.

I guess being a bit different may cause some basic headaches. I just may do the Air Inc interview practice. Sounds like a good idea in my case. I worked very hard for the flight time I do have, and for a couple years, flew my ass off just about every day (mostly nights... can get really boring if by yourself), sure hate to not include that.

This may sound a bit dumb, but is not commercial time and private time still spent in a airplane?

Thank you all for your honest and insightful thoughts. I just passed the instrument ride this afternoon, really hot and rough! Getting closer! :)

rwpapp

Congrats on the checkride.

Commercial flying is different in that you are presumed to be under a higher level of scrutiny, and you have to manage competing safety, regulatory and economic factors. Theoretically, in private flying the no-go decision is always easy, and you never have to fly when you don't want to.

Ahhh gotcha.... And thanks... Always had held myself to some pretty high standards when deciding go-nogo, never had to do that w/ a job on the line... yet.

Just found out that my instructor did not like my time either, until it took only 9 hours in prep (incl the inst XC) to sign me off for the inst ride. We had to go back some 12 years to get the remainder CFII dual time just to qualify the inst ride. I assume the examiner felt the same, as I had the book thrown at me today in comparison to his previous exams. SUre feels good to meet those expectations.

Still exhaling....