I'm still a little ways from sending in the apps but should be ready to go within a year so I want to make sure my bases are covered. The question I have is if I send an application in with the posted mins but have relatively low instrument and night time, is this a bad thing and would I be overlooked because of it. My remaining time needed will mostly come from instructing which won't bring much in the way of night and no instrument until I get the CFII. The only instrument I'll get will be from 135 charters, but even with that it probably won't be much more than 100 hrs. Thanks for any info you can provide!!!

 

Sounds easy to me. If you are already planning on instructing for the next year, if I understand correctly, then take your students up at night and search out the IMC. If you don't have a student when it's IRF then suck it up and rent.

The more extras the better (night, actual, PIC, etc.). But then again, I was hired with very low actual time.

 

Thanks for your input! I realize I'll need to find ways to build this time other than instructing, but it's good to know it can be done with realatively low actual time. I have decent amount of instrument time, but even though my training was done in the NE, I don't have lots of actual just yet.

 

i was also hired into my job with "exceptionally low" actual time. However, i did have tons of simulated time, and simulator time in our ole' frasca 142 and 131's, so my scan was very good and used often. Then i got my CFII, got a few more actual hours, was looking forward to getting a lot more when the airline called.

Another note, just do your best to take your students up at night as much as possible. During my training, i did all of my 50 hrs of x-country flying at night, half of my instrument training at night, and pounded around the countryside at night to visit my girlfriend with early returns in the morning. Good times, i'll also double what was said before, if you don't have ur CFII, and it's great actual weather, find a friend, and go suck it up in the clouds for a few hours, splittin the costs of the airplane can really make flying a helluva lot cheaper.

 

Don't forget too much actual can raise a red flag as well. I trained and worked in Florida (not erau or DCA ) for about 6 years and racked up all of 42 hours of actual in that time...but for Florida it's normal. You shouldn't be flying in most of the clouds we get down here anyways. I actually would think that flying in the NE you would rack up a ton of actual. I never shot an approach to mins until flying up there in a seminole.

Times help get you in the door, but where instrument is concerned they'll use the sim to see if you have a good scan, basic instrument skills, etc.

Just my 2% of a dollar.

 

Thanks for the responses! I will try to get as much night and instrument as I can. Yes, we do get a lot of IMC conditions in NE, so I'll get up as much as possible. One good thing for me is that instruments are a strong point so as long as I can stay proficient, I would like to think I've got a shot if given the chance in a sim.

 

How hard is basic instrument flying in an RJ compared to a single engine GA piston???

 

Night time is night time not a big deal but instrument is valuable so you might look into it. It also depends on the airline, if the airline has a lot of tprop flying they're probably not going to hire you if you only have a few dozen instrument hours. If you're going for all jet airlines, not going to matter much but then jet flying is a different animal, you got to look into that too. I had the pleasure of ride along in a EMB-135, that thing is so automated a low time guy can fly that thing with out any problems.

 

Thanks for the heads up about the prop airlines. That's what I'm looking at right now (possibly Colgan). When you're flying airplanes with no autopilot, you want someone with good instrument skills and experience up front.

 

autopilot on, slide your seat back and grab a newspaper haha. but seriously you worry about other things, like whats on the weather radar up ahead.