Have you looked at Companies such as Plane Sense. I know that they prefer 1000TT and a CFII but they do hire pilots with less than 800 hours.

At this particular point in time, it might be worth the gamble to blow the money to fly the hours so that you can be in class at a regional in six months. It’s all crystal ball reading, but, if the predicted hiring of the next three years comes to fruition and you are willing to sacrifice everything on the altar of riding the wave to a legacy, this may be the time to go all in. That said, nobody would be shocked if unforeseen events significantly impact that hiring wave. If all you need is the hours (degree complete, etc), this is the moment to gamble if there ever was one.

It still boggles the mind that the itch to climb the magic curtain and get that god-almighty magic seniority number is so strong that one can't be bothered to go get a job doing pipeline patrol, towing banners or any number of other jobs from flying jumpers to Canyon tours...but would rather rent an airplane, instead.

The question I’ve never seen answered is if a regional will really hire you if you have paid for all of your time and have no professional experience?

I realize that regionals aren’t exactly in a place to be picky right now, but I have a feeling most would really not like to hire someone who has 1200+ hours of rental and safety pilot time. Sounds like a training failure waiting to happen and there are still plenty of 1000-1500 hour CFIs out there they can hire.

Honestly why not CFI and then build some extra time on the side with your CFI buddies? Me and a fellow CFI are doing that to stay more current with instruments and get the extra night and XC time that doesn’t build so quick teaching primary students. Gets us an extra 10-15 hours per month.

I am in Miami. my thoughts are same with you. I need 500 hours to build, are you still building time? If you are, can we fly spilt the fee? If you finished could you pls share that $55 rental information with me ?

Stay away from GPS at Tamiami. The owner is legitimately a conman. It’s a scam.

That's an interesting perspective. I look at the time builders versus CFI route a bit differently. As a cfi your teaching your hours are almost always going to be local, so you're not building any experience with different, far away airports. Your hours will be spent acting as a safety pilot for a student which is good, but the same thing could be said for someone splitting time. I think time builders have the advantage because they can fly across the country experiencing lots of different airspaces and air masses rather than the typical stay close to home CFI. You could gain 1,300 xc hours time building which would be almost impossible for 1,500hr CFI.

Just my 2 cents

FWIW, it's $55 if they pair you with another pilot with steam gauges.

Yet CFIs are rarely the ones who wash out during airline training...

Interesting. Do you have statistics backing that up? If so, please link your source.