Sitting on APC and realizing the "competitive" 600/50 I have is no longer even close to competitive. Any career advice would be awesome, and go a long for those friends of ours out there including myself, who all had their interviews and classes classes "postponed indefinetly." Thanks, and in the words of goose "Maybe I should be a truck drive?"

UH , use your CFI and instruct. Do you really think 600/50 entitles you to fly a big shiny jet anyways?

Yep, instruct and save up some money so you can afford to be a first-year FO when hiring starts back up again...

Keep instructing and build your flight time. There is about to be yet another shake up in the industry with high oil/fuel prices and with mergers in the works. You will be better off in the short term sticking it out as a CFI and then maybe trying to get on with a good regional after this downturn. Get on at the front end of the hiring wave. We are still hiring here at Comair, but we are one of the few airlines still hiring and the music could stop anytime -- and you don't want to be left without a chair when it does.

For the sake of your mental and financial health, keep instructing. You may hate it, but you will hate it less than being at the bottom of the seniority list at a regional wondering if you are going to have a job tomorrow.

I believe this downturn will be short lived and hopefully will be back on track next summer. Good luck in whatever you do. Ultimately, you have to do what you think is best for you. Everyone here is going to give you their opinion on what they think you should do, but the buck stops with you! No one really knows what is going to happen (myself included) in this industry. It is all speculation. Don't make any decisions based on rumor and speculation. And if someone says "I heard from so and so....." run the other way as fast as you can.

Cut the guy a break. We all had shiny jet syndrome when we were instructing. That's the reason most people get into aviation. If you say you weren't dreaming of flying a jet while you were a CFI (assuming you did instruct), you'd be kidding yourself. I very seriously doubt that your ultimate goal was to fly a B1900 or Dash-8.

I'd seriously consider another line of flying--fractionals or corporate. There are no perfect flying jobs, but the airline business will be especially "unsettled" until the price customers are willing to pay realigns with the cost of delivering the product. That will be years from now, if ever. So get yourself a good flying job you can make a career of, enjoy your life and save your money! If you never get hired by a major airline don't think you've missed anything.

Good luck.

Very helpful post... thanks for that

Fly as much as you can......in as many different types as you can, make as many contacts as possible & enjoy it. You'll be out of intstructing soon enough.

haha...here we go again, whats wrong flying a B1900 or Dash-8? and I doubt flying CRJ is your carerr goal, its a stepping stone to most, its turbine time isn't it? ooh and last time I checked...Pilots get pay by hours? Just want to get it out, I hate when people start comparing Jet/Prop. Its a plane that carry pax to their destination!! Get over it!

So is your ultimate goal flying a CRJ? I instructed for over 2 years. I wanted to spend as little time as required at the regionals to get the turbine PIC the majors were asking for. My ultimate goal is to fly big jet airplanes, not small ones.