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Pilot_Ryan

Tiller Twirler
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Posts
121
Last time I flew a jet was in 2006. I left professional aviation for a time but have plenty of piston time in the interim (light twins.) Now I have a great job lined up -- it's expat -- and I'll have to get current before shipping off. I'm sure I'm rusty. I'll have recurrent and that's it. Any tips on getting current besides the obvious stuff, such as studying the materials I got at simuflite for my last recurrent...
 
recurrent

I had a similar situation, 3 and half year lay off, with out any flying. The fact that your flying at all helps and when you get in the sim, it will all start coming back to you. You will start to think like the guy you were so to speak. To help, just start thinking about what you will be facing and how you should and will re act, take your time, think fast, move slow.

Piece of Cake

Cheers
 
In today's market if your job opportunity is really good, spend what ever it takes. Chances are, the way things are going, it won't happen again!

TransMach
 
You say you are going to recurrent right?

Maybe read a bit before, flows, use the centers IPT, sit in on a sim and watch, etc...

but really, even a few years out, anything I have ever flown has come back in one or two sim sessions - and Im certainly not the ace of the base...:)

I suspect you are worrying more than you need to.

Congrats on the job
 
I had a long time without flying before my current job and then went to simulator recurrent, which I hadn't had in more than three years, and it was hard. The quality of the instruction left a great deal to be desired, and I hate to say this, but the quality of the sim was not good.

Flying the light planes is a help but I think not flying jets and not flying the sim is going to hurt. Are you going to get any extra time to warm up? Is the instructor going to be competent and helpful? I think getting some time in the sim, just flying and doing some basic stuff, would help a lot.
 
Good thoughts. Yeah, I am going to go the least expensive route here, SimCom in Orlando. I can't afford anything else. The downside of this job is I have to pay for my own recurrent in advance, but I am paid back over the course of my one-year contract via bonuses. Just another way of locking down their investment -- fair enough in my view.

I'd love to figure out how to get some extra sim time. That might not be in the cards though.

Might be worrying a bit much considering I've got a few hundred hours in light twins in the meantime, but I sure wish I could have kept my hand in the pie this whole time somehow.
 
recurrent

Pilot Ryan
I did the same thing , finaced my recurrent at FSI, which is not cheap, no matter how you look at it. But in the contract from May through Sept, I paid that back and added as much again to my account. Your doing the right thing mate.

CHeers
 
The downside of this job is I have to pay for my own recurrent in advance, but I am paid back over the course of my one-year contract via bonuses.

Thats why this industry sucks...is because people accept these jobs. Tell them to pay for your training, in return you take a $3000 less per year for the first 3 years.
 
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We are professionals. If you pay for your training you are hurting everyone out there in aviation. Why pay for your recurrent??????
 
Thats why this industry sucks...is because people accept these jobs. Tell them to pay for your training, in return you take a $3000 less per year for the first 3 years.

Its because of PILOTS that this industry sucks, not the companies. If pilots over the last 5-6 years haven't screwed so many companies over by getting typed for free, then leavinbg for a better job in 2 months, we wouldn't be seeing this many companies making pilots pay for their own training.

I know of few of these azzholes, free Gulfstream types, free Global types...and they leave in a matter of months and don't pay them back.

Companies are smart for making pilots pay for training. Pilots caused it. Just back in 2000 it was unheard of to pay for your own training, those days are gone. Thanks to all the free-loaders out there.
 
We are professionals. If you pay for your training you are hurting everyone out there in aviation. Why pay for your recurrent??????

WHY? So he can go back to work and make money for him and his family (if he has one).

What should pilots do who have the means to pay for their own training and get back to work????? Should they just sit on the couch and jerk-off?

Man, this whole "don't pay for your own training" argument is just GAY!!!!!!

Pilot Ryan,
Do it and get to work man.
BTW, what type are you getting at SimCom?
 
recurrent

This is to the fellow pilots that think it is our fault that we pay for, and not our right to pay for training. You have obviously not been in a situation where the job was yours if you were current. We have all, well at least the highly experienced and long time pro pilots, been with companies that paid for our type and recurrent, but anybody who says to me that I should make the company, pay, in this current economy, especially if the pilot has taken a sabbatical from aviation, is not looking at the other side of the story. It is not the companies who are the bad guys, it is the trend by those small few who get current or typed then bugger off. The contract that is presented to you as part of the type, spells it out. If you have not researched the company or the location, then perhaps more time should have been spent doing just that. Perhaps this is why the company will not pay for the initial of first recurrent, until the they are satisfied that you will do the job you were hired to do and also stick around

Remember that there are always two sides to every situation, and when your family depends on you, you can make choices, drive a truck, or get current and pursue what you know, are good at and is in your blood.
 
Its because of PILOTS that this industry sucks, not the companies. If pilots over the last 5-6 years haven't screwed so many companies over by getting typed for free, then leavinbg for a better job in 2 months, we wouldn't be seeing this many companies making pilots pay for their own training.

I know of few of these azzholes, free Gulfstream types, free Global types...and they leave in a matter of months and don't pay them back.

Companies are smart for making pilots pay for training. Pilots caused it. Just back in 2000 it was unheard of to pay for your own training, those days are gone. Thanks to all the free-loaders out there.
Why ya think they leave?.....cause the job blows.
 
Why ya think they leave?.....cause the job blows.

Pilots know exactly what they're getting into when they except a job. Then they go to school paid for by the company. Then they leave in a couple months, or in alot of cases never even show up for day one, they just go right to the better job from school. Knowing all along they were simply going to steal training money from the company. They are criminals.

These are the scumbag pilots that ruin it for the rest of us.

If a pilot can't do the normal 1 year that companies require after having free school, don't except the job.

Or, if you're a scumbag loser, take the job and go to free school, leave in a month and hope they chase after you for the money. If this is the choice a pilot makes, they and they alone are whats hurting the industry.

Companies around here that might consider hiring someone and paying for their school up front, are now making pilots (new hires) sign an actual personal loan with a legal promissory note for the training costs. This way if a pilot leaves during the contract period, the company can go immediately to court, get the judgement attached to that pilot, and also, which is great in Florida, get immediate wage garnishment against that pilot from his new job. No more stupid training contracts that are unenforcable. Now the pilot will get bad credit and they will have to pay it back immediately anyway.

Hopefully someday the good ole days will return.
 
what im saying is if the place wasnt shoveling over $hit pay and benefits, pilots wouldnt need to do that.

Pilots started the ball rolling on this problem. Companies have been paying for training for decades for new hires, so we know its not them. Hell, even when a company pays well and is a great place to work, scumbag pilots still go to them just to get the free type so they can work somewhere else. I know of people, not friends of mine, that have traveled to other countries for types with foreign companies, then they leave the day after training and come back here to work somewhere else. Almost 100% of foriegn companies require typed new hires, its incredibly rare to get typed by a foreign company as a new hire because of this problem.

Pilots plan to steal training money from companies, plain and simple.

Pilots caused this, not companies. Pilots know what the pay is, what the benefits are, what the schedule is going to be........if they except the job and then leave after they get typed for free....they are scumbags and should pay it back or go to jail. They make the decision. If they don;t like a company and its salary, move on to another.
 
not sure it's quite so simple.

I'm 100% sure. I can name 10 different, good companies down here in south Florida that used to pay for types for everyone they hired. Not any more, the party is over.

Almost every single 135 company, party is also over. But just 5-6 years ago, they still were doing it. Alot of laid-off airline guys screwed alot of companies too after 9/11.

The reason, if you ask the D.O.'s and owners of these companies......"pilots cannot be trusted." Yup, thats what they will say.

So what do you think is the reason?
 
The best you can get these days is to pay for your own type or recurrent and then the company will pay you back over a 12 month period.

Of course though, there still are the very good companies out there that will still pay for types and recurrents.....but like me, you must come recommended by someone at the company already to get the job.
 

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