500 hours...what can i do to build time?

[hydroflyer]

question to all of you pro-instructor people. when i was a student working on my instrument rating, we did no real weather flying, very little actual, few "real" instrument approaches, and minimal airways flying. i learned the basic skills that we all learn getting our instrument ticket, but only since i have been flying in the right seat have i actually flown weather many times, real IFR, real approaches, airway flying, and procedures specific to commercial flying.

Going by this quote I would guess that you did your training down south. Even so, I think several students down south (Florida for example) are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to actual instrument experience. Just the other day I heard a training flight practicing holding about 1,000' below a cloud deck, around 3,000'. Personally, I would have climbed up into the clouds with the student to get the real experience. There was no airspace problems with doing so. Maybe that instructor as well as yours did not have much actual and was hesitant about taking someone up into it.

Don't start attacking the instuctor route on IFR experience based on what your instructor did. I gained just as much actual experience instructing as I have flying freight. When the weather got low, our instructors would call up the instrument students, get them down to the airport and we would go practice approaches to airports with the lowest weather. If no students could come down, then we would pair up and split the cost of the flight and practice approaches ourselves, just for the actual. And by practicing approaches, we rarely climbed more than 2,000' AGL for very long, which kept us in the soup for extended periods of time. Also since instructing is part 91, you can legally make an approach with 1/4 mile visibility, knowing you won't break out, but show the student what it would be like. Can't do that 121 or 135 without higher CAT certification. Flying around at several hundred miles per hour going from city to city usually means you don't spend much time actual. How often do you log more than 1 hour of actual on a duty day? I had some co-workers with over 100 hours of actual by the time they had 1400tt. You just need to go get it. Living in Florida or somewhere down south is not a killer, you may just need to do most of the instrument flying in the morning with the lower clouds before they burn off.

Instructing has proved very valuable to me, especially in giving me good habits that I constantly had to remind my students to do. It truly is amazing what you learn instructing.

 

[sydeseet]

PLEASE DON"T INSTRUCT!!!!!!! Aviation is a hurtin' unit these days with soaring insruance prices, rising fuel costs, and non-existant upward mobility for CFI's . The last thing we need is an instructor with a negative attitude towards his job in a position to influence "young" pilots. A new student, be it a CPA, MD, or whatever watches every move you make from the moment they step through the door. We as CFI's have an unmeasurable amount of influence on every pilot/student they fly with since we are supposed to be the "experts." Your attitude affects everything you do - perception is reality - marketing 101. If you don't want your job, don't like your job, will leave your job the minute you can "have fun flying checks" (not THAT is funny) you are nothing more than a burden on aviation, period. Don't do it man, if it isn't for you then spare yourself and others the heartache. Some people aren't cut out for it: some of those do it anyway at other's expense.

Now, that being said, try traffic watch, banner towing, jump pilot, or any one of a limited number of jobs for guys with low total time and some yet-to-be-worthwhile turbine time.

I'm begging you to not bring down the CFI business any further than it has already sunk.

Have you ever thought about truck driving??????

 

[DitchDriver]

500 TT IS the lucky number for 135 VFR, as long as you have 25 night cross country.

Alaska (might not be very VFR, do the homework), Canyon, or look at cargo forum about VFR freight drivers working for free.

Either way, you'll pay.

 

[Conquest Driver]

Time is not that hard to build

There are always jump pilot jobs available. I know of at least one place that has a 206 or 182 postion open. You will get about 500-700 hours a season and it is a lot of fun. They also can lead to FO postions on a Casa or Otter A/C. Seriously you should look into it. To be honest I only flew a 206 for about 3 months in college for a small operation but I really had a lot of fun and I picked up a couple hundred hours too.


CD

 

[U-I pilot]

I know of at least one place that has a 206 or 182 postion open.

Care to share where this is?

 

[SpocksBeard]

GO FLY SKYDIVERS! I did it for a summer during college too and it was one of the best flying experiences I've had. The pay was laughable but at least they gave me something. I only flew about 50 to 60 hours for them over the summer, but I was only there 4 days a week during the middle of the week. If you do this try to get on with the drop zones with turbine equipment (obviously). You'll fly a 182 or 206 for a long time, but once they like you you can move up fast.

 

[YaMama]

Just the other day I heard a training flight practicing holding about 1,000' below a cloud deck, around 3,000. Personally, I would have climbed up into the clouds with the student to get the real experience.

Man, flying in the clouds with an 80 hour student at the controls and an overworked controller on the radio - what a blast! (seriously).

BTW, it's pretty cool how most non-pilots will react when you tell them you're a flight instructor - the job has a lot of cachet for people who don't know about the aviation food chain. Not that that's a reason to do it - it's just another of the little things that I relish about being a CFI...



P.S. Is there a way to adjust the blink rate on this stupid cursor? It's giving me a headache ...

 

[Icywings2]

Look, get off of flynething!!!

He didn’t start the thread to open a debate about PFT or to ask the wild animals to circle around him and tear him up.

He asked for some advice and from what I can see not many of you have given any. Instead you have almost all torn him apart for making the decision he made. He has already said that he was lured into the pft thing. Just because he would like an alternative to being a CFI all of the poor little CFI’s out here have gathered around and done nothing but be a bunch of jerks.

Badger, sydeseet, Timebuilder, pb, --- You strike me as the number one group of jerks in this little group. How dare you post such crap to a person asking for your advice and help? How RUDE is that? I would hate to have you as my instructor I would be afraid to ask you for some instruction. You may be upset that I don’t want to do the approach your way and rip me apart. You are disgrace to other pilots. This forum is set-up to help each other.

Some of you go with PFT some of you go CFI and some of you don’t do either. I know 4 people that did PFT that are flying for airlines today on a NON PFT basis. Oh and if you are concerned about who they are with …allow me to list.

American Airlines
Comair
Delta
Executive Jet

I also know some that went the cfi route. It seems to me that the majority of the CFI’s out there have a bit of an attitude. They are always the ones that seem negative. I wonder why that is. Usually it is jealousy, that they weren’t able to earn enough money on their own to afford PFT, but maybe not.

I did some PFT and I am dong my MEI. Why? Because I think all experience is good experience. The PFT flying gave me something no CFI job could ever give me. Until you do it, don’t bag it. Also, the CFI stuff gives a discipline that PFT didn’t. PFT was more CRM stuff when being a CFI you are on your own. I have done both and can talk about both. Hey Badger, sydeseet, timebuilder or pb, did you do both? I bet not! So don’t talk about something you don’t know anything about.

FLYNETHING—I am sorry that I myself can’t offer some advice since that is really the purpose of this thread. However, I just can’t sit back and watch a bunch of anonymous babies rip you apart for asking anymore. On behalf of the majority of the airline community I apologize and am embarrassed by some of this. Good luck and I really hope it works out for you. Don’t listen to some of the idiots here. Take the positive ideas and run with them. Yea the PFT might bite you in the rear during an interview if someone like badger is on the interview board, but from what I know from people that make the decision to hire, they actually look on it pretty positively.

However, they also like a CFI on there. So, maybe become a double threat and do both. I know if you are a CFI, have B1900 time, and you are up for the same job against someone that only is a CFI with no PFT, well, bye bye CFI. You’ll get the job due to having the CRM, PFT and CFI experience that the CFI won’t have. Common sense should tell us all that.

Sorry to ALL for being so long winded, I just think it is so wrong to rip people apart that ask for help. If he had asked what people think about PFT vs CFI, God help the internet for the fury that would occur.  Since he didn’t ask that, well…. You get my point.

Like Rodney King once said… “Can’t we all just get along?” hehe

 

[sydeseet]

Quote: "Badger, sydeseet, Timebuilder, pb, You strike me as the number one group of jerks in this little group."


I think we've been trumped..........

 

[p.b.]

Icywings2,

Since you had no job ideas for Flynething, your post proves the exact point I was making. There is very little he can do with 330 hours other than take the regional interview offered at the end of his pft or Flight Instruct.

You are correct I did not PFT, I was in a position to fly for a regional which required pft and one that did not. I chose what I felt was the respectable route, and I did not buy my job. I'm proud of that choice, if you are proud of paying for your job then be proud. You only have to answer to your own conscience.