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Big Iron type rating for instructional.

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scubabri

Junior Mint
Joined
Jan 8, 2003
Posts
550
Ok, I've thought about a new angle on this whole no money no job thing.

I've seen several posting for A320, 767, 737 type rated instructors. I'm about ready to get my CFI.. if I get a type rating and a CFI, CFI-I, MEI, what kind of experience are these guys looking for to be a simulator instructor?

Thanks,

Brian
 
I would save your money...... A "type" with NO previous experience in that aircraft will be just about useless.

These companies are looking for guys with "previous" 121 experience in that specified aircraft.. Most also want prior teaching time in the equipment.

cheers

3 5 0:confused: :D
 
Brian,

I would make some phone calls and get the "specifics" for that particular sim or instructing job.. Some companies and contractors will take on a newly minted typed guy to instruct, all depends really on the "need" at the time the job is posted. (stranger things have happened) I never thought a ground instructor who was fired from COEX for botching a few 1900 systems classes ( that had to get taught over again) being fired from Great Lakes as a 1900 instructor/ pilot for numerous reasons could reappear present day at another 121 regional holding the same title- go figure..... all within a matter of three years.- so never underestimate the impossible-

There are some exceptions but for the most part I think you really need some kind of experience in that equipment, not just a "type".

good luck-

3 5 0

ps>> the pilot mentioned in the above does not even have a type rating and is currently a first officer as well as lead 1900 ground instructor for this particular airline. So you neva know....
 
Type ratings

Really, a type rating without time in type won't help you much. Take it from someone who knows. I bought a Citation type because I thought it would help me get on with a commuter. I figured that the type would prove that I was trainable and could be typed. I had also heard AEX used a Citation sim for testing its applicants. I had an interview there and it did use a Citation sim, but my airplane experience helped me very little. About the only places where the type helped me was when I applied for senior flight instructor jobs.

Places that hire sim instructors with types usually want people with high total time, good time in type, and experience in ops in which the type aircraft are used. Yes, it very much is a Catch-22. If I were you, I'd set my sights a little lower for the time being.

Good luck with your plans.
 
There is another option. Do you live near a sim training center? from time to time places like FSI use low time pilots as fill in right seaters for trainees who come in as singles. I know of two pilots who worked that into corporate jobs.

Worth looking into.
 
Don't be discouraged from pursuing a sim instructor job. Flight Safety and Simuflite (and others) frequently hire pilots with no experience in type to teach their classes. I was once offered a Lear instructor position, and at the time I had no lear experience. I'd never even sat in one. The firm making the offer was nonplussed. Later, when flying a lear, my employer sent two captains to recurrent. They came back commenting that their instructor had never flown lears.

I got a kick out of a newly minted captain who came back from flight safety. He told me about what he'd seen in the sim, and how the airplane was uncontrollable without the yaw damper engaged. He told me how exceeding Mmo caused violent aileron actions, and all sorts of other sim myths. One of his first approaches in actual to minimums, he kept saying, "Wow! This is just like in the sim!" He was a classic, but imagine the folks who never did anything but fly the sim.

The problem with larger types is that there are a lot of people out of work with considerable experience in type, and they are more than content to draw a paycheck teaching in the sim. That puts you at the bottom of the list, if you've got a fresh type and no experience. More than experience in type, experience in general is useful. It's not a big deal to take someone who has similiar experience, but it would be a bit of a leap to come from a fresh commercial pilot to teaching line pilots in a heavy airplane.

Bear in mind that specific type experience isn't always necessary, and holding a type rating for the airplane isn't important. There are more than a few instructors out there who are ground instructors, and don't hold a type, or don't have experieince in type.

If you get hired into a specific airplane, you'll learn it and teach it to their standards, and will get typed as part of their program. I certainly wouldn't go pay for a type rating in the hope of getting hired into a sim instructor position.

If you desire to go that route, you will find that you can begin teaching one type, and bid into other positions as they come open...getting some book experience with various types of airplanes over an extended period of time. This isn't really practical as far as jumping into those airplanes on the line...but you'll come out with plenty of systems understanding and theoretical knowledge.

On the other hand, the entry level pay for teaching in a type program is decent. As I recall, the entry level pay for the lear position was something like fifty thousand, just to teach, with office hours and regular days off. That's not bad. They did want practical flight and line experience for that position, but none in type.

I guess what all of that boils down to is don't be discouraged from at least trying. If you feel it's something you want to do, get some resume's out, get some app forms and fill them out, and pursue it. You never know what opportunities might arise.
 

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