hard choice

[great cornholio]

My buddy called me today. His current job is a CFI. He has 2 job offers one of them is to fly 135 in a light piston twin. The other is 135 job in a turbine Grand Caravan. He wants to know which time looks better. The twin time or the multi engine time. The Grand Caravan would be good cause its a turbine, but its only single engine and not a complex a/c. The twin is still piston but is a twin. Any suggestions???

 

[Typhoon1244]

Without knowing anything else about the jobs, I'd say the multi time would look better on a resume.

 

[CUEBOAT]

They both have pros and cons that in my opinion even each other out. I'd personally take the caravan job simply because it would be a greater learning oppurtunity. Same operation(135) only in an airplane that is closer to jet.

 

[snoopy_1]

What's the pay for each, what company, you want to stay well clear of some of the contracted UPS feeder van companys.

 

[WrightAvia]

It depends on a lot of things. What your friend's goals are, if the one job requires a move or the other requires a long commute, if the caravan job leads to multi time at that same company, employee benefits, work schedule.

I turned down two multi job offers to fly the van. One was with a UPS Shorts operator as an off the street captain, the other was a 25,000 a year corporate/135 job sic in a Citation XL something or other.

However, when I turned down those jobs, I already had 1,700 multi PIC. If your friend is low on multi time, he might just want to piston twin job.

It's really hard to make up your friends mind for him.

If the caravan job leads to multi time and has a better schedule and allows him to work there without moving and pays more and is with a more reputable operator...I'd say take the van job.

If it's not like that, I'd say get the multi job. It's hard to get multi sometimes.

Good luck to your friend.

 

[414Flyer]

I agree..if he is low on multi time, go for that..if he has a lot of multi, caravan would be a good job

 

[avbug]

Most firms count single engine time as single engine time; weather it's a 172, a corsair, or a caravan makes no difference. Strictly in terms of time, PIC multi is probably the best move so far as establishing an experience base. He will learn more in the piston multi...turbines require less work, make us lazy, and are far easier to operate than any piston airplane.

The money involved, type of work, quality of equipment, location, nature of work, company and reputation, etc, are all important factors in making the decision. After that, it's gut feeling, and I always try to flip a coin to back up that gut feeling (excepting those times when I'm down to one coin, in which case I forgo the flipping to preclude loss of the coin).

My final yardstick has always been tied to the use of a fortune cookie. So far, almost without exception, it's always lead to making the wrong decision. At least it's consistant.

 

[350DRIVER]

My buddy called me today. His current job is a CFI. He has 2 job offers one of them is to fly 135 in a light piston twin. The other is 135 job in a turbine Grand Caravan. He wants to know which time looks better. The twin time or the multi engine time. The Grand Caravan would be good cause its a turbine, but its only single engine and not a complex a/c. The twin is still piston but is a twin. Any suggestions???

Hard choice.?? You have got to be kidding me, this is the easiest choice that one could have to make. Multi-engine time is much much more valuable than any single-engine time could be, without multi-engine time he is not going to go very far in this industry at all. Single engine turbine time is just that, "single engine" turbine time, I sure hope he makes the right call and takes the multi gig. I know we have had quite a few people interview with us with that (caravan operator across the field) and no one that I am aware of ot to my knowledge was offered a position. Insurance company could care less about "single engine" time when it comes to insuring someone on a multi-engine aircraft ....It is all about multi-engine time and that is what most operators are wanting the applicants to have. A friend of mine is flying the caravan present day and wants to move on but he realizes that with little multi-engine time he is somewhat screwed.

3 5 0

 

[great cornholio]

Thanks for you help guys. He has 1200 total and roughly 300 multi. He asked me which I thought would look better on a resume for a regional and I said the multi, but I would ask around. You guys pretty much said what I thought. Even though the Van is a turbine it still is single engine. I just wasnt sure how much that single engine turbine time would be worth and I didnt want to tell my buddy it wasnt worth much without asking some other guys out there. Anyways thanks agian.