Flying Illini
Hit me Peter!
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2003
- Posts
- 2,291
I'm nearing 1000hrs TT. I am lucky enough to have over 400hrs of turbojet time. I currently have more DA-10 time than 2 of the captains I fly with. They ask me operational and aircraft questions. I have more DA-20 time than 1 of the captains I fly with. Same situation as above. The -10 is one captains first jet. He has 4500 hrs of cheyenne time and he is a good pilot but the -10 is fast and it is a handful for him. He keeps up with the airplane but I watch him more than he watches me.
He is a great captain and I respect his skills and the flying knowledge that he has to share. The only reason I bring this up is to show that this argument can go both ways.
And personally, I routinly handfly into the FL's and anything below 10,000 on the descent...including low approaches. I feel that if anything, at my low TT I have something to prove. THere is more pressure on me to perform than there is on a higher time pilot. People tend to think that just because someone has 3000 hrs that they are competent good pilots. Not always the case...shoot, I've come across pilots who have 2-3000 hours but over 2/3rds of it is banner towing! They can tow a banner better than I can, they can land a tailwheel better than I can, but I wouldn't want to be flying a low approach in icing into ORD with them.
Who would you hire...1000hr CFI-I/MEI (who flies in good or bad wx) or a 3000hr banner tow pilot (who flies mindless hrs up and down a beach at 50mph)? I would go with the lower time-higher quality person.
I feel that if I can't perform my assigned duties to as high a level as a captain, than I shouldn't be here. My goal is the left seat, not the eternal right seat so I might as well start flying and making decisions like a captain. Have I made wrong decisions before? Yes. But nothing that is going to affect the safety of flight. There is one captain whom I fly with regularly that treats me like a captain. He creates the environment that I'm the new captain and he's the training captain (which he is). I file the flight plan, I plan the fuel, I make all of the decisions. Of course I run everything through him and he either agrees or disagrees and if the latter is the case, he makes a suggestions or guides my decision making process in another direction.
Before anyone jumps on my case for being overconfident or whathaveyou, I don't intend to come across that way. I just feel that you can take an older guy and a younger guy, drop them into a new environment for both of them, and they will both accel. I realize that I am NOT captain material...yet. There is still learning to do, just as everyone (left seat or right seat) has learning to do on every flight.
Too much weight is placed on TT and not enough on quality of time. Yet, to get that quality time, someone has to take a chance and give a low time CFI or banner pilot their big break. Everyone on this board got their break somewhere...for some in came sooner, for others it came later.
He is a great captain and I respect his skills and the flying knowledge that he has to share. The only reason I bring this up is to show that this argument can go both ways.
And personally, I routinly handfly into the FL's and anything below 10,000 on the descent...including low approaches. I feel that if anything, at my low TT I have something to prove. THere is more pressure on me to perform than there is on a higher time pilot. People tend to think that just because someone has 3000 hrs that they are competent good pilots. Not always the case...shoot, I've come across pilots who have 2-3000 hours but over 2/3rds of it is banner towing! They can tow a banner better than I can, they can land a tailwheel better than I can, but I wouldn't want to be flying a low approach in icing into ORD with them.
Who would you hire...1000hr CFI-I/MEI (who flies in good or bad wx) or a 3000hr banner tow pilot (who flies mindless hrs up and down a beach at 50mph)? I would go with the lower time-higher quality person.
I feel that if I can't perform my assigned duties to as high a level as a captain, than I shouldn't be here. My goal is the left seat, not the eternal right seat so I might as well start flying and making decisions like a captain. Have I made wrong decisions before? Yes. But nothing that is going to affect the safety of flight. There is one captain whom I fly with regularly that treats me like a captain. He creates the environment that I'm the new captain and he's the training captain (which he is). I file the flight plan, I plan the fuel, I make all of the decisions. Of course I run everything through him and he either agrees or disagrees and if the latter is the case, he makes a suggestions or guides my decision making process in another direction.
Before anyone jumps on my case for being overconfident or whathaveyou, I don't intend to come across that way. I just feel that you can take an older guy and a younger guy, drop them into a new environment for both of them, and they will both accel. I realize that I am NOT captain material...yet. There is still learning to do, just as everyone (left seat or right seat) has learning to do on every flight.
Too much weight is placed on TT and not enough on quality of time. Yet, to get that quality time, someone has to take a chance and give a low time CFI or banner pilot their big break. Everyone on this board got their break somewhere...for some in came sooner, for others it came later.