Is this realistic??? Advice, please.

[mackinho's]

Medium number of hours, some turbine time, no turbine pic, 121 experience (furloughed). Currently working at a good paying non-flying job. Married, two kids.

I've got contacts at the two big-name jet training facilities here in Dallas to do right seat sim stuff. Which, I understand can lead to good corporate jobs.

If I do that, can I find a decent-paying job flying corporate here in Dallas?

I have turned down interviews at ASA and Pinnacle. I can't afford (money and time away from home) to fly for regional airlines.

I'm a good pilot, look good on paper and reasonably easy to get along with. I'm sitting on the fence about flying for a living. Any advice for me?

 

[LA Confidential]

I'm a good pilot, look good on paper and reasonably easy to get along with. I'm sitting on the fence about flying for a living. Any advice for me?

Anybody with stick time in a X-15 is a bada$$ in my book.

 

[mackinho's]

Well, yeah.

The U2 was harder to fly, though.

 

[Timebuilder]

85,000 plus is a lot of time. Did you fly with Lindberg?

 

[mackinho's]

It's all time building stuff. C-150's, apache's for the twin time. The Air Force big wigs let me fly all I wanted, no questions asked, so I bored holes in the sky. Then when it came time to slide into a hot ride, my stick skills were razor sharp. I turned down that Mercury 7 stuff, though. I need to work on my logbook, that 85k number was from a couple of years ago.

Anyone have any advice on my original post?

 

[empenage]

Mackinhos:

You should update your sidebar there guy. You got everything but the 3 Shuttle landings.

But really, the answer to your question is "yes it is possible". If you can keep the day job, so much the better. As a sim F/O you will meet everybody in the corporate world and they will meet you as well.

Empenage.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Imagine.....

spending the time and effort to sit down and make that profile up and post questions like that............
wow....but....

I did get a laugh out of it, and yeah you are a badass for flying the X-15....!!!

 

[banned username 2]

How many hours is "Medium" hours? That is a very vague description... To a CFI, Medium hours is 800.. to a 10,000 hour pilot Medium hours is 5,000....

If you do this right seat thing for FSI or SimuFlight, make sure you learn the aircraft VERY well and are a VERY strong co-pilot.... If you are weak in the sim, no one will ever think of giving you a chance at anything bigger and better.

Also keep in mind the industry is very stagnant right now, so are you prepared to ride right seat in the sim for the next couple years?

If you are a really sharp pilot, know the aircraft well and are a good co-pilot and a likeable person this could generate some leads for you.... If not you will be a warm seat for the sim ride....

If you have a choice of aircraft, go for the more entry level aircraft (smaller Citations, Lears, Falcon 10 or 20, etc...) these operators will be more likely to hire someone with "Medium" time and would be more likely to hire an "unknown"..... Generally the larger operators who fly the bigger aircraft (Gulfstreams, Challengers, Falcon 50 or 900's) generally have a long list of guys waiting to move into any potential opening... I personally think you would have better luck getting in on the smaller aircraft...

Good Luck!

 

[CIII flyer]

I agree with Falcon Capt. Your best bet is in the entry level stuff. I used to work at Simuflite, and a lot of Citation right seaters got offers. Keep in mind though, the right seat positions are volunteer only- no dinero!

 

[P3-Adub]

Simuflite right seaters.

If I were living in Dallas I would do just that, get a part time gig at Simuflite and ride the sim, get to know people.

A word of caution, I have had some less than ideal experiences with the right seaters who did not know the first thing about a real plane but knew the sim profile so well that the training that I paid for was a bit of a let down. Be a good F/O but don't try to run the show in an effort to impress, I was not that impressed and let Simuflite know in my critique. I was also paired with an FAA inspector on the GIII for recurrent one time and it was a joke, I have never seen so much A$$ kissing before in my career, this guy was a Flightsafety guy checking out Simuflite's program. Again, terrible F/O and it was obvious that all he had ever flown was a sim, never a real plane. Those instructors were on their "A" game during that session ! You were 2 KTS fast on that manuever.

A lot of the Simuflite folks do contract work on the side and this may be a way to get your foot in the door. Dallas, Love Field is a great place for a job search. If that fails, you have all of the other fields around the Dallas area, my guess is the majority of these flight departments train with Simuflite.

Good luck, maybe we'll see ya there during recurrent ? You a furloughed American pilot ?