Life after turbo props

[Justino2]

Ask the pilots who have gotten hired at SW, jetBlue, Continental, and North American.
Speak loudly though we can't hear so well.

 

[acaTerry]

EXPERIENCE

Believe me, when a HR department looks at a stack of apps and they can weed out the non-turbojet, non-EFIS, low-time applicants, they will--UNLESS--you know someone. The exception is the regional carriers, who right now, are desperate to find bodies with a 98.6 degree temperature.

It takes a lot less in training costs to bring a guy up to speed in your equipment if he is already qualified in that equipment, or who already has been flying and is familiar with the same sorties somewhere else. Even FSi can punch them out, some with a couple extra hours of SIM. But, when it takes 45 hours of IOE to spool them up on line, they are noticing.

T8

Gotta disagree here. AirTran was scooping up J32 pilots from us like nuts.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Plenty of Turboprop guys getting on at places like SWA and AirTran. Talked to an XJ guy in DFW who was hired at SWA with only sf340 time and no 737 type at the time of the interview. Experience...yes but not completly based on airplane. I would also think a persons ability to learn plays a roll. I'm sure we all have seen the joker with tons of experience but dumb as a .... I have. cya

 

[Regul8r]

EXPERIENCE

Believe me...but, when it takes 45 hours of IOE to spool them up on line, they are noticing.
T8

Keep telling yourself whatever you got to in order to sleep at night, Betty. The way you tell it, perhaps you were the one who had diffuiculty transitioning over to jets. An added benefit to hiring T-Prop guys - you don't have to teach them a thing about weather!

But I digress...as has been previously stated on here, it's who you are that will make or break the interview.

 

[jhwflyer]

Had a buddy of mine get hired at SWA back in Oct. He went from flight instructing to flying the 1900 at Commutair to SWA in four years. He has a two year degree had 3400 TT and 1500 PIC when they hired him. Knew a couple people there that he used to fly with and that's it. He was just a line pilot. If they like you they'll hire you.

 

[BenderGonzales]

In 1998/1999 nobody required PIC time except for SWA and FedEx. In fact, in July 1998 AirTran hired almost an entire class of former CCAir J31 First Officers.

Look how many major-airline furloughees are out there now without so much as an hour of PIC turbine. Those poor fellows had the rules changed on them in the middle of the game. USAir furloughees with 10,000 hours+ and typed in the 737...still aren't qualified to even apply at SWA.

 

[ERJpusher]

In 1998/1999 nobody required PIC time except for SWA and FedEx. In fact, in July 1998 AirTran hired almost an entire class of former CCAir J31 First Officers.

Look how many major-airline furloughees are out there now without so much as an hour of PIC turbine. Those poor fellows had the rules changed on them in the middle of the game. USAir furloughees with 10,000 hours+ and typed in the 737...still aren't qualified to even apply at SWA.

Thus the importance of getting PIC time when you can.

Back to the original question. I believe that this is a hard question to answer right now. Most people are referencing a period time when the percentage of turboprop aircraft far outnumbered the percentage of RJs. Since the explosion of the RJ, most major airlines haven't been hiring. You can't compare numbers 10 years ago to right now. Of course a lot of people were going directly from a TP to a major in 1995-- there weren't hardly any regional jets operating.

That being said, at SWA there seems to be a much higher percentage of people with jet time being hired than without. However, there are still plenty of turboprop-only guys getting on.

Time will tell (probably within the next couple of years) how this trend will really shake out.

 

[climbhappy]

you're never as quick and sharp as you are on a prop, but i think it comes down to can you get through a training program. a good prop driver can quickly handle the faster pace of a jet and keep up.

flying a jet in the sim the with autopilot on was as hard as drinking a beer after i finish my yard work. what's hard is hand flying a turboprop in the sim when bells and whistles are going off and you have a dip$hip as a sim partner.

on the line , with either one as the captain, you either have the right stuff or you're a nervous nellie pissing everybody off. FAs included.

 

[Alaska82]

I'm upgrading at Colgan in May and we have lost so many Captains out of Houston alone in the past couple months, more than half of the IAH Captains have left, CO, SWA, OMNI, Flex, and a couple left for corporate. The best thing at Colgan is that guys leave, you don't retire at a company that pays 50K. It's all about connections, the more people you make friends with that move on and can help you out the better. The mins and someone walking in your resume can beat any other qualification.