Ouality of turbine time

[hudsonhawk]

I currently work for a 135 Cargo company flying non-turbine aircraft. I was recently offered a position flying turbine twin otters and Shorts part 91 with the ability to rack up 1200 hours of multi-turbine time per year. My question is this: would this time look good in my log book? Jump flying is just up and down with no cross country nor IFR experience. Would I be better off staying with a cargo company and waiting the year it will take me to move into a turbine aircraft? Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

[T-Gates]

I currently work for a 135 Cargo company flying non-turbine aircraft. I was recently offered a position flying turbine twin otters and Shorts part 91 with the ability to rack up 1200 hours of multi-turbine time per year. My question is this: would this time look good in my log book? Jump flying is just up and down with no cross country nor IFR experience. Would I be better off staying with a cargo company and waiting the year it will take me to move into a turbine aircraft? Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Go for the PIC turbine... It's invaluable... Worry about quality later after your sitting on tons of it. Another year of Piston PIC won't do any more good for your resume.

 

[Dude]

Quality?

Of course it's quality. Anything that's turbine and PIC is quality. It's not 121, jet, PIC, but it's good time. Doing that many ups and downs will get you real proficient, real fast in those airplanes. I've flown both and they are equally fun to fly. Be very careful with the Shorts if you are hauling jumpers. It doesn't like it's CG being moved aft very quickly. Bottom line, get the PIC.

 

[ifly4food]

Definitely go for the PIC turbine time. Recip is meaningless to the airlines.

 

[Freight Dog]

If it's flying skydivers, get your 1000 PIC and get out of there IN A HURRY!!!! Believe it or not, most airlines don't care if you have thousands of turbine PIC if it's flying skydivers.

Get your time, and try to get on at a regional or something....

 

[hudsonhawk]

Turbine time

Thanks for the advice guys. I believe I am going to take the job. They do all of their training in house. They told me to expect 100 hours of turbine training in the first two weeks alone! I plan on sticking around for the first 1000 hours and then getting into a coporate gig. I cannot see myself flying jumpers for much longer than that!!

 

[Ganja60Heavy]

Totally retarded

Using "turbine time" is a bad indicator of "quality of aviation experience", as it purports to be.

1000 hrs of single-engine piston time as a ferry pilot crossing the Rockies and the Atlantic Ocean is considered inferior to 1000 hrs in an Otter lifting jumpers.

Totally retarded.

But that's what they do, so just get it.

 

[pilotyip]

ME recip PIC

ME PIC even in a recip is good resume stuff. Alot of guys get a good start in there careers flying 135 SE MEL, like Airnet for example. Any one can be a SIC, it does not prove anything until you have been the man in the left seat making decisions. We have hired both jumper turbin PIC guys and ME recip PIC guys they were both easy to train. The failure rate for SIC upgrading without prior PIC time is about 5 times higher.

 

[hudsonhawk]

Thanks pilotyip

I appreciate your advice. You obviously know what you are talking about according to your experience level. Thanks again.

 

[FN FAL]

If it's flying skydivers, get your 1000 PIC and get out of there IN A HURRY!!!! Believe it or not, most airlines don't care if you have thousands of turbine PIC if it's flying skydivers.

Get your time, and try to get on at a regional or something....

I agree, one season is enough. You'll have met whatever obligation your new employer feels you owe him...so you can leave and get a good reference from them. Plus, you'll be logging multi pic turbine. But, it will be almost all vfr, not much cross country, not much night and the flight hours are undocumented flying.

I would recomend that you have some way of documenting your hours, so you have something to prove that you flew that much. Just in case someone challenges your log book. It could happen. It happened to a friend of mine. Since part 91 flying is undocumented, there is a lot of room for fraudulent log book claims, so if you can maybe get printouts from your employer on how many hours you flew or keep a copy of manifest sheets, that might be a good thing.

Twin turbine PIC is a good thing...just don't stay at the dropzone more than a year, if you can help it. There will be a diminishing return for your efforts, if you stay longer. You should be in a good position to take an off the street captain job at a 135 operation or to apply to a national or regional after that year.

 

[414Flyer]

Yeah I was a bit curious too about pt 91 skydiving ME Turbine PIC. One could get 1000 hours in year no problem and have that magic 1000 turbine pic mark, although it is not air carrier.