Pilots Who Have NO Turboprop Time

[BenderGonzales]

Over the last 10 years our profession has changed. We have all read threads that talk about the early to mid-90s when pilots needed 2500 hours TT to be competitive for a job flying a Jetstream or Saab 340. Even then, many of those jobs required a $10,000 "investment".

Today, we face a different paradigm. Pilots with only a few hundred hours can go directly from light piston twins, or even singles directly to a high-performance jet. Many of them came directly from a flight-instruction background, having never flown freight, charter, towed banners, followed pipelines, etc.

I'm curious. How many pilots here have never flown a Turboprop? Do you feel any regret for skipping that segment? Do you feel that you might have learned something flying a 19 seat turboprop (no a/p, no f/a) for 6-8 legs a day?

PS - If you are one of the frosted-hair, backpack, ipod, no-hat, I'm entitled to a quick upgrade crowd, this post is not intended for you. I am well aware that you're flying a jet because you're just THAT good. :smash:

 

[TNHillbilly]

I love my ipod

 

[TNPILOT]

Did not fly a turboprop. Whish I had the opportunity but at the same time the opportunity/pay at XJT was hard to pass up and they called first...before the tprop airlines I applied to. I do believe that I would have learned quite a bit from having flown one especially in regards to weather and refining hand flying. Of course then again you can learn something from flying any new type. I do not think that flying a tprop is some sort of prerequisite for flying a jet. However, I do believe that we'd all be better off if the regionals flew tprops and all the jets went to mainline. Oh well.

 

[RJP]

SJS rules. Props are for boats.:beer:

 

[rjacobs]

Never flew T-props, I would have though, it just didnt work out that way. At my last airline everybody went to the jet, if they had said everybody has to fly the t-prop, great, sounds good to me. If I had gone to eagle instead of XJT I would have requested the ATR down in SJU, I think that would have been fun. I tried to get on with Island Air flying -8's, Horizon for the Q400, but didnt get an interview, oh well.

 

[flyf15]

I've also never flown a turboprop. Had quite a few interviews for turboprops but one for the CRJ came along and I took it. Would I have liked to? Yes. Do I feel like I've missed out? Possibly.

Oh well, I'll try to make up for it by flying airplanes around with no engines at all...

 

[B-J-J Fighter]

Good thread. Well I have flown 2 different T-Props. I'm developing SJS, they get paid more and do less work than we do.

 

[Northern Lights]

I'll tell you what was really easy in the T-prop: Navigation. We were "slant alpha", so it was almost always vectors to the destination. No box to program.

 

[ERfly]

Pilots with only a few hundred hours can go directly from light piston twins, or even singles directly to a high-performance jet.

With all due respect, I fly a low-performance jet. I have also done my time in a turbo-prop, with no apu and sometimes no flight attendant (felt that way with a few of them). I flew it for a crappy airline with low pay. I'm thankful for the time I spent in the turoprop, but I don't miss it.

By the way, I, too, own and love my iPod.

 

[wmuflyguy]

I love my PSP....no TurboProp for me, but maybe in the future.