Purdue flight school offers jet training

[UndauntedFlyer]

There is really little value in a particular type rating unless there is a potential job in that type airplane.

A young person is better off to network until he/she learns of a potential opening. Talk with the chief pilot and offer to pay for their own type in the plane they will be flying. At least if they go for it you'll get rated and will follow-up with real experience and a job.

A type rating with no significant flight time in this or that airplane is just about worthless.

 

[CX880]

A type rating with no significant flight time in this or that airplane is just about worthless.

EXACTLY. Sadly most that will go there will not think about this before spending their money. I can tell you for sure that Sally or Suzy from HR will not give a damnn if you have a space shuttle type rating if you don't meet their posted mins, because they can't tell the difference between the space shuttle and a 152. Unlike the real world jobs, there is no use in padding pilot resumes with type ratings and CRJs and SR71s, flight time is about 90% factor in entry level flying.

 

[spitfire1500]

The students at Purdue also fly the 2 King Airs with instructors carrying staff to meetings. The students dont pay anything extra to take this course, unlike a lot of schools that do charge.

Do you guys have a guy named M. Suckow in that program

 

[BoilerUP]

Do you guys have a guy named M. Suckow in that program

Yes; in fact Suckow is the one who was spearheading this turbine/training fleet update.

 

[Tristar]

Your students in the right seat are ballast.

Not true. I went through the program, and in fact was in the initial group the went to FSI and flew the Diamond (no type rating back then). Even on the King Airs, the students flew the aircraft and received valuable instruction. As someone else put it - it's learning to operate turbine aircraft in the real world, not just an Arrow or a Barron in the training environment (a very big difference).

they should take the (I'd bet around 20K) $$$$$ they are going to spend on this "type rating" and by Cessna 150 time. At 75/hour rental 20K would be around 250+ hours of PIC and skills like simple VISUAL APPROACHES and judgement/decision making that you are not going to get in some less than 20 hour simulator or "gemni" program in the VLJ. Plus the type is useless at 200 hours anyway.

I don't know what the cost structure of this new format will be, but I didn't pay one cent for my FSI training, nor for the flight time in the King Airs and the Diamond. I did pay a small amount to be enrolled in the course - whatever the going rate was for (IIRC) 4 credit hours per semester. No flight fees or other gimmicks, and all of my expenses were paid when I was working. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. One method of developing judgment is through mentoring, which is exactly what the program has historically provided.

Yes, a type rating at 200 hours certainly won't get you into the left seat of a jet without adult supervision (or it shouldn't), but it does provide at least two credentials (in this case anyhow): One, you've passed a formal program of turbine aircraft systems and the oral exam associated therewith. Two - you can pass a check ride in a jet to ATP standards.

Geesus Krist - can't people do it the right way. The hard way instead of taking the short cut all the time.

I think I did do that. After I graduated, I spent the next several years flying piston singles, twins, and the occasionally right seat in a turboprop or light jet building time and experience. I had my ATP and over 1700 hours total time before I was hired into a Part 135 operation. I flew there for over four years and had over 4000 hours before I was hired at a 121 carrier. I didn't think that constituted shortcutting, but I may be biased. Also, for what it's worth, I never intended to be an airline pilot. Always wanted to fly corporate (Gulfstreams to be specific), but the current of life has carried me where it will and here I am (wondering what part of medical school or engineering seemed like such a bad idea at the time).

I actually do agree with the general premise of your post - if someone thinks this is a shortcut or way to get around building real experience they are absolutely wrong. I do believe there is no substitute for BOTH hours of flight time and years of experience. What the program has done in the past (and what it's continued goal should be) is to give students a jump-start on some of that by providing experience which they would normally not be able to get for several years and a thousand or more hours (in normal times, not the recent 300-hour wonder years). They can in turn draw on the experience they received from these mentors as they DO spend the next several years building more experience. Rather than have haphazard experiences from various questionable sources (such as shoddy 135 operators) as a basis for knowing how things should be done, they have experienced the right way, and can use that as a basis for further learning and discovery.

 

[wlacy]

out of sympathy I am golfing buddies with this old, grumpy fellow who has been flying for Purdue for many years. His love is the Turbine Flight Ops program (king air and B400). You should hear some of the things he has to say about this new-fangled light jet Purdue is acquiring and the people "spearheading" the process. Most of my flying boilermaker friends talk about these things and cannot picture some kid hopping into a beat-up 152 or 310 to instruct and make one's way into this tough entry-level after flying around in a glass-panel cirrus.

Perhaps I may have become jaded after a few years of flying a piston aero commander in the middle of the night but I sure as heck did not put all my eggs into one basket after spending and enormous sum for a Purdue education. I've done everything under the sun even at the ripe age of 23. flown skydivers, traffic watch, currently flying checks....its the right way to go outside of a military path and without influential connections. Marketing a light jet type to new pilots is a bogus scheme in my book.

 

[Tristar]

To clarify - I'm not familiar with how this change is being implemented and marketed. If it's how I fear it is, then I agree it is going down the completely wrong path and doing a great disservice to both the students and what has long been an excellent program.

My previous post was intended to point out that there can be legitimate use of such aircraft in a collegiate flight training program.

I know the grumpy golfer of whom you speak. While I haven't talked to him in quite a while, I think I share his concerns for where the program is headed.

Beyond all of that, as much as I enjoyed the aviation program and I did get a very good education out of it - I really wish I had gone to Purdue in pharmacy (if I could have gotten accepted) and taken the flight courses as a minor. Given what this career has become over the last 20 years (and where it appears to be headed for the foreseeable future), I truly can't see why anyone would go into it (which truly saddens me, it SHOULD be a great career). It's just insane.

I probably need to make a pilgrimage to Lafayette soon and see if I can't hook up with TQC, and RMG. I'd really like to hear their thoughts on all of this.