time building

[Amish RakeFight]

In my experience, when the restuarant has poor, rude or inattentive service and/or only accepts cash; the food is almost guaranteed to be excellent. They don't care if you don't like their service or can't use CC's; their business flourishes without you while their patrons enjoy the food. Think Soup Nazi.

In short, listen to Avbug's advice. Lots of very good ideas (above), albeit with a gruff attitude.

 

[Lynxman]

Epic I remember all too well when AVBUG and JAFI were all over me for various reasons, sometimes they may seem to think your just a kid looking for the easiest way to a job wether you are or your not. In short even if your doing the same flight from a to b that you have done a million times over challenge yourself a new way on each flight. At my new job the owner just happened to buy a plane and wants to learn instruments more than he has before. So once a week we fly and do ground, I'm not a CFII, but it still helps the two of us learn more and more. An easy way to build some time is putting an ad up at your nearest airport to wash planes. If your new to washing planes look online there is some great writeups and how to's. I built some time doing that for company and while I was paid I met some great contacts. PM me for more details I have a feeling your the same age as me and we've both run into the same problems.

 

[QueensPilot]

Avbug when you had the day time job answering phones was that aviation - related? If you had that and the guard job at night, when did you sleep?

You've made a few posts here indicating at times you have held multiple jobs at one time to make ends meet. Its very admirable. But you are also apparently well read. I find that in any profession, aviation included, you've got to be constantly 'in the books' and other publications to keep on top and be knowledgeable(even though most people dont seem to do this, at least from what I can see in aviation). So how often do you read/study? Do you simply make the time? You seem to be in top of all the info the nanosecond it comes out. Just trying to see how people put in the time and schedule....work, study, network, family, etc etc etc

 

[Lynxman]

It's called having no life outside of aviation. Great for people that are lacking in the social skills area.

 

[acaTerry]

Avbug's about as subtle as a hand grenade. But like the grenade, there's a lot that comes from him when you get over the "boom".

 

[nismo611]

No, he will not, because experience is not a byproduct of time. Flight hours mean nothing, while experience means everything.

If hours are all the poster wants, then falsify them. Write them in the logbook and be done with that, for that's all they're worth.

Don't build hours. Build experience.

Two pilots fly identical airplanes. One drones about for an hour and logs an hour of time. The other flies approaches, performs stalls and slow flight, and practices partial panel work. He also logs an hour of flight time. One has an hour of flight time, the other an hour of experience.

Don't build hours. Build experience.

I've met far too many 10,000 hour pilots who aren't worth their weight in salt...in fact it's quite probably accurate to say that 90% of the pilots out there aren't worth their weight. Lots of time builders, even in professional positions.

Hours are no measurement of a pilot's ability, attention to detail, judgement, or skill. How the pilot matures and develops professionally in response to his or her own experiences, however, are very telling.

Not long ago I was given the task of preparing several pilots for a utility assignment. Each was an experienced airline captain, and one owned several private aircraft (including a Mig, which he used to perform at airshows). The tasks which we performed were simple, but required some element of "multi-tasking." One pilot became airsick, and couldn't do simple turns about a point at low level in mountain turbulence. Another got lost. During an actual inflight emergency involving an explosive depressurization, one became catatonic and unresponsive. None of them had any skill in the use of the rudder. They were afraid of terrain. They were far too conservative for the job. While good individuals, and higher time pilots, their piloting time was not a good indicator of their appropriateness for the job. Lots of hours, not so much experience.

Another pilot was recommended for the job. I was told he was preparing to take a checkride with the FAA, and asked to give him an hour and a half of instruction and prep for that checkride. I was told he was ready, and displayed excellent situational awarenes and habits, and that his judgement was good. I was misinformed. He was not ready, and had very poor habits, dangerous habits, in fact. Moreover, his skill and ability were inferior to most, and I recommended strongly that he be terminated immediately.

In that pilot's case, he had the hours, with prior experience cited as a simulator instructor for a well known training agency, as well as airline experience, and even beginnings at an airline academy. After pressing him during our evening together, the company did some digging and learned his background was falsified, with the airline never having heard of him, and his job history a lie.

I know most of what I need to know about a pilot by talking to them, before we ever get to the airplane or the simulator. In his case, multiple red flags were raised during the pre-brief, enough that I stopped and discussed a long list of those concerns with the management for that operation. The flight produced 20 or so major concerns, from gross misunderstanding of aircraft systems to poor procedures which ranged from a non-existent traffic scan to lack of rudder use to rote use of the checklist...completely missing useful items such as landing gear, etc.

This individual had the hours to get the job, but not the experience. No doubt he'd flown the actual number of hours necessary to qualify for the job, as these were at least recorded in his logbook. How many were falsified, who knows...but the hours did nothing to hide his ineptness; his experience was the determining factor, and it sorely lacked.

Build experience. Not hours. Hours can certainly come with experience, though one's experience may be far in excess of the hours...but it doesn't work the other way around.

All flight time is valuable, although some is worth much more than others. Do everything you can to build your time. No matter what this numb skull says any time you are sitting in the front of an airplane you are bettering yourself and your skills. Even if you are not the one flying there is plenty to learn from observation.

 

[Tristar]

All flight time is valuable, although some is worth much more than others. Do everything you can to build your time. No matter what this numb skull says any time you are sitting in the front of an airplane you are bettering yourself and your skills. Even if you are not the one flying there is plenty to learn from observation.

You certainly gain some experience from any flying, but you gain more experience when you focus on making that time valuable. For example, I gain some experience each time I do an oceanic crossing. I gain more experience when I take the time to really analyze the upper air and satellite charts, plot the observed weather against the forecast, and mentally analyze what the differences are and why. The same applies to a flight around the pattern or across the state, just on a different scale. The point is to focus on making the flight time valuable for something, not just sitting in the front of an aircraft for X number of hours.

I very much agree with your last statement. Even time you can't log can bring valuable experience. Occasionally it can be of the "I don't ever want to do anything that stupid" kind, but if you have the opportunity to ride along with true professionals, you can gain all sorts of positive "mental post it notes" of how to do things well.

 

[waka]

Don't build hours. Build experience.

Two pilots fly identical airplanes. One drones about for an hour and logs an hour of time. The other flies approaches, performs stalls and slow flight, and practices partial panel work. He also logs an hour of flight time. One has an hour of flight time, the other an hour of experience.

Don't build hours. Build experience.

It does not matter what you do during that one hour flight. What really matters is the attitude from which you approach that one hour flight. One pilot can shoot S.E. ILS's, do stalls, MCA, inverted with 3 engines failed etc. until they're blue in the face. The other pilot can drone from point A to point B and still gain more valuable experience. You should know better.

 

[avbug]

Attitude is part of it, to be sure. The point, however, is that simply "building hours" is the wrong approach. Build experience, not hours.

 

[nismo611]

Attitude is part of it, to be sure. The point, however, is that simply "building hours" is the wrong approach. Build experience, not hours.

Ah, always has to have the last word no matter what. I think most people have agreed that hours x attitude = experience. build your hours you will figure it out, no need to ask.