Turbine Suburban vs. Piston twin

[BGSkyGuy]

Age old question for all you freight dawgs out there.

You've just become eligible for 135 and have 175 hours multi

You have an offer for a caravan job five nights a week, 1.5 hrs a day for 24k. Single engine turbine obviously

You have another offer to fly a piston twin five nights a week, 4+ hours a night, for 20k. Based in the midwest with lots of hard IFR, no auto pilot, ice, etc

Which is the best move, factoring in career advancement and safety. What would you do? Help me out freight dawgs!

 

[mcjohn]

If the cavavan job upgrades to multi I'd do that. Turbine PIC. I'm no freight dog though.

 

[myq2u]

Well, your choices are:

1.5 hour/day in a SINGLE turbine = 1.5*5=7.5hours/week or 30hours/month or 360hours/year in a SINGLE engine turbine aircraft.

Versus

Piston twin 4 hours a day = 4*5=20hours/week or 80 hours/month or 960 hours/year in a piston twin.

You have 175 hours multi time right now? Looks to me like you definitely need more multi engine time, way more if your goal is FedEx, UPS, etc. I’d say get as much multi as you can and look for a multi turbine operation further down the road. Ideally you want multi AND turbine at the same time, but if you have to chose one or the other I’d go for multi because you have so little of it. Good luck to you.

 

[acpilot]

no question

no question, go for the multi

 

[Big Duke Six]

I'll third the Multi over the Caravan. You need both the increased total time as well as the multi time. Turbines are simpler machines, so getting single turbine time now won't necessarily help you land a multi-turbine job later. The total multi time is worth more. You should be a shoe-in for a multi-turbone freight job soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Good luck! Flying freight is a lot of fun, and you can't beat the experience.

 

[Flysher]

Ive revised my opinion of the Caravan, I would go with the Multi offer 100 percent. The caravan is a neat plane but unless theres some incredible QOL to be had by flying it I would run like hell from it.

 

[frmrBUFFdrvr]

I'm gonna throw in one more vote for the multi. Without a lot more multi time, you aren't gonna get into a turbine multi. And that's what you need to move further. I recently hired a pilot with over 4000 hours but just over 100 of it was multi (a lot of it was flying a van.) The only thing I could put him in initially was a piston twin. Once he has a couple hundred hours multi time, he can upgrade into a turbine.

 

[DirtyBeech]

Who is this high time pilot of which you speak, I haven't met him.....

I agree with all above. If you have some fantastic QOL waiting on you to finish a 'van checkride, or something of that nature then you might want to go with it. Or, if you can network like a madman and have some compromising pictures of recruiters for the big boys, then you might go that route too.

Otherwise, go get your multi time up. 'Van time basically tells me you can drive a big whiny 210 around the sky. Show me a good PA31 driver, and I'll show you a helluva pilot.

 

[GravityHater]

Which is the best move, factoring in career advancement and safety.

woah, didn't see that.
Does that change anyone's suggestion?
How much emphasis on each of those factors, brusko?

 

[Princedietrich]

Safety wise, the Van is a better bet. This is because the type is a relatively new model compared to some of the freight dawg planes you'll find out there, so they will be in better shape "in theory." You also have the advantage of a turbine engine and a fixed gear plane so there are fewer chances for a mechanical mishap or an operator-induced mishap. Plus, you gotta love a plane that can do 175 to the middle marker and still put down on the 1k markers.

Career advancement wise, go for the twin. You'll build time faster and it will be real quality time since it's single pilot multi in hard IFR. The skill level will go through the roof. Just don't get your hopes up of flying something shiny and new, odds are you'll be in something with 4 paint jobs at the same time and smells of old oil and beerfarts.

QOL wise, this is hard to say. Obviously the Van job would pay better right out of the gate, but without knowing anything about the companies involved and the types of upgrade potential or bennies an intelligent decision can't be made here. There is also the factor of company stability, because you don't want to get hired on and find out 2 months later that the front doors have been padlocked.

Of course, you could always go for a reserve gig at Airnet and get the best of both worlds: Van time AND piston twin time.

Ultimately the decision is up to you, so consider the insight of the freight dawgs here and think it over carefully. Good luck to you.