Twin Turbine PIC or Regionals?

[superfreight208]

I have an opportunity to fly for a company logging twin turbine Pic and also am starting to get calls from the regionals. I have about 2500 total and 200 multiengine. This job is a night single pilot freight run with a nice pay check, just curious if anybody has any input?

Thanks

 

[blzr]

This question seems to be popping up alot lately. Nobody cares if it's "JET" or "Turbo prop". they are both jet engines, one has a PROpeller the other an IMpeller. The most Important thing is PIc not SIc. Go get the PIc if you have tho opportunity, even if you make relatively the same as a regional pilot. the experience is what is most valuable at this point in your career.

 

[Xfr8dog]

I'd say go for the PIC Turbine. BUT... how much does the plane weigh? That could be very important.

 

[NEDude]

BUT... how much does the plane weigh? That could be very important.

Not to Southwest, and they are the only true major that is going to be doing a lot of hiring for the foreseeable future. Get a thousand hours turbine PIC so you can at least start a paper trail over there. Then you can start looking at RJ jobs if you desire.

 

[340drvr]

Hmmm.....nice paycheck for a freight job, PIC turbine, I'd have to go with the freight job. Spend a year or 2 there, logging that valuable PIC turbine time. Perhaps you could make one of your 135 checkrides an ATP ride as well, I'd think that would put you in a much better position for the future.

 

[Xfr8dog]

I agree it's pretty much a no brainer... take the freight job! BUT, if you are one of those who is hell-bent on say.. Fed Ex (who is hiring) the weight would make a difference.

 

[superfreight208]

Thanks

Thanks for all the great input, I guess this site is useful after all!! Thanks everyone!

 

[kamikaize]

must be AIRNOW OR WIGGINS

 

[Scube3]

I am in pretty much in the same situation than superfreight. I am building my twin turbine PIC in a 135 environment flying cargo. I have over 200 hours PIC already and I am flying a Shorts (over 20000lbs non-presurized). Now, regionals are calling me and many questions are coming to my mind.... Doesn't Southwest, ATA, and Airtran, etc.. care about having 121 experience? How about EFIS? Would I be competitive with the rest of 121 candidates when the time comes??? If I decided a year later to go to a regional to get my 121 experience...wouldn't I be overqualified?
If somebody has answers....just thinking of this gives me a headache!

Thanks in advance.

Scube.

 

[Habib]

Think Trice

I flew freight for 1.5 years, and loved it, I was ready to upgrade into a SA-227, with a good Pay check, but then I started talking to some people, and more and more started to say get the 121 time, go get a fast upgrade, and wait. I will agree I think there is no difference between Jet and Turbo-prop, and I really don’t think too many people care, but a few other often overlooked issues are true. The often ragged out 135 freight Metro’s, and 99’s don’t have the glass that all new planes are coming with, the rules are a bit different, dealing with scheduling, dispatch, maintenance, etc….



I was holding out hope to go from the Metro to UPS/FedEx, I even talked to some UPS Pilot’s and they said go to the Regionals, one guy I even talked to said he went from the Metro to UPS, but he thinks it would be much harder today. The fact is that most major pilots come from Regionals/Mil, and yes some Freight guys do too, but think of how many freight guys you know, just like I do, that are still waiting for some Major to call because they WON’T go to a Regional.



So IMHO go take the pay cut, try to GUESS who will be in business in 2 years and good luck. Sounds pretty bad huh?



Oh yea, If you happen to know a Chief pilot/CEO/Director of Training/Head of HR, at some major, ignore all of this.

Also, post this on the Cargo Side.

 

[Caveman]

First of all, I'm a regional pilot so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I think times are changing and majors will start to make a distinction between jet and turboprop PIC. When they do start rehiring there will be a bunch of experienced 121 guys with lots of jet PIC in glass A/C looking for work. Add to that all the military guys and I think that a guy with only turboprop PIC time might be at a slight disadvantage. If you having other things going for you that will set you apart from the crowd it might not be all that important, but all else being equal I'm guessing the jet guys will get the nod. My 2 cents.

 

[ThisistheDream]

what kind of turboprop will you be flying? I am assuming you will get a type rating for the kind of turboprop you will be flying. how much flying will you do in a year? If you can get 1,000 PIC turbine multiengine within a year, maybe year and a half i would do that or at least get 500 PIC turbine then start applying to some good regionals becuase you will need some 121 exp. to get hired at UPS, Fedex, Southwest, airtran, frontier etc. You dont see many guys jump to a major without 121 time unless your military. to sum up, if you can get a type rating and fly 75 hours plus month starting i would do that for a year and then you will have an idea what regional might be a good place to go. Then when you get hired at the regional you wont be an FO sitting there with zero PIC and you can still be marketable with then having the 121 time. when you upgrade at the regional you will then have 2 type ratings, plus already have the magic number of 1,000 PIC.

 

[RJET]

Is All About Qol.
With The Current Job, Do You Make More $, Do You Commute, Do You Like It?
It Is Good To Plan Out For The Future In Terms Of The Majors But Do Not Put Your Life On Hold For It, After All Things Change So Often That All Of Time It Comes To Luck.

 

[blzr]

That turbo prop argument is a crock. Anyone that tells you a jet is any more difficult to fly that a T.P is just wrong. ANd any interviewer that views Roger Ramjet a better pilot just because he has CRJ time probably isn't worth a crap anyway.

Get your PIC PIC PIC and move on. Also you are making more than most regional F/O's now anyway.

 

[TIS]

There's more to this than meets the eye

Someone above wrote:
"The most Important thing is PIc not SIc."

That's not necessarily true. Awhile back a guy I knew applied to SWA with thousands of hours of turbine PIC in 99s, 227s, and LR35s under 135. SWA told him to go away. The reason? No MULTI-PILOT crew time. They told him to go work for a regional and get the time.

So in the end all the time he might theoretically have saved by going the PIC route was spent getting a new job, starting out at the BOTTOM of the list AGAIN, and building about 1,000 hours of crew time.

It's all a big gamble. Ideally you'd get a job as PIC (or at least upgrade quickly) in a crew oriented environment. I'm not gonna tell you which is the better path. I think that needs to be decided by other things. Both jobs are good for you career but for different reasons. Pick the reasons you want to gamble on and go for it. Just realize that there are pros and cons to any choice you make. Hopefully you end up with more pros than cons in your column.

TIS

 

[TIS]

And now, on a different but related subject...

Someone else wrote this:

"That turbo prop argument is a crock. Anyone that tells you a jet is any more difficult to fly that a T.P is just wrong. ANd any interviewer that views Roger Ramjet a better pilot just because he has CRJ time probably isn't worth a crap anyway."

Actually, it's not a crock. It depends on what you mean by "harder to fly." While I agree that the physical monkey-motion of manipulating the controls is the same in all airplanes, the finesse and judgment behind the control applications is potentially VERY different.

In this world there are people. Some of those people would like to learn to fly. Of those who would like to learn nearly all can be taught to be a private pilot. A certain percentage of those however, should NEVER attempt anything more.

The same is true of high performance flying. Some multi-engine pilots can learn to fly a Bandeirante or a King Air because they can learn to think faster as the aircraft requires. Some CANNOT! Of those that can however, only a fraction can move on to the performance level that a jet yields. Now, while that fraction i speak of might be large, it is still a FRACTION. The reason that not everyone can fly a jet safely is because not everyone can think at 10 miles a minute. Some should just STAY HOME! That's just a fact that I have have gleened from many years of experience training people to behave well in large aircraft.

So when an interviewer wants to know what kind of airplane you've been flying and the jet/truboprop thing matters, there's a reason for it. It doesn't matter whether you agree with it or not. That's not for you to decide. The fact is that someone, somewhere thinks it matters - based on their experience.

Personally, I wouldn't discount a person's ability to rise to the occasion based solely on the fact that they had no jet time but I'd be sure to put 'em in a jet simulator and see if the pieces are there. You can tell a lot in just a few minutes of watching a person adapt to a flying situation. Not everything, but a lot!

TIS

 

[Indigo]

Awhile back a guy I knew applied to SWA with thousands of hours of turbine PIC in 99s, 227s, and LR35s under 135. SWA told him to go away. The reason? No MULTI-PILOT crew time.

So he was flying a LR35 single pilot?

 

[TIS]

Sorry, didn't mean to be confusing

I could have said that better.

The only crew experience he had was as an SIC in the Lear. The rest of his time was single pilot, turbo-prop time and THAT wasn't very impressive to SWA. They told him to go get more. They added that they would rather see passenger time so they recommended that he pursue a commuter.

TIS

 

[Indigo]

I could have said that better.

LOL, I knew there had to be some sort of misunderstanding.

 

[lamppost]

i was recently in this situation.

I opted for the regional
for me everything was about quality of life. I was tired of living in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I was on call 24/7. The airplane saftey was sometimes an issue. Now im in a big city where there is always something to do, and im flying a bigger better airplane. Sure the pay sucks but for me there were more important factors. i.e. my happiness. I used to being poor anyway.
id much rather be happy.