When to apply

B767

Well-Known Member
Currently working towards my CSEL/CMEL ratings and was wondering if it would be wise to apply to the regionals after getting the ratings, even though I will not be at minimums. Or should I wait until I get to the mins to apply?
 
This is what I've read numerous times on this site: Keep building your hours now and when the industry is looking better and carriers are hiring, you'll be more than ready.
 
This is what I've read numerous times on this site: Keep building your hours now and when the industry is looking better and carriers are hiring, you'll be more than ready.

APPLY APPLY APPLY, and maybe things will turn out the way you want. If you don't apply, you can't possibly get hired.
 
Yeah man, you probably could have gotten away with that back in 2007, but not so much now like the others have said. I was waaay fortunate to have a couple regional airline interviews with essentially a wet ticket. I prepared as much as I could and was successful, however the market fell through big time. I was hired at AE and then let go within a week of employment due to the high oil prices and uncertainty.
<O:p

Like surreal suggested, it would be wise to go ahead and keep on training and pick up your CFI's. With the way the market is now, you could possibly instruct to build that invaluable time and experience. Who knows, you may be getting calls to interview in a year or so if you start now and build that time and experience. You could be in good shape when the market picks up again. It's like the stock market "bye low, sell high" :) <O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p

If you don't want to CFI, that is understandable. Just know that there are few jobs out there that would hire you with so little time. And the jobs that were out there seem to be getting fewer and fewer with the current market. Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions!<O:p</O:p
 
Yes I have been following current events. Never know when things could change again i.e. the rumor about AE hiring next year, and there are still regionals hiring. I wasn't implying that I could get hired nowadays with a wet ticket. I was more thinking along the lines of getting the app in and just updating time to time. And yes I will be getting my CFI rating. Family friend owns an instructing company so I can work there, and he flies a king air for someone and has offered me to fly when he has to ferry it somewhere to pick up the passengers (only log the time no one is on board of course).
 
if you have your multi there is no reason not to log the time whether there are passengers on board or not if you are in fact flying the airplane.
 
Do you have a good flight instructing gig you could hook him up with?

Sure, they're out there. . .might required relocating, of which he is clearly willing to do since he wants to work for a regional. :eek:

Most importantly, the job market isn't so friendly to 250/190 hour wonders anymore - hate to be honest, but that's just the way it is.
 
I just don't see the point in the current industry climate. Even when the carriers do begin to hire again, your resume will be at the bottom of the stack, after all the furloughees get called back and high(er) time guys get hired.
 
Yea, all the regionals are currently hiring high time guys who will abandon them come next spring or even early next year.. Everyone knows it, all the regionals currently hiring are places you wouldn't go during normal times, it's a crazy industry. With a commercial ticket you can't be picky but it never hurts to apply to places that have hired low timers. Personally I don't believe in updating resumes especially at the regional level, I don't think anyone cares. I may be wrong...
 
Sure, they're out there. . .might required relocating, of which he is clearly willing to do since he wants to work for a regional. :eek:

Most importantly, the job market isn't so friendly to 250/190 hour wonders anymore - hate to be honest, but that's just the way it is.

Sweet. And definitely true about the current market. It's crazy how fast things can swing in this industry. It's like night and day.
 
If a place you're interested in is taking applications, there's no reason not to apply as soon as you meet the minimums. All things being equal, an application that has been on file for a length of time with regular updates will carry more weight than an application that is submitted on the fly.
 
Currently working towards my CSEL/CMEL ratings and was wondering if it would be wise to apply to the regionals after getting the ratings, even though I will not be at minimums. Or should I wait until I get to the mins to apply?

The simple answer to the question is to apply when you meet the listed requirements for the job. If their minimums are 500 hours and 100 hours multiengine, you can apply when you have that. No point in applying for a job you are not qualified for.

That said, published minimums and competitive minimums are two different things. When I got out of college in '93, United airlines' published minimums were a commercial pilot certificate and 350 hours as pilot in command. That's it. But the competitive minimums were well above that (something like 6000 hours).

If there are no published minimums, and they don't charge an application fee, apply! It can't hurt. You never know, you may be the token low-time guy they pull from the stack.

That said, consider this: Do you really think, at CPL minimums, you are ready to assume command of a 50,000 pound jet with 50 souls on board, in bad weather, with mechanical problems, and an incapacitated Captain? It could happen. It's happened before.
 
That said, consider this: Do you really think, at CPL minimums, you are ready to assume command of a 50,000 pound jet with 50 souls on board, in bad weather, with mechanical problems, and an incapacitated Captain? It could happen. It's happened before.

I knew a Check airman at a regional that had a massive heart attack in the airport terminal and was less than an hour from letting a guy on his second day of flying a jet, fly it single pilot.
 
I knew a Check airman at a regional that had a massive heart attack in the airport terminal and was less than an hour from letting a guy on his second day of flying a jet, fly it single pilot.

That's why Delta had a policy of assigning a qualified FO to all newhire IOE flights, until the LCA felt that the noob could handle it themselves. That however, was one of the programs cut in the name of frugality.
 
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