One more Hurdle....

DoWhat?

DoWhat?

Well-Known Member
* The above listed times are minimums s most applicants hired have more flight time. It is strongly recommended that applicants be employed in a full time flying. position. Hours acquired in banner towing, traffic watch or aerial photography are not the best way to build flight time.

The Information above is from the ASA sight regarding pilot recruitment.
Ok...so I built my time flying aerial surey and now it seems that my time just isn't that good. I understand that teaching will lead to a deeper understanding, but give me a little credit here. The time flown with these aerial survey outfits is typically in hectic airspace with the added rsponsibility of the camera system. Surely there is some value to that!

Maybe I've just been up to late filling out applications but I need some help here! Will I be considered second class because five hundred of my nine hundred hours were achieved with a job other than flight instruction?
 
DoWhat? said:
. . . so I built my time flying aerial surey and now it seems that my time just isn't that good.
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This isn't something new. If you research here on the forum (and any other forum, and in most bars and hotel parking lots), you'll find that this has been preached for some time now.


Will I be considered second class because five hundred of my nine hundred hours were achieved with a job other than flight instruction?
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Yes.
 
If you have 900hrs and some multi I don't think you'll have much of a problem. Anywhere specific you are trying to get on besides ASA?
 
I don't think you'll have a problem. If your up on your IFR skills and knowledge they probably won't care where you got the hours. Get current ME time (even if you've got enough ME) and you'll get a job somewhere. With everyone desperate for pilots your probably over qualified with 900hrs of flight time anyhow, LOL...
 
I'll be blunt--I've done a lot of flight instructing, and a little bit of dropping skydivers, and it's only reinforced my opinion that flight instructing is head and shoulders above the "other ways" to build time.

Dropping skydivers doesn't even compare. The two shouldn't even be discussed in the same sentence. Being a jump pilot is ridiculously easy.

Are there challenges, and new experiences with being a jump pilot? Sure. It can be pretty fast-paced at times. It's probably refreshed me on my actual stick and rudder skills a little. But the meat of really being a pilot...learning subtle nuances, making decisions, dealing with people...it just doesn't happen in the way being a CFI develops a person.

I imagine it's the same with the other time building methods listed on ASA's web site.

Now, will it actually hurt you in an interview? I doubt it. Airlines are desperate for bodies right now.

But in 20 years, when I'm on a hiring board somewhere, no, I won't be looking at a 900 hour CFI and a 900 hour photo pilot and think, "Yep, these guys are about the same." It's not that I'd automatically dislike the photo pilot. It's just that the CFI would have more street cred with me from the moment he walked in the door. That's my personal view of things after having done both.
 
jrh said:
I'll be blunt--I've done a lot of flight instructing, and a little bit of dropping skydivers, and it's only reinforced my opinion that flight instructing is head and shoulders above the "other ways" to build time.

.............

I imagine it's the same with the other time building methods listed on ASA's web site.
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You would be wrong. I've done pretty much all of those things. The website specifically lists aerial photography and banner towing for a couple of reasons. Though these jobs build you allot of time they don't do allot for your ability to operate in busy airspace or dealing with multiple problems at once or give you a chance to fly/operate IFR. They are all generally done VFR in the same small area of airspace.

Aerial survey is a job that takes you all over the country in every kind of airspace over a different area every day. You fly IFR in the IFR system not just going out to shoot the same dozen approaches again.

I flight instructed and learned a ton and it is a great way to reinforce all those things you've learned as well as see whats happening from another POV. All of which increases your ability and skill as an aviator.

That being said I also learned a ton about operating aircraft, dispatch, MX, aircraft management, flight planning, weather, decision making etc.. with my survey job that I didn't even consider when i was a flight instructor.


and dont listen to MTSU..hes just another one of those spiky haired ipod wearing rj babysitters now:yar:
 
Texasspilot said:
You would be wrong. I've done pretty much all of those things. The website specifically lists aerial photography and banner towing for a couple of reasons....

Aerial survey is a job that takes you all over the country in every kind of airspace over a different area every day. You fly IFR in the IFR system not just going out to shoot the same dozen approaches again.
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My bad. I misread the original post. It was first thing in the morning for me and I thought the OP had done aerial *photo* work, not aerial survey work.

I can see the merits to aerial survey work, and I consider it legit "good experience" flying.

The other types of work, I stand by my original comments--flight instructing is many times more difficult and many times better experience.
 
jrh said:
Are there challenges, and new experiences with being a jump pilot? Sure. It can be pretty fast-paced at times. It's probably refreshed me on my actual stick and rudder skills a little. But the meat of really being a pilot...learning subtle nuances, making decisions, dealing with people...it just doesn't happen in the way being a CFI develops a person.
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I think flying jumpers really helped my basic stick and rudder skills. It really helped solidify my abilty to "be one with" the airplane. It was also the place where I made my biggest screwup and closest to crashing an airplane.

It was a really fun job, and I had a blast.


However, once you master the basic rooutine, there isn't much learning.


A good mix of the two is nice, but 900 hours of jump flying alone dosen't qualify as good experiance in my opinion.
 
It really is too bad that the airlines are hiring with such low numbers these days. The best learning experiences I had were single pilot IFR freight. That trumps flight instruction. Unfortunately, the industry has you in the right seat of an RJ long before you get the 1200 hours you need to be on your own. I'm not bashing on anyone, but the opportunity is lost when you jump to the regionals too early. Seniority based ascension requires you to get on with an airline as soon as you can.

There is a lot to be said for any flight experience that makes that other seat empty, though. The opportunity to get on with ASA is there since every airline is scrambling for pilots now. If your hours aren't exactly the type that they are looking for, you gotta sell them. Present yourself in a manner that proves that you have learned what they need you to know and you won't have any problem.
 
If Lloyd can spike his hair, I can find something that fits at Abercrombie and Fitch.

Just keep moving up and plugging away. I "think" what they're trying to convey is 1000 hours of banner towing time isn't as attractive as say, 1000 hours of flight instruction or 1000 hours of part-135.

Not that it won't count, per se, just that whether we agree or not (and even mentioned by a recruiter this past weekend), there's a certain hierarchy to how you built the flight time.

What they prefer and what actually shows up on a resume of a number of applicants when they've got to get butts in seats are mutually exclusive.
 
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