type rating

tomek_vector

New Member
hi all!
i'm very new to the forum, and like most, trying to figure out the best angle of going after the office with a window at FL350.
just got my private at a local FBO and i'm nearing the decion time of commiting either to DCA or AriBen.

what are the realities of getting a RJ type rating on one's own after the school run is done with?

i know this might sound nuts, but i honestly don't know, thought i'd ask for 'sober' feedback :>
 
Why bother? A type rating and 350 hrs. isn't going to do you any good. Might as well build up the time you need, and when you get hired by someone, let them pay for the type rating.
 
Yeah, it's really not worth your time unless you've got a lot of money to burn and you just want to do it for fun. I imagine that's not the case. And I know that you're new and not even thinking of it from this angle, but if we as pilots conceed too much, the airlines, charter ops, flight schools, etc. will be more than happy to take advantage of us. Take a look around the forums for something called PFT or "Pay for Training". Essentially you're paying a company to hire you and plop you down in the right seat as a first officer or something like that. There are some who would argue that this is no different than paying to train for your flight certificates, but I disagree and I'm not going to get into that.

I wish you good luck. Enjoy the road as much as possible. When you're mid-way through the 12th lazy eight and getting frustrated, just look outside at the ground and remember how much more fun that you're having than that guy in the Ford Escort below you.

smile.gif

Dave
 
... absolutely right :>

does anybody still charge for sim training? i remember in 1997 Comair still used to charge future FOs about 11k payable upfront for the EMB-120 sim training.
 
Depending on your aviation experiance, you can go to a couple of different places to get both your Flight Engineer ticket AND your type in mainly the Boeing 727, but I'd imagine you could do it in the 747, DC-10, L-1011, and maybe the DC-8 still. It costs about $6,000 to get your FE ticket, but for about $3,000 more, you can get typed as well. The extra money is mostly for the extra sim time, but you have already covered the required ground school in the FE class.

Right now, cash is king, and you could probably work some good deals when it comes to your training. This is where I got my FE ticket, and I got my money's worth......and then some.
http://www.aeroservice.com/
 
Getting a type rating in a CRJ/ERJ would probably cost anywhere from $20-45k. It would be hard to put a cost on something like that off the top of my head, but the smaller Citation type ratings go for $7-15k and some of the large business jets are $35 to $45k. A type rating for a regional jet would be a moronic waste of money unless you have so much cash laying around that you just don't know what to do with it. Almost any type rating is a waste of money right after getting your commercial unless you have a friend with a Citation that wants to hire you. Also, keep in mind that First Officers typically do not have type ratings. They just have a SIC checkout. They pretty much have all the training, just no type rating. Only the Captain needs the rating.

After you are qualified for a job, most operators will train you to fly their equipment. Once you get close to an ATP, you may get to know some people and decide that you will be more employable with a type rating. Until then, save your money.

I keep waiting for some regional (besides Gulfstream) to start the PFT thing again. I was not in aviation during the early 1990's, but I think they could get away with it again. The difference the last time around was that airlines would take people who were qualified, hire them and make them pay for training. It was not taking a 200 hr commercial pilot, having them pay for 250 hours of turbine time and then sending them on their way.
 
PFT has not disappeared, it's just taken new clothing. There are regionals that will interview low time pilots if they go fly say, 300 hrs with Amerijet or Gulfstream. Then they get reduced new-hire training.
 
Amerijet is PFT? I have a couple of friends I used to Engineer with in a past life(past airline) that recently got on with them. They seem to like it there. One guy described it as the Mighty Mouse of the Micky Mouse airlines. I'm sure that neither of these guys would even think about PFT, these guys were Engineers before I could drive a car.
 
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Amerijet is PFT?

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No. And Yes. They have a "First Officer" program, equivalent to Gulfstream's. I believe it is about 10k for 300 hrs turbine SIC.
 
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