What's considered a low time pilot?

Boris Badenov said:
Anyone who has less time than I do is "low time". Anyone who has more is "past their prime".

Hope this helps.
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Sounds about right.

By extension, anyone with less flight experience than me is automatically dangerous; anyone with more automatically must immediately retire.

:sarcasm: :)
 
Hands down, Boris' answer is best.

Going from active duty army to civilian to army guard I've seen a couple different norms for low time/ high time. Active duty, prior to the wars, 500-700 hours was experienced and 1000 hours was very experienced, 2000 hours was Jedi, and 3000 or above was either just too many or it was time to be a contractor at Rucker.

I jumped to civilian where I had 1200 hours and was a freight newbie. Left with 2000 hours and was... still a newbie.

Landed in the guard and with 2300 hours am suddenly "very experienced." Go figure. Doesn't feel quite right but then again, the average experience in my unit is about 350 hours.

The most experienced pilots in my unit have 5000-7000 hours. They have 20-30 years of service and are 55 years old or older.
 
Haha yeah my eyes bulged at 2500 TT being the lower limit for not being "low time". Most squadron CO's that I know (with 20 yrs of experience) barely have that. Then again, I'm sure a lot of mil aviators could scare the crap out of a CFI on a flight in a light twin. It's just a very different type of flying, all things considered.
 
The military doesn't really fly all that much anymore.


The mins I've seen for a lot of high performance or 6 seat twins for "normal" insurance (not insurance where someone is willing to pay more to name you) is 1500 total, 500 multi, 25 in type, or 10 hours with an instructor in lieu of the 25 in type.

basically they're making sure that no one will put anything other than a Duchess or Seminole on line at a flight school anymore.
 
trafficinsight said:
The military doesn't really fly all that much anymore.
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Im not sure that even in the golden days of mil flying, that fighter guys got that much more......maybe double the time, but it isn't like flying heavies or anything. Tough to log a thick book when your flights come 1.0-1.5 at a time stateside (ie not on deployment). That being said, I'm betting that AF transport folks still bag a pretty hefty amount of hours in comparison to us.
 
A Life Aloft said:
Man, I guess I did. I just shook my head and thought, WTH?
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Ya I don't use sarcasm quotes I am afraid they'd run out if I did. I leave it up to the reader to guess if I am being sarcastic or saying something stupid.

I believe low time is a sliding scale depending on the type of experience or state of the aviation economy.

Here are some definitions of high time pilots:
A 500 hr CFI is qualified to fly the right seat of an RJ for a bottom feeder.
At 1000 hours he is qualified right seat in a good regional.
At 1200 hours he is qualified to be PIC of a freight feeder.
At 1200 hours the ex-fighter jock is qualified to sit in the right seat of a Boeing.
A corporate pilot might be in the left seat of a Gulfstream at 3000 hours
An RJ pilot will be around 6000 hours before he is looking for a job with the majors.
At 1000 you are qualified to fly right seat for the majors provided you are Korean or Chinese.

The definition of enough time is mostly based on the economy and the aviation market. The market will adjust to mostly hire the highest qualified or flight time people that are applying. Outside of large 121 or 135 operations there will be a flight time requirement to meet the insurance minimums for a given aircraft. These will change also depending on the market. If you can't get 3000/100 hour pilots to fly a 340, a higher premium can be payed to cover pilots of lesser flight time. Right now its still the employers market so they can set the minimums very high. Just look at Virgin America, requiring 5000 hours to be considered.
 
So how did your trip south of the border go????? I have some friends that own a home where they stay several months out of the year in Punta Chivato in Baja that keep asking me to fly down there and visit. There is a small private strip in their community but after one resident had his KA200 stolen from there last year, I have decided that I am going to pass.
 
Murdoughnut said:
So most of the guys flying sorties in Afghanistan are low-timers?
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Military is different, I was talking about civilian. As a military man myself combat experience is most important, not really flight time so much. Judgement is combat is like apples and oranges to judgement flying an ILS down to minimums. But, the times I posted were in reference to the civilian side.
 
I dont consider my time that great because its mostly SES/SEL Alaska time at 3600TT 750 mulit and the multi-time is moslty as FO which is great CRM experience. I guess it depends on other factors like type of flying experience ect, as my time is mostly flying single engines in Alaska. The pay is not bad flying in Alaska but if you ever want to do anything else its hard if you dont have some experience flying in the system. I think most companies look at both the hours and type of flying experience one has and bush flying is not that attractive as someone that has a good solid experience flying in the IFR environment and maybe some CRM experience is nice.
I would rather have 2000TT with 500 multi PIC all flying in the IFR environment/system then having my 3.0 bush lol.
So I think its not only how much flight time you have but a combination of flgiht hours and what type of flying experience you have.
 
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