Airline without turbine time?

[garfield]

hi,

I presently fly a twin piston corporate and I really like my job. If I ever quite it is for fly for an airline. Let's say I quit my present job after 10 years at the same place with 5000 hours, 4700 MPIC IFR. Do I have any chances to be hired by and airline (I mean widebodies like 737, no turboprops) or you absolutely need turbine time?

If it's impossible, maybe I'll go fly the PC12 after 3000 hours for some years before the line.

Anybody here did it?

thanx

[Kokanee]

To start this, 737 is not a "widebody"

[shamrock104]

Garfield, your post does not make a lot of sense. As Kokanee pointed out perhaps you will need to study up on widebody aircraft types before figuring out what type you might wish to be employed on. If you are thinking of quitting 10 years down the road as you indicated you will have plenty of time to do this.

[starrynight]

Hi. Looks like you have quite a bit of experience that airlines may consider. I's a tough question to answer as requisites are always changing. Turbine time used to be important. The airline I'm with is heavily HR dependent and not as heavily dependent on pilot input for the selection process. I would suggest that you consider updating your resume frequently to show interest (every 6 months ?) Say what you intend to do and follow up with what you did. All the best to you.

[Colonel Sanders]

I presently fly a twin piston corporate
Let's say I quit my present job after 10 years at the same place

If I may quote John Lennon:

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

I suspect it won't be a problem. You'll be flying a King Air
someplace before you know it.

[frozen solid]

I think his post makes sense. He's flying a piston twin right now. He likes his job. He wants to know if he can go right from the job he has right now to a job flying jets eventually, or whether he would need to get some "turbine time" somewhere else before applying for a job at a jet airline. I think it's a fair question. Personally I think if you're capable of flipping three coloured and labelled switches in the correct sequence, you've learned all you need to know about turbines, but I'm not interviewing airline applicants so I really wouldn't know. I'm not sure why it's a big deal that a new guy doesn't know the 737 isn't a "wide-body". Is that important? It's pretty wide compared to what he's flying. Or is it a status thing for you guys? Wanna know how wide my plane is?

[AirMail]

Wanna know how wide my plane is?

Yes, and we want pics

[Pavese]

I think his post makes sense. He's flying a piston twin right now. He likes his job. He wants to know if he can go right from the job he has right now to a job flying jets eventually, or whether he would need to get some "turbine time" somewhere else before applying for a job at a jet airline. I think it's a fair question. Personally I think if you're capable of flipping three coloured and labelled switches in the correct sequence, you've learned all you need to know about turbines, but I'm not interviewing airline applicants so I really wouldn't know. I'm not sure why it's a big deal that a new guy doesn't know the 737 isn't a "wide-body". Is that important? It's pretty wide compared to what he's flying. Or is it a status thing for you guys? Wanna know how wide my plane is?

Where's the thumbs up emoticon?

Nice post frozen, we're seeing more of this lately and it's a positive trend!

D

[Colonel Sanders]

I think his post makes sense

ummm ... I am violent agreement with you that
someone with lots of piston twin time will find the
transition to turbine ridiculously easy. At least, I
did.

However, my point was that life sometimes overtakes
your plans, and that not having any turbine time will
very shortly not be a problem for him.

[co-joe]

You're fine with Ho time in good times, but in lean times you get into the "this time is beter than that time" shite. Everybody knows Hos are more difficult to fly into short icy runways and in poor wx...but everyone will tell you turbine time is more valuable. Welcome to the swamp I guess.

As far as the 737, WJ won't hire you without "large" aircraft, or jet experience anymore but hey AC is buying 737's apparently so anything can happen. What's a large aircraft or a widebody for that matter? Beats me. I think the definition is somewhere in some book or other.

[MrWings]

I think I remember hearing about an experienced instructor who got hired in the early days of WestJet with thousands of hours of SE PIC, some piston ME and no turbine. Maybe just an urban legend?

[MRP]

From my own experience three things are important to get your interview and one during the interview. To get the interview they look at multi crew experience, size / weight / complexity of the aircraft you have flown, and education. During the interview its personality (can the other guy get along with you for 4 days or be ready to kill you by the end of the pairing). I spent nearly a decade flying single pilot multi-engine piston aircraft. I was happy, made my own schedule, good pay, no motivation to move on... but no call from the big or little airlines. When I decided I wanted to move on, given the big boys hadn't called yet, I decided to make some career moves that might get me there. So... 2 years on light turboprop (2 yr bond, wouldn't do that again), then a year on a heavy turboprop. In that final year I had calls to interview at AC and WJ so it worked. Picked AC for my own reasons, but both are great places to work. Looking back I really shouldn't have waited so long at that first job. If you don't make a change, nothing will change. BTW 737 is a narrow body

[ScudRunner]

I have a better idea convince said company they need King Air to grow the business. If it continues to grow and you like it so much stay then years later convince him to get a Jet, run the corp flight department retire 40 years from now and forget the airlines.

[Eric Janson]

I've done just that - from the DC-3 to the 737-300.

I don't have a single hour of turboprop experience.

This was outside of Canada and 20 years ago - should still be possible.

[LuckyPilot]

Anything is possible, in 2005 AC hired a young man (23) with 2500 hrs, his time was all piston single/twin time. No, his Daddy was not a captain at the airline, and yes he was an experiment that turned out very well. But, the truth is we have the pick of the litter, your chances improve dramatically with post secondary, 3000 plus hrs with multi crew turbine experience. Them's the facts boys and girls.

Having the above qualifications and being bilingual (French) almost assures you of an interview and if you get an interview, at that point, the job is yours, TO LOSE!

[co-joe]

Good points but if the goal is airlines, today is the time to start tailoring your experience level to what they are looking for. If you're happy and want a plan b maybe someday when you get older, stick with the Ho. Sched, pay, benefits are what matters. Iron is just iron, big or small. If you need to get that turbine time in later, the multi PIC you are getting now is solid gold experience.

As for 737 that "narrow"s it down to WJ and a few others as of today. WJ flat out won't even interview you without Jet, or large aircraft experience. Once upon a time and I knew a guy are long gone the way of the 200 model.

[ThatArmyGuy]

WJ flat out won't even interview you without Jet, or large aircraft experience.

Since we're on the topic of "what is widebody" what would you classify as a large aircraft? 1900, or more?

[Krimson]

Since we're on the topic of "what is widebody" what would you classify as a large aircraft? 1900, or more?

That should not be an opinion question. From the cars:

“large aircraft” means an aeroplane having a maximum
permissible take-off weight in excess of 5 700 kg
(12,566 pounds) or a rotorcraft having a maximum permissible
take-off weight in excess of 2 730 kg (6,018
pounds);

[Colonel Sanders]

Can you just go someplace and rent some time on
a Grumman Mallard?

[tbaylx]

Since we're on the topic of "what is widebody" what would you classify as a large aircraft? 1900, or more?

That should not be an opinion question. From the cars:

“large aircraft” means an aeroplane having a maximum
permissible take-off weight in excess of 5 700 kg
(12,566 pounds) or a rotorcraft having a maximum permissible
take-off weight in excess of 2 730 kg (6,018
pounds);

And while we're at it, wide body is anything with 2 or more aisles.