Structured Hour Building.

[6UP]

Hoping to pick some of the more experienced brains in the forum.

I have read that some airlines don't like applicants to have 'hour built' themselves and prefer them to have structured their hour building with a flying school.

Just wondered if anyone had any ideas about structuring your own hour building sessions #I have a share in a Group A machine and and thinking about building some hours in that with the idea of possibly taking the CPL /IR in the future#

How might one structure their personal flying hours in a way an airline might think worthwhile, and what would be the best way to portray this to a potential employer?

All suggestions gratefully received.

Kind Regards

6up

[Whopity]

I am not sure that flying schools can offer any sort of structured hour building other than to offer you a course of training, or to rent you an aeroplane where you go off and do your own thing. If you are in a group, use that aircraft to gain good experience by flying to interesting and challenging destinations, that way you can gain useful skill and experience, which can be enhanced by sharing with another pilot. With 50 hours PIC on cross country flights, plus a Night qualification, you can start training for the IR. A PPL with an IR is of more use than a CPL without one, and you can minimise the total hours required to gain both CPL and IR. Try to avoid boring holes in the sky just to gain hours, they are largely worthless. A few destinations in your log will look more impressive than circular trips from the same airfield.

The greatest problem for the hour builder is that they lack the knowledge to apply self discipline and end up wasting the time. They get into bad habits and then find a structured course of training hard work.

[Dan the weegie]

Not sure where you read that but what Whop says is bang on.

Airlines don't care where or how you have done hour building but if you have the discipline to navigate properly and don't use too much SatNav it will help you pass your cpl/ir quicker.

Personally I say, go places and see stuff. just bimbling round the circuit or gen handling in the training area like you did for your ppl wont bring you any real benefit. Go on a long flight over a few days, you'll learn good planning skills and get better situational awareness by exposing yourself to some different situations.

"Structured" hour building is bollocks that schools make up to keep you at the school ;)

Do proper navigation in lots of new places.

[Parson]

As noted above, airlines don't really consider that - the only prejudice they may have is intergrated v mod route, but as you seem to have selected modular they will be more interested in your flight training performance.

Having said that, you can use your hr building for your benefit. Try a few long trips and go places you haven't been before. If you can, get used to the local airspace, airfields, procedures etc. where you intend to do your CPL/IR. Your intended FTO may give you some advice on their CPL nav routes. Helps relieve the stress a bit if your are already familiar with the area when jumping into a new class of a/c and moving up to twins.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I'm not necessarily volunteering here, but perhaps there is scope here for what might be called mentoring.

For example, some years ago I became a university lecturer - the university I worked for employed me as capable of doing the job, but accepting that I was new to it, assigned me an experienced colleage as a mentor. He and I sat down from time to time to discuss whether I was putting my courses together the right way, how my exams fitted the general ethos of the department, and so-on.

I could see a scope for an experienced pilot - maybe an airline pilot with a bit of time on his or her hands and some goodwill towards the next generation of the profession, could help a PPL hour building towards their CPL course. Possibly feeding back on their plans, having periodic discussions about lessons learned during that period, suggesting things that they could do to get the best out of flying opportunities?


Mind you, perhaps that as an idea could be extended to all activities? It happens in some places: a new instructor generally benefits for example from that from their CFI, and a new F/O from a succession of experienced Captains. But maybe for PPLs building experience - either to be good safe PPLs or hour-building towards a professional licence, it isn't really there?

G

[Linda Mollison]

6UP

PM sent

Linda

[Whopity]

Genghis

When pilots gain a PPL maximum value will be obtained by going out and learning by doing, the last thing they need is someone with loads of experience breathing down their neck, it will stifle them. Two pilots together can share the experience, but not the hours, and by having someone of similar experience to bounce ideas off they will find it a very useful experience. An experienced pilot who is not a current instructor may actually teach things that then have to be unlearned. A PPL holder has demonstrated they are safe, now let them go practice!

[6UP]

Thanks all,

Whoopity, DTW and Parson, I've taken on board what has been said about the hour building, will no longer worry about doing it alone as opposed to using a school (I couldn't manage 150 hours at school rates anyway if I'm to start putting aside for IR/CPL)

I certainly plan on visiting as many varied airfields within the UK as possible, and hope to build a wide range of experiences along the way.

Almost all of my flying to date has been from fields without manned radio so I'm very low on practice with my RT, and also flying into/out of Controlled/AFIS airfields, again this is something I hope to tackle head on as time goes by, first with AFIS and moving onto Controlled airports when I'm comfortable/confident enough.

Gengis, some sort of scheme along those lines would be extremely beneficial to someone like myself, especially if they were available to accompany me every 15/20 hours with advice and constructive criticism etc. Or perhaps do this with a school?

Linda, thanks for your advice, all taken on board.

Unfortunately it's by no means certain I'll be able to fund a CPL/IR even in 3/4 years with a young family (and another one on the way, though it's early days yet so that's our secret!!) But I'm going to give it a good go, so if anyone does have a spare half hour for a chat every now and then and might be available to spare an hour or two flying with me a couple of times a year I'd be much obliged and all ears.

Many Thanks all

6up

[foxmoth]

Also not certain about structured hour building with schools, but I can tell you what I did that helped no end. When I was building hours,almost every trip I flew that was not doing anything specific I would carry out all the GH manoeuvre's required for the CPL test, Stalling, steep turns, PFL's etc and ideally a few circuits at the end, this combined with some trips practising all different forms of Nav stood me in good stead when it came to a test for real.
I would also suggest that at an early stage you do something like the Ultimate High Advanced PPL course to check you are doing everything correctly (there are of course other schools offering similar, but the UH course is the one I know), things like aeros courses will also help your handling but are probably not as valued by the Airlines as they should do.