So what can you do with 1000 hours?

[Cruise Alt]

Many people talk about 1000 hours being the magic number but what exactly does this mean. I am getting close to 1000 hours and apart from the fact it means that those lovely ladies who assist airline chief pilots actually read your CV before binning it what other doors does it open up?

[Luke SkyToddler]

Hmmm ... before sept 11th 1,000 hours might have had some sort of relevance, I got my first interview just past the 1,000 hour mark myself and the tone of my rejection letters became much nicer from the rest of the operators. Now it seems that they'll bin your CV just as quickly as the 5,000 hour turboprop jockey who's just been made redundant ... simple fact is that when there AINT NO JOBS it doesn't matter how many hours you've got. Not for you with 1,000 - not for me with 1,500 - and indeed not for a few of my pals with upwards of 5 thousand (including 3,000 jet), who are all busy applying to the same turboprop operators that we are - the ones who 'used' to be the 1,000 hour pilot hirers <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

Bah. Wait for mid next year for ANY kind of hiring to resume, and then we'll see what sort of hours people are getting hired with ... methinks it'll be a while before it gets back down below 1,000 (for us self improvers anyway <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0"> )

[Cruise Alt]

Cheers Luke. Think I might give up fighting the icing for a while and take a jobe in the warm with a paycheck each month. Come back to this flying thing when the climate improves <img src="cool.gif" border="0">

PS have you managed to get flying job again. I read in your previous posts that you were looking for an instructors job.

[Luke SkyToddler]

God I sound like a right miserable git in that post don't I? Crying in my beer mug again. By the way I should have said of course that IMO hiring should sort of resume by mid this year ...

Anyway I'm feeling a bit better today cos I've just heard that one of my pals with similar hours to myself, has been called for interview for a turboprop driving job by a certain large-ish UK airline (which I shan't name right now for fear of putting the hex on him) ... goes to show there are still the very occasional jobs to be found even in these bleak times.

Anyway Cruise Alt I'm off 'dununda' in february for the next 3 or 4 months, I have a couple of student pilot pals from here in the UK who are coming with me, the plan is to sort them out with kiwi licenses and some cheap hour building and stay current myself in the process. Hopefully I'll be able to pull a few strings and get a bit of multi engine instructing time while I'm down there as well, should look good on the CV in time for the summer, that's the plan anyway <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[DANZ]

Hey LukeSkyToddler!
Planning on heading down NZCH way on your travels back to NZ??

[Luke SkyToddler]

Hmmm ... *Luke ST weighs up the pros and cons* ... shall I leave Scotland, travel economy class on Korean Air for two days, and then go and live in the part of New Zealand which largely consists of frozen wastelands, bonnie heather covered hills and drunken savage locals with incomprehensibly broad accents? Or shall I in fact go to Mt Maunganui and sit on a beach surrounded by tropical maidens, drinking a big pina colada while the sun kissed waves tickle my feet? :) :) :)

Sorry mate, don't mean to take the p!ss, I must be a touch homesick just now ... anyway I'm a Bay of Plenty man myself, but I imagine myself and the team will be stopping in at NZCH for refuel, on our way home from Wanaka Warbirds <img src="cool.gif" border="0">