PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Hours building: Questions, Ideas, Advice, Countries etc
Old 9th Mar 2004, 22:23
  #143 (permalink)  
PPRUNE FAN#1
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: US...for now.
Posts: 396
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
I'm always amused at low-timers who ask silly question like, "Are my 376 hours of flight instructing better than 244.3 hours of flying left-seat in a traffic-watch 206?"

Look people, flight time is flight time. When I hire a pilot, the FIRST thing I look for is: Is this person comfortable and "at home" at the controls? Even if he's never been in a 206 before, a helicopter is a helicopter so he/she shouldn't look too lost. Will he be able to adapt without constantly whining, "That's not how we do it in the R-22." If he claims to have 206 time, does he even know where the Battery switch is? Can he explain how the various systems work? Can he explain how a turbine is different from a piston?

Nobody expects low-timers to fly like Yeager or even like me (although the difference is so slight as to be unnoticeable). But I do expect that a pilot applying for a commercial position should be able to find his way around a traffic pattern without too much drama or angst no matter what ship he's in. You just fly as if you're totally in command - like you know what you're doing (fake it if you have to), and I'll teach you the intricacies of the particular aircraft.
PPRUNE FAN#1 is offline