So where too now for us pilots with too many hours for the QF cadet scheme, and no turbine hours for other regionals like easterns??
Milfhunter, don't sweat about the turbine time. Eastern "prefer" you to have it, but you and I know that a PA-31 or a C-404 requires finer(?) engine handling skills than a PW123.
Judging by past hiring patterns, about 20% (maybe a bit less) of new starters have no turbine experience whatsoever. Therefore a lack of turbine time does not necessarily exclude you from getting an interview and a job. 20% is better than none. My personal feeling is that hiring patterns are driven by market forces. For example, in Sept 2001 when all Kendell & Hazelton pilots were made redundant, (a period where steady recruiting was still going on in Eastern), there were almost no piston drivers employed. IMHO not just because they have turbine time, but experienced in multi crew RPT, used to working with SOPs etc. In other words, people that require the least amount of training to fit into the operation.
Having said that, I'm a bit segregated from the training dept, but I doubt that there are too many training issues associated with having never flown a turbine. It's more getting into the groove with multi-crew if you've never done it before, and getting used to working with fairly tight SOPs.
Eastern have ramped up interviewing and are doing an average of 4 interview days per month, or 16 interviews. This looks like continuing indefinitely
Get an app in regardless. Give them a call. You never know what might happen
Good luck
