Thanks for the first part.
Originally Posted by justathought
No worries Error,
I agree with you that attitude is all important.
Now it gets into a good and positive direction. I'd actually love to fly more SPIFR. I really do. Done myself a couple dozen hours on C340 and C402's in taxi flying. It helped a lot to get onto the turboprop I'm currently on.
Originally Posted by justathought
[I]The value of proper basic, type rating and line training? Invaluable.
I agree with this statement too. Thing is, that training is there....should we put pilots with 1500hrs through it? or pilots with 200hrs???
I think if we have the choice then we should put the more experienced pilots through it.
Yes - and now it comes down to that problem we face (maybe just here in Europe) to get these hours. I tried to fly in SPIFR or SPVFR for two years before I got the chance to fly a MEP without having to pay myself for the flight hours! Got "extremely" lucky. For a year I could actually add experience to my portfolio. Then I got even luckier - RHS in a turboprop. Three guys out of 18 of my integrated ATPL course made it into a cockpit. So how should we get the hours then? Pay an additional approx. 120'000 USD? Now the airline offers me the chance to RHS a big plane. Should I turn it down?
Originally Posted by justathought
There is nothing to say that the 150 pax in the back won't need the crew to use every ounce of the skill and experience to get them safely on the ground due to an emergency... On your first line training flight.
Think back to your first few sectors.....do you think it was basically single pilot??? Or perhaps the training Cptain had an even higher work load than if he was single pilot as he checked and re checked your duties as well as his own? Do you think that every one of your punters would have chosen to fly on that flight if they knew this?
I know what I think and would be interested to hear your honest opinion.
Cheers.
I got lucky on this one. Problem with low experience is that this comes in waves. One day I perform to high standards, the next to average. After about 150 hours I felt comfortable and got good feedback from the captains I fly with throughout, the performance being at a good stable level.
Good feedback on my seventh leg in line training (17 hours on type). QRH situation, diversion, handling the plane and ATC alone. Next at (28 hours on type) in marginal weather, icing, diversion CAPT on OPS to get things sorted. I tried to just make my job and succeeded. Definitively a 1+1 greater than 1 situation. When thinking back (and reading feedback and debriefings from my line training) I think that for me it was always a greater than 1 situation. Sometimes not by much I admit.
Flying the turboprop before passing onto the big jets? Yes - definitively a very good idea. If my carrier whith whom i did my ATPL integrated course would not have gone broke i'd be flying A320 for 4 years by now. Even at the time we still thought we would get into that seat it was with respect that I thought of that position.
What I think of flying turboprop now? Good idea - good operation - lots of experience. Been in places from all over Europe to India. Will it help when maybe i will get into that shiny jet? Yes I'm sure it will.
Having the opportunity to step up our career slowly is what is usually lacking. So the choice is fly on your own expenses, for no or miserable pay on a C402 or get that job offer on the 737 RHS at 250 hours.? Two of my friends got that offer. I'll try to get their opinion when I meet them the next time.
As for passengers. I'm not too sure if it makes a big difference if it is 150 passengers in a 737 or just 5 in a C402 that should be concerned of the low hour pilot in front. Where in bigger planes at least it's the two of us. Both planes can make a hole in the ground and kill people.
If all of them would fly if they knew? I cannot answer this question because I knew this is the case many years before I decided to become a pilot myself. Did it bother me? No, not really because I believed and still believe in the professionals we are.
And what do you think? (You did not yet state that - would interest me very much. PM me.)
In the end Topslide6 said it all in the previous post. Thanks Topslide6
