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Old 10th Sep 2009, 03:26
  #15 (permalink)  
solowflyer
 
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All this preparing you for the airlines rubbish that flying schools are jamming down naive students throats these days is just marketing crap and totally inappropriate for the Australian and NZ aviation environment where there is a very strong focus on working in GA before moving into the airlines.

Unlike the UK and rest of the world where it is not uncommon for fresh cpls to jump straight into a jet, down under here 95% of people will go through the GA ranks. This may change in the future but is still a long long way off.

The reality is the first few years of your career you will be landing on other than sealed strips and will usually be flying old aircraft (ok there are the odd operator with new airvans etc) with steam driven gauges, You will be filling your own aircraft out of drums and bowsers, you will be filling out your own MRs and keeping track of your own Flight and Duty times, you will be washing planes and mopping up spew. Why don't flying schools teach this stuff anymore as this is what will happen in the real world. Not walking about posing in uniforms with a shoulder full of ****** bars telling all who will listen how easy it is to become an airline pilot.

Unless you have the ability to up stumps and move over seas all you blokes and blokeets out there will be in for a real shock once you have a nice freshly printed licence in your hands.

As for the original question posted You will find that that a licence is a licence at the end of the day and no one really cares if you flew glass or steam but your future employer will be expecting you to be able to handle yourself or adapt quickly to unfamiliar aircraft and strips. My advice is to get out of your comfort zone and get familiar with other aircraft ie 206/210 and find an instructor who will show you the in's and outs of a real operational environment.
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