I take my hat off to the guys blatting around in Senecca/Navajos/Bandits and the like mixing IFR/VFR into and out of anything from Sumburgh to Stansted. There is a train of thought that says you are flying alone and you can get gash, slap happy and want to do everything your own way and the airlines won't like that. There is another train of thought that says that this flying is the most technically demanding and if you are sloppy you will have an accident and if you can fly this then you can fly anything and live with any amount of roster disruption and hassle down route - making you the ideal choice for an airline.
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
At the end of the day if you can get a job flying paying you a living wage then grab it with both hands and your teeth at this time.
Its hard to get into at the moment. I know people who Ravenair would have snapped up 2 years ago who cannot now get a look in. It seems that 1000hrs TT and 100hrs Twin is the entry price at the moment with most established air charters people. There will always be people who get in with less but if you dig around they usually have some connection or history with the company or its senior people.
If you could get an air-taxi type light piston job or indeed a night freight job (not likely seeing as Emerald have recently layed off FO's) then you will be well placed when the upturn comes.
The irony of the present situation is that 5 years ago plenty of people did the 700hr building and could quite readily meet the 1000hr requirements and go and do the not so glamourous flying jobs out there. Under JAR this has gone and nearly every pilot looking for work has less than 300hrs. The insurance companies generally will not allow the planes they cover to fly with PiC who have logged <500hrs. Therefore the traditional progression is actually unobtainable and people are left in the slightly odd situation whereby the only jobs they can apply for are to fly Boeings rather than Bandits.
But hey, this is the brave new world of JAA.
Its a rubbish time to be low time and looking for work. I feel sorry for you guys I really do. There is not a day passes when I thank my lucky stars that my break came 9 months before Sept 11th...
Cheers,
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