Originally Posted by
QNH1020
6x300 and 6x400 - are you referring to Q300 and Q400 courses?
If so, are you aware when they will run Q400 courses??
Cheers.
They'll run concurrently with the 200/300 course (you fly both models if allocated the classic/sustaining fleet). Many of the ground school topics overlap, apart from the obvious like systems and sims. This is why both fleet courses have recently been run at the same time.
For those playing along at home and don't understand how they come up with available positions, it happens like this in this hypothetical scenario:
1. Company advertises internally what positions are available. Existing pilots get first shot. For example: 6 x 200/300 SYD FOs, 4 x Q400 BNE FOs, 2 x Q400 CNS FOs.
2. Let's say no one bids for the SYD or CNS positions - they're all available for new trainees. However, 2 x Q400 BNE positions are taken by existing BNE 200/300 pilots. Therefore 2 of the Q400 BNE positions are gone, but 2 are still available for trainees.
3. Now the following positions are available for new pilots: 200/300 - 6 x SYD, 2 x BNE Q400, 2 x CNS Q400. Chances are 2 x 200/300 BNE jobs are now also available for trainees.
4. The recruitment team pick the 12 most competitive applicants from the hold file. If possible, they'll award your base preference. In the above scenario, if you wanted SYD or BNE, you should be sweet. If you wanted ADL, because no positions are available, they might offer one of the CNS positions instead to get you on the Sunstate seniority list.
5. Out of the 4 new BNE pilots, the new guys with the most experience will be offered the Q400 roles. The least experience guys will get the 200/300. Only exception is if someone drops out (or fails the pre-employment medical etc.), the next most suitable guy on the hold file will get a late call up and take whatever fleet the initial trainee was supposed to get.
A bit of a long winded post, but shows that a lot of things are in motion. It wouldn't be a good move to try to hold out for a Q400 - in the meantime a bunch of guys will join the seniority list and slow down your future career progression. If base is important to you, think about the two different seniority lists (this has all been discussed before on Qlink recruitment threads). BNE, CNS, ADL are Sunstate seniority lists, SYD, MEL, MQL are Eastern.
If you want to eventually get to ADL, a BNE or CNS job would be a good move. There's nothing stopping you from taking an Eastern base initially, but all the Sunstate pilots would have to turn down the ADL role first before Eastern pilots get a shot.
Lots of hypothetical examples given in this post, but hope it helps.