Hrs Building - Quality or quantity???

[P1 Forever]

Hi everyone,

With regards to someone who has 200 hours Fzn ATPL CPl/IR, then whats the best way to build hours, is it quality or quantity???

For instance, is it true that 100hours Multi time (seneca), is better than 1000 hours single engine (C150)?

I know a lot of people who go on to be flying instructors but only get single engine VFR time and maybe log thousands of hours, but are they doing themselves any favours with regards to getting airline FO employment?

Would it not be best to log not so many hours BUT have much better quality of hours?

Any thoughts........

[B2N2]

P1, there's another thread here about the wisdom of becoming a flight instructor.
Answered on that one too....
I used to know a guy out of "airline" school, pissing his time away waiting for the recruiters to call didn't happen.
By the time he realised this he was out of currency on everything.
Lot of money down the hole to do it all again.
Riddle you this,while you're waiting do you want to fly or not?

[Man Flex]

I believe that the airlines want to ideally see quality time in the log book over quantity time. 1000 hours may look impressive on the CV but at interview they want to know that it's not all on a C152! Having said that 1000 hours on light aeroplanes and a fATPL is better than 200 hours and a fATPL. Anything more than 1000 hours on light aeroplanes is probably disregarded by most airlines.

It is so difficult to try and get quality time. Air taxi work would be the most likely of occupations for someone of your experience. Or perhaps acting as the "eye in the sky" for some radio station. Even if you could blag the odd positioning flight for some flying school on their light twin it would all be advantageous.

Remember that there are literally hundreds of guys out there with 200 hours and a fATPL. If you can stand out from them in terms of experience and total hours then that has to put you in a more favourable position.

Good luck.

[calypso]

There is unfortunately no easy answer to your question. It all depends on the airline and the background of the people doing the selection. Some preffer total time, some airways time, twin time... there are as many views as people doing selection processes.

[Pilot Pete]

As pointed out by some of the posters already on this thread, it comes down to the individual airlines. But as a generalisation I would agree with Man Flex. 1000hrs on anything is usually enough and that includes turbo-props and jets, if you are looking to use them for 'experience' purposes. Having said that, getting from 200hrs TT to 1000hrs TT will entail you learning a great deal more about flying and is probably some of the most valuable time you will spend in an aeroplane, as long as you don't let the twin/IR knowledge lapse badly.

The main thing in my opinion is to keep flying after qualification, especially during these hard times for first-time job seekers, be that through instructing or paying for a rating etc etc. There can be nothing worse than sitting there waiting for the phone call with 200hrs, to be still sitting there waiting for that same phone call 12 months later and still with 200hrs. I would consider that as an opportunity to have 700+hrs lost.

When I qualified with the princely sum of 250hrs TT I gave myself a cut-off of three months to get an airline job or else I was going to do something to enhance my TT. If you don't you are relying on luck to get a job and that was not good enough for me. I chose the instructor course as the only way I could see to get more hours and through that course I got my first break to fly light twins.

1000hrs piston single is certainly better than 200hrs piston single with 35 twin, but you need to be doing everything to keep moving on, as 3000hrs single is not doing you any favours in the eyes of the recruiters unless you are perhaps now examining, but I think you would need to be instructing twins as well...............

Hope that helps

PP

[P1 Forever]

Thanks very much guys for your thoughts.

I think I will instruct once I am qualified, at least to 1000hrs anyway. I suppose I just want to climb the ladder as quick as possible.

Anyway, thanks a million!!

[tom24]

Not only will instructing increase your hours, it will also have you working alongside people in the business and sure enough eventually you will buy that right guy a cup of tea in the club house one afternoon and things will happen from there. Networking is the key!