Too Many Hours?

[Jump Complete]

A pilot who has his own business hiring out jump aircraft to parachute clubs opioned last week that at 1500 hours I was 'Too Experienced for the airlines' -that I'd be considered too used to making my own decisions and they'd prefer 250 hour guys straight out of Oxford they could mould.
I'm not going to lose too much sleep over what he said, apart from anything else he doesn't work in the airline industry, but anyone think there may be some truth in what he said?

[GARDENER]

Like you say would not lose too much sleep. Take a look at the thread about BACX recruitment. People called for interview are from right across the board...out of school to 2-3 thousand hours. I think as per usual it is most certainly down to the individual airline and more importantly the individual.

[Leo45]

BACitiexpress has recently taken on a good cross section of the wannabe's population. Well done!

But, for instance, Loganair's aircrew manager told the audience attending his presentation at Oxford, last year, that hours building should be constructive (i.e. instructing & air taxi are OK but paradropping & glider towing aren't according to him).

I'm approaching 6000hrs of which 3300 are on single-crew charter operations, and, I can well imagine that ( most of the time) it doesn't play in my favour.

At the end of the day, it all depends on who is doing the recruitment.

On one hand, Chief pilots who have always been in an airline environment will tend to recruit people of the same profile (i.e. ab initio or integrated course graduates) so people like me have little hope of being shorlisted for interview. On the other hand, somebody of a similar background might be more understanding towards GA pilots and gives them a fair crack of the whip.

I wouldn't lose my sleep over this matter if I was you. Do the usual things: keep plugging away, use all your airline contacts, network as much as you can and keep current.

As for the recruiters who think my profile is not suitable, they are more than welcome to come along on a dark,rainy,windy,stormy or foggy night in my steam machine flying down to minima into Heathrow, Munich, Salzburg, Amsterdam or Carlisle, Wolverhampton, Elmsett, wherever.. and see by themselves if it makes me and my colleagues totally unsuitable for multi-crew airline operations...:rolleyes:

[skyman68]

same problem with me, I have been turn down by schools years ago cuz I have to many hours.

you should apply where you think people will be interested by you. let the basic jobs for people who need to log hours!!

I am not applying in skydive clubs, or any small companies.I am looking for a (real)job on jet, worst case turboprop.

[wigwag]

Leo 45

Think you summed things up quite well.

Single crew IFR is the one of the hardest types of flying there is. Air ambulance work, Stormy nights into Schipol Amsterdam, or Heathrow is incredibly tough work, (thats when the equipment works). All hours are well worth it, even if the recruitment bod's think otherwise.

Why ? well, when you do move on, all that experiance is somthing which you can draw upon when things get a bit tough, making you a great first officer. I think we can all do the multi-crew stuff, but when the :mad: goes down, the captain needs all the help he can get.

Good news BA Citi are recruiting across the experiance levels. Hopefully others will start to do the same.

Happy & safe flying

:ok:

[Bealzebub]

I know this is the wannabees forum but sometimes it needs a bit of a reality check.

This suggestion that airlines can mould people is a quaint idea but not particularly valid. Professional pilots are generally mature motivated and intelligent people who have the ability to learn, adapt, and integrate quickly into the type of operations that present themselves. Commanders in particular are expected to be people who can think and apply theirs and others experiences and knowledge to a broad range of regular and irregular situations. They are people who can communicate, integrate and effectively utilize their crew. They can, more often than not, provide a high level of safety, efficiency and regularity for the companies that employ them. They are in effect senior managers and how they perform in that role will have some considerable impact on the success or failure of the companies for whom they work. First officers are regarded as future Captains and the same qualities are expected of them to a large degree in the role they undertake. Experience in this role is expected to satisfy the transition to the Command role eventually. Of course it doesn't always work out this way, but this is a more realistic picture of what the airlines are looking for.

Airlines are not everybodies idea of the pinnacle of a career, but of course for most people that is very much the case. The suggestion that you get a licence and then it's a jet job or (as I read here somewhere) "at the very worst turboprops", is fairly ludicrous. I wonder how many people get medical qualifications and then post on websites " wheres my job as a consultant surgeon" or now I have my law degree I expect to be appointed as a silk next week. Experience is aquired in many forms and through time. It is natural for anybody with ambition to want to jump on to the career ladder at the highest rung and that is understandable. For most people it is necessary and indeed a reality that they have to work hard and compete fierciously in a difficult market for the few jobs that are available. The transistion from wet ink licence holder to Airline pilot is very often one that takes time but also often provides for the aquisition of experience and life skills that will ultimetaly assist in achieving that goal.

The suggestion that you are somehow too experienced for the airlines with 1500 hours or so is laughable although good flying club bar banter I suppose. I suspect this often gets confused with the requirements of various "cadet schemes" which may have rather different profile requirements. Very low hour pilots who are offered airline positions through these schemes are usually going to be lacking the experience requirements that are normally sought for the role they are expected to fulfill. To compensate for this to some degree, there tends to be a much greater emphasis on the individuals maturity and learning curve profile which understandably will be steep. whatever may be my own opinion of these two career tracks, they are substantially different and it may well be that more "experienced"(from a flying hours standpoint) candidates do not readily qualify for the cadet programmes that are available.

[aces low]

It is interesting that the airlines still like military pilots...who by definition have learned a different way of working and are selected on their ability to show initiative...and make decisions. Surely if these guys can be 'retrained' for airline operations then there should be a way of doing it for 1000+ hours instructors like myself.