Too much single pilot time?

[wingisland]

As mentioned in another thread I'm currently doing aerial survey and about to move into single pilot charter, something that I really enjoy and get a big kick out of, however I dont want to spend the rest of my life in indian territory and a few of my collegues have said that anything more than 2500 total single pilot and no-one will take you on, your brain is too conditioned into cracking on by yourself and no idea of how to work multi crew?

Is this true? If so at what hours (roughly) do you need to start really looking elsewhere for multi-pilot jobs?

[low n' slow]

As soon as possible.
Times are tough, but try to move along at your best speed. There's no way to persuade an employer that you are a teamplayer and that you have multi crew skills if the last 2500 hours were made single pilot.

It's a lot more fun to fly as a crew aswell. If that's not idea of fun, then maybe you should stay in single pilot ops (not intended as an insult, just saying that some work better alone and some in teams)

/LnS

[excrab]

Wingisland,

I shouldn't worry to much about it. Are the colleagues who told you that still flying single crew and need an excuse? If you're good and you have the qualities an employer is looking for then single crew IFR command time won't hurt.

[ahramin]

Single pilot time is very valuable. I cannot see anyone intelligent thinking that there is a thing as too much single pilot time.

However, I found it very difficult to be an effective captain when I made the transition from single pilot to multi-crew. I could still fly and command the airplane just as well, but I had to learn how to run a crew from scratch.

So I could definitely see someone preferring a candidate who had sufficient experience and multi crew time to someone who had much more experience but all of it single pilot.

If you are concerned, read what you can about multi-crew command, SOPs, etc, so that when the subject comes up in an interview you can point out what steps you have taken to alleviate your lack of experience.

[Jet_A_Knight]

Low and slow....forgive my bluntness.....but that is complete rubbish.

Just because you operate as SP, it doesn't mean you can't operate as a team. Believe it or not, the SP will operate in a team environment, except it's an extended team (eg dispatcher, loader, refueller, engineers, atc etc etc).

Unless you have personality defects or are a person who cannot adapt to anything, operating in a MC environment after alot of SP time, takes little time.

[rspilot]

Too much single pilot time? That is ridiculous. I had five thousand hours single pilot and took on a job flying a CRJ as a street hire captain. You still have to work with cargo handlers, dispatchers, fuelers, and many different personel that qualify you as working in a crew environment. Single Pilot will be the best experience and the most fun flying you will have....enjoy it.
Remember..there are plenty of military pilots that operate as single pilot and have no probs landing airline jobs.

[flyboy2]

I heartily agree that Single Crew time was very enjoyable for me too.
Some folk seem to think that thousands of hours Instructing is also " single-crew" , but they are so short-sighted.
We can all attend some CRM Courses & Forums & adapt to multi-crew operations when the need arises. It all adds to the fun of flying!

" If I didn't fly I'd have to go out and work" is a famous quote from a 10-year old's poem.
All of the above involves flying and we all enjoy it!
:ok: