Which aircraft should i fly? advice needed

[ali1552]

Hi!

I am a military pilot and i have been given a choice between Phenom-100, IL-76 and Saab-2000.

Phenom-100 has glass cockpit and also twin engine jet but it is a very light aircraft. Saab-2000 also has glass cockpit but its turbo prop. IL-76 is very heavy but no glass cockpit.

any advice from the experts would be appreciated. thanks in advance.

[bfisk]

Take the heavy any day. Glass cockpit time means close to nothing, except for your own convenience. You'll make the transition to glass later.

[ali1552]

thanks for the reply.

so that means experience on heavy jets is more valuable...even if they are old and devoid of any modern avionics. i'll keep that in mind.

[vserian]

Go for the IL-76

[mad_jock]

Tough choice.

Glass gets sorted in less than one sim session so don't worry about that.

If you have a 100t plus on your ticket it puts you into a different bracket than most pilots. Basically it means your up for wide body jobs from the word go.

The Phenom will put you into the Biz jet cat but doesn't do you any favours for airlines.

The saab 2000 have very few airframes out there and you will have a very small market to get work in. If you do a search on Eastern they operate them in the UK.

The only problem you will have with the IL-76 is that most if not all of the operators will expect you to fly into some right :mad: holes and you also might have issues if you don't know the local lingo. But if you have a job lined up already, 500-1000 hours on line will set you up for moving on to something decent

[kaptn]

I wouldn't go for the IL, I think it's russian, and if in the futur you'll be flying in europe, you won't find a lot of ILyshins in the region....However, maybe it's a good experience to fly it (I guess not many pilots in Europe have flown IL)

But, in any case, just go for the one where you'll be flying very often, and where you'll be getting many flying hours...It does not mean anything if you fly a 747, but you fly only 3 or 4 times a month....

hope that helps!

[ali1552]

thanks for the advice.

my confusion is almost certainly over now. my main concern was whether glass cockpit experience would be more useful or heavy / wide body jet experience. so, IL-76 it is then :-)

in my part of the world, there are only a handful of operators that mainly operate B-737 and A-320 family of aircraft. i'll just get some experience on one of these airlines and then hopefully, move on for greener pastures.

thanks once again for the advice.

[Wirbelsturm]

As an ex-mil man myself the transition from 'dials' to 'glass' is extremely easy.

The modern cockpits are ergonomically designed unlike the crates I used to fly years ago. Both the A320 and the Boeing 777 have a clear, concise and legible scan pattern that doesn't take too long to get comfortable with.

Don't fuss about the cockpit, look at what the job will offer irrespective of aircraft type and think how that experience will dove tail into your future career.

None of those types, bar the Saab for local operators, will gain you much in the airline world, the IL76 will, however, qualify you for ZFT onto medium to heavy airliners.

Good luck.

[ali1552]

@Wirbelsturm, thank you sir.

i'm not really concerned about transition from dials to glass. actually, a few days ago, an upcoming local airline advertised vacancies for pilots, and they wrote :

"Candidates having glass cockpit experience will be preferred"

so i thought that glass cockpit experience must be really valuable for airlines these days. if it is not, then i'd rather fly the IL. at least i will get heavy multi-engine jet experience which may come in handy in future. and besides, it'll be the IL again on which i'll get the most flying hours. both Phenom-100 and Saab 2000 dont fly as much as the IL does.

a few years on the IL and then i'll retire from the air force.

[Basil]

I know it isn't answering your question but I'd concur that going from analogue/mechanical to glass is easier than t'other way round.
I went B747 - B744 - B757/767 - B747. Even having flown it before it was a little shock going back.
I don't know why those employers make such a fuss about glass experience.
Only thing I remember was being asymmetric and couldn't find the slip indicator until a kindly instructor pointed out the tiny white rectangle - a bit out to the side :O