most valuable logbook time for first 500 hours

[harrisonaero]

My son is only 13 but is nuts about airplanes and flying and insists he wants to fly for a living. Right now he's been flying with me in my experimental backcountry taildragger.

Because of my work I have the ability to get him set up with his own plane for building hours and we have a fair bit of flexibility on what we get short of a jet or helicopter.

What are the most "valuable" hours for him to have in his logbook when he starts looking for jobs?

I would assume twin time is pretty important. If so, does the type of twin matter when employers are looking for entry level pilots? IOW, does it have to be high performance (>402 hp) if it's complex?

[paco]

Insurance companies do not live in the real world - at that stage, quantity counts, not quality, so the cheapest, ropiest (but still safe) aircraft will do, subject to verifiability. Any twin but the push-me-pull-you should do - PA34 springs to mind? Again, at that stage, quantity, not quality.

phil

[mykul10]

Seems very early to be thinking of an aircraft for a 13 year old given that he cannot fly solo as a student until 16 and no licence until 17. Rather than the type of aircraft, the quality of flying will count for most. Accurate nav exs of gradually increasing complexity, beacon tracking, accurate flying and above all increasing situational awareness is what counts.

[harrisonaero]

Starting him out in gliders and then going from there. Working on strategy vs tactics.

[paco]

A good point - gliding is a very good foundation, especially if mountain flying is later on the agenda.

phil

[lalbak]

PIC hours, IFR hours, depending on the type of job twin hours. Companies will not differentiate between complex and not complex. SEP hours are not worth a lot to begin with, neither are hours that were written years before looking for the first job.
So indeed I would begin with something like gliding and move on to building more expensive twin IFR hours as PIC when he's at the age to obtain a licence.