Eagle Jet SIC programs
 

Hello,

I noticed recently I have a lot of Eagle Jet pop ups on my browser. I had a quick look to see what the prices were and just had a question to all FAA experts. I have no interest in EJ but was curious as to how some of these hour building programs work.

Where I live a Metro is flown single pilot for cargo as can the B1900. We don't have Beech 99's but they look pretty light and don't think they need an SIC either.

Do US part 135 cargo outfits fly the Metro, Beech 1900 and Beech 99 two crew?

I don't know of any B1900s being flown single-pilot here in the US. There are some single-pilot Metros, but most of those are flown dual-pilot as well. Not really sure about the 99 anymore, there aren't many of them left.

I think Ameriflight is operating the Metro single pilot; I don't know about the other aircraft.

Ameriflight | Above & Beyond

They do advertise right-seat time in the Navajo. Refreshingly, they'll pay you - but probably not much. :)

Key Lime operates the metroliner single pilot. Ameriflight operates the B1900 single pilot. Beech 99 I believe is operated by Alpine Air single pilot. Key Lime doesn't participate in EJ as far as I know. If these companies required two pilot ops, there is no way eagle jet would be able to get visas for foreign pilots. The foreign pilots don't get work visas, they get another category visa. Captains get a paid bonus for taking an eaglejet P2F pilot along for the ride at Ameriflight.

So the impression I get is that you would be flying as a SIC on an aircraft that the company in question would usually operate single pilot? That would make those hours pretty useless.

Yes and no.

Cargo ops may elect (at their option) to assign a SIC to the cargo flight -- so they can take advantage of certain FAR provisions which require a SIC (at least in theory):

- For example, if a SIC is on board, under Ops Spec C079 the flight may take off with reduced IFR minimums

- Another example, if a SIC is on board, then certain HazMat restrictions are relaxed

- Also, if a SIC is on board, then daily flight time limits are increased from 8-hours to 10-hours

The question is, may the right-seat log SIC when none of the above limited conditions apply? E.g., if a cargo flight is taking off under VMC, carrying no HazMat cargo and the duty time for the day is only 4 hours?

According to the FARs, the answer is no. But cargo operators like AmeriFlight argue that they can't always predict in advance when a SIC will be required, or at which leg(s) of the flight they may want to use a SIC. They want the option to have a SIC all the time, but no one will want to fly SIC if they aren't allowed to log the time unless flying under the limited circumstances described above.

So what they've done is to petition the FAA for an exemption, allowing a "qualified pilot" (per FAR 61 and 135) to sit in the right-seat and log SIC all the time, "just in case" they want or need to take advantage of any of the above provisions. And they get to charge for this "privilege".

How useless is the SIC time depends on the ops (and the PIC captain). If the ops has good CRM, and the SIC is really operating as part of a crew, then the time is very valuable -- IMHO much better (and cheaper) than someone buying block time to fly circuits in a 172. Otherwise, the SIC is simply ballast.