The Fast Track to the Big League

[Slick Goodlin]

Alright, this is purely academic but what do you figure is the absolute fastest balls-out kamikaze approach to flying for a national airline today?  Here's what I propose:


Buy a Champ.  You can find them for under $30K all the time and as a basic airplane there will be no distractions that get in the way of learning to fly a plane.  As a bonus it has a tailwheel so odds are an instructor willing to teach you on it will know how to fly a plane with care and finesse.  Fly lots every day and get that PPL ride and exam done in the minimum time which ought to take a month.  Sell the Champ for what you paid.  Buy a Seminole.  Get your multi rating signed off ASAP then dedicate the next 700 hours to getting good at IFR (both in training and practice/time building).  Throw some miles on the thing, go somewhere.  Somewhere along the way you'll meet all of the CPL requirements but [i]do not get that CPL signed off until the end[/i].  A PPL has no restriction on flight time while a CPL holder is capped at an average of 3.3 hours a day.  Doesn't matter where in that span you do your CPL written and flight test, but I recommend early just to knock them out.  Hit 750TT (with about 650 MPIC!), write ATPL exams, apply to Georgian.  When you get hired, sell the Seminole for what you paid, advance as far as you can, and flow on through to AC.


If you started today I figure you'd be at the end of that process in 2.5 years.  Is there an even faster route?  Discuss.

[Colonel]

You had me at "fast track" but hold on:

[quote]A PPL has no restriction on flight time while a[b] CPL holder is capped at an average of 3.3 hours a day[/b][/quote]

I know the guys at TC are nasty, lazy and must have a taste for crack,
(see Occam's razor) but even for them this is getting out there.

Are you telling me that [b]even without an OC[/b] of any kind, there is
a CAR limiting a CPL/ATPL to 3.3 hours per day on private aircraft?

When the fuck did that come in?

If someone with a CPL/ATPL owns a 172 and wants to fly it 8 hours
a day, 300 days a year, power to them.  I want to see the registered
letter that Enforcement would mail out, because it must be the only
fucking one they never sent to me, and I'm a little annoyed that I
don't have the complete set.

[Slick Goodlin]

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=8086.msg22402#msg22402 date=1520885387]
Are you telling me that [b]even without an OC[/b] of any kind, there is a CAR limiting a CPL/ATPL to 3.3 hours per day on private aircraft?
[/quote]
Technically 1200 hours per year but if you average it out then yes.  The CAR is tied to your license and not what you're doing with it.


And yeah, it probably keeps some wide eyed CPL from getting abused somehow but I've hit the limit and had the boss give me a surprise two week holiday before (with no pay because I couldn't fly - surprise!).  Far as TC was concerned I could go on a raging bender the whole while but heaven forbid I knock out some circuits on grass in a Cub.


You still have a Canadian CPL, right?  Use that gorgeous California sunshine to put over 1200 hours in your logbook this year then send a copy to TC.  Maybe they'll complete your collection.

[Nark1]

Reason 987 why the FAA has a better head on their shoulders, as compared to TC.


Their reasoning: how you use your certificate, not what certificate you hold. 


I'd have to look it up, but I want to say the "ATP" level ( really, it's part 121(err...117), in which you need an ATP) it's 1000/ year.  Why you would want to fly that much, no idea!?!??


Case in point: March, I will have flown 3.1 hours, and be paid for 98. 


Back to the case at hand, I recommend to guys wanting to go from zero to hero, to buy an airplane and do it that way. Arguably more economical,  it more importantly the flexible schedule. 

[mcrit]

Change out the Seminole for an Aztec (with boots) so that trace/light icing won't keep you on the ground and you've got a deal.

[digits]

[quote author=Slick Goodlin link=topic=8086.msg22405#msg22405 date=1520911119]
[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=8086.msg22402#msg22402 date=1520885387]
Are you telling me that [b]even without an OC[/b] of any kind, there is a CAR limiting a CPL/ATPL to 3.3 hours per day on private aircraft?
[/quote]
Technically 1200 hours per year but if you average it out then yes.  The CAR is tied to your license and not what you're doing with it.


And yeah, it probably keeps some wide eyed CPL from getting abused somehow but I've hit the limit and had the boss give me a surprise two week holiday before (with no pay because I couldn't fly - surprise!).  Far as TC was concerned I could go on a raging bender the whole while but heaven forbid I knock out some circuits on grass in a Cub.


You still have a Canadian CPL, right?  Use that gorgeous California sunshine to put over 1200 hours in your logbook this year then send a copy to TC.  Maybe they'll complete your collection.
[/quote]

Do you have a CAR reference for that? Never heard about that before, but wouldn't be extremely surprised...

[Colonel]

A 6 cylinder twin is always better than a 4 cylinder twin,
but remember that just because an Aztec has boots, doesn't
mean it's legal for known icing.

It's been more than a few years, but I think you need boots
between the fuselage and engines, and there is something
in the paperwork about a serial number range.

That said, except for the hydraulics, the Aztec is a fabulous
twin.  Not as fast as a 310 or Baron, but with that fat cub
wing, it can really carry a load, and with the parallel-valve
540, you might hope to fly on one engine, which isn't
happening with a 360 or god help you 320 (comanche,
apache)

Pig to hot start, of course.  #FML

PS  I might mention that you can't just drop the motherfucker
onto the runway.  I know more than one person that's had a
prop strike during a hard landing.  You wouldn't think that was
possible without collapsing the gear, but perhaps there is
something to that stick & rudder stuff?

[img width=345 height=500][/img]

About $10k a scratch, and as far as I know, [b]there is no regulation
that says you can't do it[/b], so fill your boots.

[Rookie Pilot]

WTF would anyone aspire to be an AC pilot? 


What a boring existence. 


I don't get the bow down and worship at the alter of flying Toronto to Ottawa a few times daily, or wow I got the YVR or LHR route. 


BORING.


It's not me that's for sure.  I don't envy it, and sure don't worship that life.


And yeah I make more money than that too. And fly how, when and where I want.

[Eric Janson]

[quote author=Rookie Pilot link=topic=8086.msg22419#msg22419 date=1521002053]
WTF would anyone aspire to be an AC pilot? 


What a boring existence. 
[/quote]

That would depend on the individual - what works for one person may not work for another.

Any job is what you make it imho.

While I don't fly for AC - my company operates globally. It's incredibly diverse flying - our aircraft visited 27 countries in February alone.

I'm certainly not getting bored.

[ScudRunner-d95]

Well if you want airlines......

Forget the whole buy a seminole or twin piston.


Buy the 30K champ and for god sake make sure its equipped for night operations fly the crap out of it get your CPL and all the night time you can.  Sell it for close to what you paid, take the money to Pro IFR or whomever for your multi IFR and put the remaining 15K into pot stocks.


Then go fog a mirror at Georgian.  Fly right seat for a year then move left for a year get your ATPL signed then and apply to Jazz or encore go fog a mirror at the interview and four years later your at AC or WJ.


Shits moving fast these days boys and girls.


Now if you want to have fun in your career and actually learn to fly.


Buy the 30K champ and for god sake make sure its equipped for night operations fly the crap out of it get your CPL and all the night time you can.  Sell it for close to what you paid, take the money to Pro IFR or whomever for your multi IFR and put the remaining 15K into pot stocks.


Go north bug all the operators in the NWT, Yukon, Northern Ontario. fly your ass off enjoy it for many years. Go water bombing, fly international medivac, when your 30 and have banged every blueberry blonde up north and witnessed ping pong shows in Bangkok and the penicillin is no longer effective, go to AC. Then tell your "captain" stories about this one time over the Mackenzie delta with four Indigenous Peoples in the back of a Cessna 207 type stories while he talks about this one time he bought a Seminole.