Saturday, March 14, 2009

Questions Answered: Preparing for a regional

,My name is XXXX XXXXXX. I wanted to know if I could have a moment of your time for a few questions. I am a student enrolled in an aerospace program as a professional pilot. I currently have my private pilots license and I am working on my instrument rating currently. The program at my school takes me through my commercial as well as my multi. I also personally plan to obtain my CFI as well as my CFII to gain more experience as well as flight time. My question for you is how do I better prepare myself for a regional airline? If I stay with my school the biggest and fastest I will fly is a Piper Seminole. I have looked at programs such as ATP's regional jet standards certification courses as well as their citation jet transition course. Would you recommend either one of those? Would receiving training or a type rating in a regional jet help or hurt me in the eyes of a regional? I know I'm asking a lot of questions but I am trying to find information anywhere and however I possibly can. Thank you for your time and your blog I look forward to your posts.

First you are in a good position getting flight training as well as a degree. Awesome. Some people jump from high school to an airline, skipping college all together. There is more to college than just getting a degree.  To prepare for a regional the best thing is to fly as many hours as you can. I learned a ton teaching as a CFI....more so than I did as a student. Teaching in the Piper Seminole taught me a lot. I have about 450 hours in the Seminole and kind of miss it. It's a great plane for training and teaching. The regional jet course that ATP offers is great for those that have no experience with formal checklist or glass cockpits. The training isn't cheap, but they have a 99% pass rate for those that continue on to a regional. I learned a few things in the course. I did teach the course a few times last summer and enjoyed every minute of it. Taking a regional jet course will not hurt you in anyway. I was concerned about learning flows and being trained in a CRJ....but being hired to fly an ERJ. The course ATP offers is a very general course. There isn't a lot of focus given on just the CRJ, rather its the big picture. Between now and then you can grab a copy of Microsoft Flight Sim. I prefer the 2004 version. I would then grab a really good CRJ or ERJ model and get used to the glass cockpits and how the autopilots work. Getting used to glass and flight directors is a huge hurdle for most pilots regardless of how much time they have. If you go to www.feelthere.com they have really acturate models of the ERJ. The ERJ model is nearly 100% accurate. Don't waste money on a type rating. Save that money for Ramen noodles. Besides you might get a type in a CRJ but hired into a ERJ or vice versa.

Good luck and keep in touch,

Geek

1 comment:

  1. Were you by chance flying in and out of MTJ today? We were on the flight to IAH...

    ReplyDelete

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