Friday, August 17, 2012
About: still alive and kicking, still hoping & being re-rated
A few weeks ago I was sharing a table and a drink with a few captains that I use to meet at the flying club from time to time, wondering what stops airline companies from hiring young potentials. Modesty is a good virtue off course but I can say experienced people I am flying with do appreciate both my (cockpit) management skills and safety behaviour. And I am far from alone... a large group of highly qualified but - alas - low houred pilots is desparately looking for a job, putting a lot of money into staying current both in practice and knowledge. Nevertheless, there ís a market with quite a lot of job openings for cockpit crew... but one has to manage to gather a few hundreds or thousands of hours "on type" first. So, whatever time you spend on board of a well equipped glass cockpit plane or just the basic IFR trainer that you can afford as a jobseeker doesn't seem to count anymore these days. If only a decade ago I would have graduated, I would currently quite certainly be amongst those happy guys cruising airways many thousands of feet above from where I am writing this post on my blog. However, these captains whom I was sharing a table with, did encourage me not to give up since there are signs of revival in some parts of the world and larger companies start to lower their high hour-limit, which may be a sign of an increasing demand for crews. I wouldn't mind to move to a remote area or a booming new market... a good pilot "acts locally but thinks globally", isn't it? So, uncertain yet when or where a chance might be popping up, I did leave the captains' table with a slight feeling of hope and pinned a date to perform my ME/IR recheck which I successfully performed last week during a cross-border exam flight. Off course, and fellow blog-followers would admit, a post here on this blog wouldn't be a good post if it didn't come with a stunning picture as a finishing touch. This one was taken during the return trip of an IFR flight to LFAT, where my crew and myself were enjoying a magnificent sunset at flight level 090. As much as many of you, I do hope to return with some good news on this blog one day, although meanwhile I do keep enjoying good times in general aviation off course!
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1 comment:
Captains that stayed until their 65 (new law) start retiring. They'll need young pilots very soon. Although companies like Emirates have still very large recruitment pools.
JC
www.photobaus.com
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