You might have seen my last post, recruitment is the best I have ever seen? Things have changed again for me this year as I have completed my 3rd type rating in 4 years and I now have a New type rating – Boeing 737.
My previous aircraft, the ATR 72-600 was a good aircraft to fly for what it is, a modern, cost-efficient, economical regional airliner. I spent my time flying these aircraft across the UK, Ireland, and into Europe. It was a great aircraft to cut my teeth on, you had to work hard because it is not the easiest aircraft in the world to fly. It improves your skills and makes you a better pilot, which is exactly what you need when you are a new pilot.
It allowed me to fly into major airports such as Gatwick, Dublin, Paris Orly, and Manchester, allowing me to get that “big airport” experience. On top of this, I got to fly into small airports such as Newquay, Southampton, Blackpool, and Newcastle which have their own challenges. Variety is the spice of life and this mixture allowed me to to build my operational knowledge.
I am now looking forward to building international experience on the Boeing 737.
For the last few months, I have been completing an intense type rating course which included a mixture of e-learning, theory, simulator sessions and exams. Thankfully, I passed my LST and have progressed through line training and I am released to line flying.
The type rating was difficult, you have to put in a lot of work outside of the course to be successful, you live and breathe aircraft for this period.
I will be flying both the NG and MAX versions of the 737.
I have just looked back at my PPL training and it was 9 years ago I started! I can’t believe that.
I know posts are not as regular as they once were, but I hope to keep contributing from time to time and I am happy to say that modular pilots are being hired so there is no reason to spend 6 figures on flight training. For those of you currently in the later stages of your training, everybody is recruiting at the moment so it is as good a time as any to get that first job.
My advice for anyone reading looking for that job is the following. A lot of people from flight school want to fly the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 and I understand that, and these are perfectly valid aspirations. However competition is high and not everybody will be able to start on the jet, The most important thing is to get the first flying job as soon as you can because you will be surprised how quickly your skills can degrade when you are not flying. Do not count out the regionals and turboprops, yes the terms and conditions are not as good but it is a different type of flying and the hours you gain will help you move up to the next level. Remember any job is better than no job, as hours are built opportunities will open.
