bigD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2002
- Posts
- 2,020
Osprey - as a professional pilot still in the works, I don't have many of the answers, but after hearing the "what's the difference between PFT and buying the hours to a CFI?" question a few times, I thought I'd put in my two cents.
I'm in the process of building multi time right now. MEI's around here now need about 150 hours of PIC in twins before the insurance companies allow them to instruct, so essentially I'm 'buying time' by flying around in a Duchess. How is this different than paying Gulfstream or someone to sit in the right seat? Well, for one thing - flying the Duchess isn't just a means to build time. I mean, that's ONE reason I do it - but crap, I'm just enjoying the flying. I take my girlfriend to Padre, go get BBQ in Llano - get dinner in San Antonio or Houston. I'm planning on flying to Ohio in May to spend some time with family.
The way I see it - even if I had NO intention of being a professional pilot sometime in the future, I'd still have no problem forking over the cash to bum around in the Duchess (or any other plane I rent). I just love being up there, and it seems to me that the love of just flying around simply for the sake of flying just makes more sense financially than spending the money to sit and tune squawk codes into the transponder of a 1900. I guess I just don't understand how anyone who truly loves to fly cannot consider the 'process' of becoming an airline pilot to be part of the fun in it. It's a long hard road, and I'm still working through it - but I can't say that I'm not having a blast going through it!
As far as I'm concerned, a zero time pilot who sits down and thinks, "What is the cheapest and fastest way to get to the right seat at a commuter..." just doesn't understand why the vast majority of us are doing this to begin with.
I'm in the process of building multi time right now. MEI's around here now need about 150 hours of PIC in twins before the insurance companies allow them to instruct, so essentially I'm 'buying time' by flying around in a Duchess. How is this different than paying Gulfstream or someone to sit in the right seat? Well, for one thing - flying the Duchess isn't just a means to build time. I mean, that's ONE reason I do it - but crap, I'm just enjoying the flying. I take my girlfriend to Padre, go get BBQ in Llano - get dinner in San Antonio or Houston. I'm planning on flying to Ohio in May to spend some time with family.
The way I see it - even if I had NO intention of being a professional pilot sometime in the future, I'd still have no problem forking over the cash to bum around in the Duchess (or any other plane I rent). I just love being up there, and it seems to me that the love of just flying around simply for the sake of flying just makes more sense financially than spending the money to sit and tune squawk codes into the transponder of a 1900. I guess I just don't understand how anyone who truly loves to fly cannot consider the 'process' of becoming an airline pilot to be part of the fun in it. It's a long hard road, and I'm still working through it - but I can't say that I'm not having a blast going through it!
As far as I'm concerned, a zero time pilot who sits down and thinks, "What is the cheapest and fastest way to get to the right seat at a commuter..." just doesn't understand why the vast majority of us are doing this to begin with.