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montanapilot · September 12th, 2004, 23:41

Well i got to go to an airshow yesterday in the monsterous town of Sidney, MT, population 5,000, (about 15 miles from the North Dakota border)

The airshow was great they had 2 former Snowbirds, a P-51, and T-28, plus various airshow aircraft all doing performances. Had an aircraft dealer out of Fargo bring a 182 with the glass panel, UND was there, and there were about 35 planes for the fly-in. Overall a great sucess for a first time airshow/fly-in.

Anyway......Big Sky airlines was also there doing some promoting and opened up the Metroliner for people to look around inside. So i went up to one of the pilots and started chattin about his job and the whole process about becoming an airline pilot. Well turns out this fellow is the chief pilot for the airline and the man who is responsible for hiring. The guy has been there since 1993 and absolutely loves the airline. He said it doesnt matter where you go as long as you get your CFI. He gave me quite an explanation of the evils of PFT, bridge programs, and pilots that have done nothing but banner towing or traffic watch to build their hours. He said getting your CFI and being employed shows me that someone has already trusted you enough to employ you and therefore i am not taking as big of risk on you by being your first employer. He said it is just crazy how people plop down money on all these fancy get-ahead schemes when being as CFI is a proven and surefire way to gain your hours and not get ripped off.

So I thought i would post this little bit of info cause there will surely be more PFT threads and people trying to justify it and want "specific examples" [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cwm27.gif[/img] of how it hurts the industry.

September 12th, 2004, 23:41	#1
montanapilot Old Skool Join Date: May 2003 Location: Portland, Orygun Posts: 1,641	For those lookin for snakeoil Well i got to go to an airshow yesterday in the monsterous town of Sidney, MT, population 5,000, (about 15 miles from the North Dakota border) The airshow was great they had 2 former Snowbirds, a P-51, and T-28, plus various airshow aircraft all doing performances. Had an aircraft dealer out of Fargo bring a 182 with the glass panel, UND was there, and there were about 35 planes for the fly-in. Overall a great sucess for a first time airshow/fly-in. Anyway......Big Sky airlines was also there doing some promoting and opened up the Metroliner for people to look around inside. So i went up to one of the pilots and started chattin about his job and the whole process about becoming an airline pilot. Well turns out this fellow is the chief pilot for the airline and the man who is responsible for hiring. The guy has been there since 1993 and absolutely loves the airline. He said it doesnt matter where you go as long as you get your CFI. He gave me quite an explanation of the evils of PFT, bridge programs, and pilots that have done nothing but banner towing or traffic watch to build their hours. He said getting your CFI and being employed shows me that someone has already trusted you enough to employ you and therefore i am not taking as big of risk on you by being your first employer. He said it is just crazy how people plop down money on all these fancy get-ahead schemes when being as CFI is a proven and surefire way to gain your hours and not get ripped off. So I thought i would post this little bit of info cause there will surely be more PFT threads and people trying to justify it and want "specific examples" [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cwm27.gif[/img] of how it hurts the industry.