At a certain point in a pilot's aviation career, shouldn't the questions about flight times stop? You have your ATP and several type ratings. Why are HR and admin types still asking for flight times? Shouldn't your knowledge, skills and abilities take precedence?
Martyn Smith
1mo
Having just got back into flying after a long medical lay-off, I speak with some authority on the recruitment process. By and large, I am appalled at the level of influence that HR wields in the pilot selection process in many companies and I am quite certain that some good pilots are almost certainly being missed by the system. I am amazed at how many different ways I can be asked to break my hours down, for example. For heavens sake, I have 14,000. My logbook shows that I’ve flown 21 tonne jets but my last takeoff was at 575 tonnes on a super and I have around 7000 hours in command, but, no, I have to diligently break this all down into turboprop, jet, jet PIC etc etc but no standard format! And the number of times that I have to relate when I last a disagreement - or fisticuffs - on the flight deck! Please!! It is high time the old interview with the chief pilot came back and HR retreated somewhat….pilots know what they are looking for; can I fly with this guy for 16 hours and make an approach in bad wx? A thing that I will wager many HR people really do not have the vaguest idea about…apologies if I have upset any HR bods, you have a place for sure but you wield too much influence in a process that should be more pilot-centric
Jason Depew
1mo
Nope. Knowledge skills and attitudes are very important, but a lot of that is also perishable. Currency is important. Experience in specific types of aircraft and/or aviation are also important. I love teaching tailwheel flying to fellow multi-thousand hour combat pilots from the Air Force. At first, they can't even get the plane to move in a straight line, and actually couldn't land to save their lives. Their background makes them able to learn the necessary skills quickly, but it's still important to realize that even with thousands of hours doing extremely difficult flying, they can't just walk into a new situation and expect to perform at an expert level. Log books, as a record of current types of experience, will always be relevant in my opinion.
Joseph Rood
1mo
I see both sides of the coin. From one side is the 121/135 operations and the logbook verification. They don't know you but they've delt with the slime that falsify their logbooks, which is a crime, and those that don't. The other side is the FAA and the Pilot Records Database. The FAA is finally getting up to what the NTSB recommend years ago, and making it easier to verify employment, hours, enforcement actions, certificate grade, and failures. But that system only goes back to 2013. The old way was to send requests from what you put on your application. There are quite a few things that you're previous employer cannot tell your new one. However, with the FAA modernization their systems that's going to change. Your new employment comes with access to your primary certificates pass/fail, your previous 135/121 reportable events pass/fail, and your driver's record. Maybe in the future they won't require old logbooks just most current flight time.
David Lomax
1mo
Log books, and especially dodgy ones reveal quite a lot. Seen plenty presented in interviews over the years (& not just at the HR screening ones) that just haven’t made sense and the excuses for missing pages, basic errors and a myriad of other items revealed plenty about the individuals concerned. Whilst I’ll agree that, much like a financial advisor’s portfolio, past performance is no guarantee of future returns, this basic check can reveal an awful lot.
Keith Godfrey
1mo
Wow! I managed to get thru at least 20 years of airline flying without keeping a log book! There’s no more point in recording “instrument flying when the sun’s upper limb is 6 degrees below the horizon” than recording the time I spent in the lavatory. What I would like to see is a log book that summarised the post flight de-brief with an emphasis on CRM. That would be valuable to a prospective employer. That’s where training should be heading.
Keith Godfrey
1mo
Of course a log book with the post flight de brief summary as I suggested would need the actual flight details too! My comparison was that recorded flight details are no more valid than “lavatory time” UNLESS it had the post flight CRM de brief. Constructaversial questions are the bedrock of good facilitation. That’s why I recommend my books. CRM THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX and TRAINING SKILLS FOR TRAINING PILOTS The purchase of which will make Jef Bezos a tiny bit richer…
Robert Sciubba
1mo
Yes. You are exactly right. I’ve seen pilots with very low time knowledgeable and very capable while some with 20,000 hours horrible with decision making abilities and lacking professional flying abilities. Flight time means nothing once you pass around 4-5000 hours.
Steven Melander
1mo
It should. A Check Ride or Proficiency Check may be in order, especially if you used white-out in your log entries.
Andrew Lee
1mo
HR and admin hire you based on the same metric as janitor staff and secretaries. They just need something to make them look busy and feel important.
Pilot at Pro Airways LLC
1moKnowledge, Skills, and abilities (experience)? Is that why the arbitrary number 65 is used?