500hrs Closer to being a Commercial Pilot!

Ozzie_Isaac · February 2023

I am officially 500 turbine hours closer to being a Southwest Commerical Pilot! It is a great milestone.

ColbyLang · February 2023

So BIL flys a Gulfstream 450. He only logged 240 hours last year. So at least there’s a couple of years of experience in those chairs

stlcharcoal · February 2023

It was always an insurance thing, not a FAA requirement. The unnecessary "turbine time" was major issue on the helicopter side that kept me and a lot of pilots out of EMS. They dropped it 20 years ago and thats how I got in. When they wrote all those resume requirements, they did it during an era when there were a lot more retired army pilots who had flown turbine helicopters, there weren't that many civilian helicopters using reciprocating engines, etc.

Times had changed by 2000, and they're finally catching up on the fixed wing side. The military doesn't train near as many pilots as they used to, and they want to keep the ones they have. The commuters have drastically dropped their requirements and offer HUGE sign on bonuses to even helicopter guys like me.....offering to pay to train us (because we can still put a few thousand hours of "flight time" on a resume.)

Long story short, don't worry about it because you come in as a copilot.

EzraBrooks · February 2023

This is an extra requirement that Southwest has. The federal requirement to be a pilot at an FAA Part 121 air carrier is still a minimum of 1,500 hours. Southwest is just requiring that 500 of those 1,500 be in a turbine aircraft. Clickbait news story for those not familiar with aviation.