iflyjets4food

I think this is beginning to take a bad turn. Yes you can fake hours. You can sit down with a case of beer and write yourself thousands of hours, but if you do, you'd better fly like you have the time you claim. I think it is an extremely stupid idea to fake hours. By writing yourself 100ME to get your first job, you are exempting yourself of all the experience one could gain in the first 100 hours of multi- flying. May seem like a small price to pay for the job, but when you show up day 1 in the airplane, you need to not be a liability to your captain. Beyond that, the folks in the back are paying for you to be a competent pilot. Do everyone in the industry a favor and don't fake hours. In the end, you'll be a better pilot, and you won't drive the captain you are flying with (who doesn't get paid to be both a captain and MEI) nuts.

LAfrequentflyer

I was curious how more experienced board members would handle a question about how many hours in their logs are fake during an interview...I agree - no point in faking the hours, you are only going to hurt yourself in the long run...

SkyHigh

Brav8,

The hours can be hard to prove but the lack of skill might make itself apparent. I'll bet that 100 to 300 hours will not make that much difference. I have seen high time guys that were worse than people with half their time.

Sometimes the employer fakes your hours for you. I had a friend who was hired by an Alaskan air taxi and during training they handed him a piece of paper to sign for the insurance company. It was a filled out statement about his flight time and the hours stated were false. He commented on it but sign it anyway. What should you do in that situation?

SkyHigh

SkyHigh

Well there is a reason to faking your hours. Your dream could depend upon it. To someone who is unemployed anyway faking hours to get an interview might be a good plan since they are unemployed and have nothing to loose by the attempt. I don't think the FAA would care unless you were trying to use the fake time for currency or a rating.

In the end the best way to tell if a person has faked their time or not is if in ten years they are swinging a hammer then most likely they didn't do themselves any favors and stuck to the truth in their log books. I know that if I had stretched the truth a few times as a young aviator I would probably be a junior Captain at Alaska Airlines by now. All my lieing friends ended up there. I was too much of a moralistic nerd to do that.

SkyHigh

dhc8fo

My answer is NONE. Of course, when your airline is tracking your hours as well, it is easy to say that and be honest.

I hope that your answer will be "none" as well, if that is really the case for you. If that isn't the case for you and you tell them so, well, I wouldn't expect a phone call or letter.... or, if you do get one, I would be weary of your new employer's ethics.

LAfrequentflyer

Thats a good question...How much do you value your personal integrity? I would say something but when it came down to it I'd sign...I'm sure there were plenty of people willing to take the job...

dckozak

The issue of faking flight time has more to do with the honesty and integrity of the person than lack of experience. Of course this assumes the "lie" was not over the top. I'm sure some pilots have BS'ed there way with very little real experience, and some may (now) be great aviators . The issue, to the degree it exists (and no one is doubting that, just what percentage) says more about the culture we live in and the morals (or lack there of) that are rampant in today's, "gotta have now, got have it easy" society we live in.
I'm mentoring a family member on getting through the tough part of building a career in aviation, and the subject of padding time has come up. He hasn't done it, but does sense others of this age and (supposed) experience are doing it. It can be tough to remain "clean" when it appears all around you are playing by different rules and you start to thank of yourself as a pasty for letting other climb over you for the sake a few hours added to your log book. I've reminded him that the experience gained actually flying the time logged is what the prospective employer is looking for, not just some square filled with a required mins. In that vane, I remind him that he has to engage in getting something positive out of sitting in the right seat of some guys Baron and not just assume that sitting there somehow adds something to your knowledge base or experience. Lets face it, a pilot sleeping in the right seat of a long night flight delivering checks while the captain flies is not going to do anyone (especially the sleepy PIC ) any good. On the other hand, asking lots of questions (during cruise we hope) and reading the AFM and studying the approach to be flown will be a lot more useful in ones pursuit of professional excellence and will probably get you invited back to fly. Anyway you look at it, its up to the individual to make the most of whatever experience he gets and learn all they can, be it from flying for free on some night check flight or paying for sim time at a top notch academy.
When its all said and done, I'd rather have an FO who is honest, smart, and motivated to the best professional they can be. And if he has failed on one of these (ala pencil whipping his log) I can only hope they have seen the error in their ways, begged forgiveness and made up for their youthful stupidly with smarts and good sense.

444KA

A senior captain I know told me once that if he EVER found out about someone faking hours they'd be fired on the spot. He had a good point: if they lie in their log book, what else do they lie about? You are trusting him or her with your life and the lives of your pax and they've just given you proof in ink that they are not to be trusted.

CRM1337

Most people that "fake" hours get away with it- they may only add 1 or 200 hours more than they have (not encouraging it, just an example)- but your real hours shine when it comes to a sim. test.

A true 500 hour pilot may fake a crapload of hours to say he/she has 1000 or 1500. Companies can tell in simulator testing if you really have 2000 hours turbine experience or just 200 hours.

As for companies actually investigating your logbook. They really don't have the time to dig way into your Cessna 152 solo time because you could've been putzing around dad's cornfield for 500 hours with no real definitive way of logging the hours. However, they can (and will) look into 121/135/corporate time if they really want to.

Tomcat

This entire thread fits in with, "well I had an overtemp on the engine during start, I better not tell anybody or I'll get in trouble". If this is your thinking, you're a loser..... I don't want to be in the cockpit with you. Eventually your lack of ethics will kill somebody, sadly probably somebody other than yourself! Tomcat