Silver Airways
09-30-2013, 06:52 PM
#4421
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2011
Posts: 395
When I was first hired in a class of 18 pilots we had 2 washouts for the 1900. Both had thousands of hours and were going to be captains. Both washed out at different points. One was a for FE and couldn't make it thru sims. The other did not want to cooperate and graduate.
The hours is a negligible item as you can have thousands of hours and never have the fundamentals. If you come in with a good attitude and actually take the effort you can make it through their training process. Silver definitely is one of those space shuttle training outfits that want you to know at what torque a certain bolt sets in, so attention to detail is crucial.
Tony who was doing the Saab ground school is gone and he did an awesome job. I don't know who does it now and if it's still taught in a practical manner for a pilot and not a rocket scientist.
Like others said if you successfully interview FL bases will be extremely hard to get. You might be drinking brown water in Greenville or freezing your cojones in AOO. Then again they could put you on the 1900 which means less pay still a tough commute.
If you want to stay in Florida checkout IBC or cape air.
Good luck
The hours is a negligible item as you can have thousands of hours and never have the fundamentals. If you come in with a good attitude and actually take the effort you can make it through their training process. Silver definitely is one of those space shuttle training outfits that want you to know at what torque a certain bolt sets in, so attention to detail is crucial.
Tony who was doing the Saab ground school is gone and he did an awesome job. I don't know who does it now and if it's still taught in a practical manner for a pilot and not a rocket scientist.
Like others said if you successfully interview FL bases will be extremely hard to get. You might be drinking brown water in Greenville or freezing your cojones in AOO. Then again they could put you on the 1900 which means less pay still a tough commute.
If you want to stay in Florida checkout IBC or cape air.
Good luck
09-30-2013, 07:03 PM
#4424
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2013
Position: The Parlor
Posts: 1,252
09-30-2013, 07:24 PM
#4425
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: O-2 pilot
Posts: 123
Getting hired and ground school isn't going to be the big issue. The difficult partwill be sim. You will have 6 sim sessions to get type rated in the left seat. Not easy. For example, it took my partner 3 sesions to even become close to comfortable with the first flight of the day ground checks! On the Saab there's a lot of extra left seat stuff. It ain't like the old days of just doing FO stuff for initial training. And it ain't like a jet (Embraers in my case) where there's no prop stuff to worry about and there's more automation to help. And in my experience SilverIis the most stingy airline about giving extra training. Maybe more is expected with the ATP law? But I remember years ago places like Eagle gave their struggling pilots enormous amounts of extra sim training. Don't expect that at Silver.
As far as wash out rate, it was one out of three in my class, but myself and another guy were already typed with lots of Saab experience. I believe we were the first Saab class where a PIC type was required to get through training. In other words you were trained to get a PIC type instead of SIC and were given no option in the matter. (And as I said 2 of us came in already PIC typed).Big difference! I heard that the washout rate in the Beech-1900 class before my Saab class was very high, but I have no first hand knowledge of that.
All I'm saying is be careful and don't burn bridges to an old job to come to Silver.
09-30-2013, 07:48 PM
#4426
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2011
Posts: 787
As far as wash out rate, it was one out of three in my class, but myself and another guy were already typed with lots of Saab experience. I believe we were the first Saab class where a PIC type was required to get through training. In other words you were trained to get a PIC type instead of SIC and were given no option in the matter.
09-30-2013, 08:13 PM
#4427
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: O-2 pilot
Posts: 123
When I did my Saab type oral at Mesaba when I upgraded in 2001 it was 5 hours long. EVERYTHING was covered. Silver/Pan Am is about 90 minutes and much more relaxed and straight forward. Since everybody now gets a PIC type there is no difference between what captains or first officers get at Silver. The oral at Silver/Pan am isn't a big deal. However, there IS a big difference between getting a left seat ATP PIC type and the old right seat SIC type. I think this is especially true in the Saab where the left seat performs all the first flight of the day checks. Now, perhaps the examiner might even skip this in a ride. In my partners case though he was out between 5 and 6 because he couldn't do this kind of stuff yet consistently and never got to the ride. But, in any case, you have to know it at some point. It seemed to be a difficult task for some people. Plus ATP standardsare ststricter in general. In SIC rides and PCs you can train during the ride. Not so in PIC type rides.
09-30-2013, 08:26 PM
#4428
Respek
Joined APC: Jul 2010
Posts: 2,659
When I did my Saab type oral at Mesaba when I upgraded in 2001 it was 5 hours long. EVERYTHING was covered. Silver/Pan Am is about 90 minutes and much more relaxed and straight forward. Since everybody now gets a PIC type there is no difference between what captains or first officers get at Silver. The oral at Silver/Pan am isn't a big deal. However, there IS a big difference between getting a left seat ATP PIC type and the old right seat SIC type. I think this is especially true in the Saab where the left seat performs all the first flight of the day checks. Now, perhaps the examiner might even skip this in a ride. In my partners case though he was out between 5 and 6 because he couldn't do this kind of stuff yet consistently and never got to the ride. But, in any case, you have to know it at some point. It seemed to be a difficult task for some people. Plus ATP standardsare ststricter in general. In SIC rides and PCs you can train during the ride. Not so in PIC type rides.
09-30-2013, 08:56 PM
#4429
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: O-2 pilot
Posts: 123
Back in the day when places like Eagle hired 250 hour pilots they bent over backwards to get those guys all sorts of extra training. I'm not sure if they still do that at some places or not. If some places still do that I think that might be a much safer bet for pilots with no turboprop experience. I'm just putting that out there for new guys to think about. Something to consider. ..
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